​ Bernard Brown, Artistic Director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, is a Los Angeles-based performing artist, choreographer, filmmaker, activist, and educator who situates his work at the intersection of Blackness, belonging, and memory. In addition to presenting his scholarship on blackness, queerness, activism, inclusive pedagogy, and modern dance nationally, Bernard’s choreography is presented widely, including Seoul International Dance Festival in TANK, Royce Hall, REDCAT, ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, University of Chicago, Highways Performance Space, Phoenix Center of the Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Queering Dance Festival, Crocker Art Museum, Japanese American National Museum, and Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. He has choreographed Scott Joplin's opera, "Treemonisha" for Skylark Opera. His creative work has been supported by California Humanities, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Dance/USA, and California Arts Council. As a performer, Bernard has worked with Lula Washington Dance Theatre (with a twenty-year tenure as lead performer, rehearsal director, and assistant to the artistic director), David Rousseve/REALITY, Doug Elkins Dance Company, Shapiro and Smith Dance, Louis Johnson Dance Theatre Ensemble, and JazzAntiqua Dance and Music Ensemble. His work as a filmmaker continues to garner acclaim and make a global impact. “The Weight of Sugar” has been screened extensively in Europe, Asia and North America to great acclaim. Bernard was invited by Jazz great, Kenny Burrell, to choreograph his score, "Homage to Mother Earth" for Burrell's 85th birthday celebration hosted by Royce Hall. Some other career highlights include restaging Donald McKayle’s canonical “Games'' for the Kennedy Center's Masters of African American Choreography, performing on the Daytime Emmy’s, in Penumbra Theater’s “Black Nativity,” Donald Byrd’s “Harlem Nutcracker,” an invitation to perform with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Robert Wilson’s “Letter to a Man,” with choreography by Lucinda Childs, and being the titular principal dancer in Nike’s “12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story,” the first documented Afro-Mexican American surfer.

​

A choreographic thinker, his work as a creative being merges physical practice, research, and theory while centering and uplifting his community. Recipient of the Westfield Emerging Artist and Lester Horton Awards, Bernard has been featured in Dance Magazine, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Times for his dance activism. He continues to work closely with Dr. Shamell Bell as a core member of Street Dance Activism and is a collaborator with the abolitionist project, Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls, directed by Suchi Branfman. Bernard is published in the peer-reviewed dance journal, Dancer-Citizen, and in The Activist History Review. Bernard conceived and curates Rooted Rhythmic Futures, a dance series and festival that brings Blackness, Indigeneity, and Queerness squarely to the center of our consciousness. His work is rooted in catalyzing change through dance; dance sparks dialogue which in turn, inspires action, the action being the change within our communities. He is interested in excavating the ways in which art can transform, create ripples of empathy, and foster healing. A recent Artist-In-Residence at B Street Theatre, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and Texas State University, Bernard has also conducted residencies, workshops, and master classes internationally, namely in Israel, Burkina Faso, and Brazil, and across the US including Social Justice and Education Conference, American College Dance Association, the International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference and a myriad of schools and universities. Earning his MFA from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and BFA from Purchase College, recent faculty appointments include Sacramento State University, New York University (Tisch School of the Arts), and the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department in addition to the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. A first generation college graduate, Bernard is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Loyola Marymount University and a Certified Katherine Dunham Instructor Candidate. 

 

The LA Times has called him “...the incomparable Bernard Brown...”