The ever-expanding arts scene in Birmingham routinely brings new faces to key positions in music, dance, theater and visual arts, whether they hail from other continents or are rising from within the community. "Who's New in the Arts" profiles figures whose talents have landed them in these roles.
First up is Taryn Ann Brown, a choreographer, dance teacher and audiovisual artist whose work has been seen in New York, California and several other U.S. states, as well as Costa Rica. A former faculty member at Shelton State, Iowa State, University of North Carolina-Greensboro and University of Colorado, among others, Brown holds degrees from the Universities of Colorado and North Carolina. She joined Sanspointe Dance Company in 2011 and recently took the top artistic spot.
TARYN ANN BROWN, Interim Artistic Director, Sanspointe Dance Company
Profession: Dance Artist.
Age: 38.
Residence: I live in Southside (greater Gadsden area), but work mostly out of Children's Dance Foundation in Homewood for Sanspointe projects.
Background leading to your position: In 2011, I came down south to house-sit for my boyfriend (now my husband) for a couple of months. I answered a post on the Alabama Dance Exchange website from Shellie Chambers, Sanspointe's Artistic Director at that time, who was looking for volunteers to do performances in "Dances Across the Line" at Railroad Park. I was fortunate in that I was able to jump right into that project. The momentum grew naturally from there, and a little over one year later I had officially moved to Alabama, not only a dancer in the second DATL, but also one of the major choreographic contributors. Since 2011, I have created three live pieces and one dance for the camera for the company.
Native of: Greensboro, North Carolina.
Taryn Ann Brown, Swerve Arabesque
Places you've lived and what you did there:
Ames, Iowa: Dance Faculty at Iowa State University, college radio DJ.
Boulder, Colo.: Dancer with Third Law Dance Theatre, writer for the Colorado Daily, graduate school at CU (Go Buffs!).
Brooklyn, N.Y.: Dancer with Urban Impact (an upstart hip hop company), dancer with Elinor Coleman Dance Ensemble, coat check closet worker, Starbucks barista, freelance choreographer, groupie at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.
Winston-Salem, N.C..: College at UNCSA (student body president/Go Pickles!), raver, pop philosopher.
Greensboro, N.C.: High School, Middle School.
Champaign, Ill.: Elementary School.
Bloomington, Ill.: Preschool, Birth.
From the start, I have always been theatrical with a penchant for comedy. As a young student, I was an avid reader and grew to love visual art in my formative years. My undergraduate studies in dance were very early modern dance-based, while my graduate studies were conversely more postmodern. When you blend all of those things together, you get a tossed salad of what I like to create (and watch) through performance inventions. I hope to maintain the high standards that audiences have come to expect of SDC while pushing the company into even more unchartered territories of artistic splendor.
The Dirt Does Not Lie from Taryn Ann Brown on Vimeo.