Pioneering Camille A. Brown creates a Broadway rainbow

NEW YORK — When choreographer Camille A. “How empowering it is to be in spaces that were not necessarily made for you, but you are making space inside of it.” On Broadway, Brown has been applauded for shepherding a spring Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf.” Shange’s amalgamation of words, motion and music uses seven Black women to weave together strands of abuse, resilience, heartbreak and motherhood into a tapestry of shared womanhood. Brown said she wanted to “pull out the joy.” “Even though there’s so much heartbreak — they’re devastating stories — but they’re also stories of reclamation and also stories of empowerment and truth and laughter. Some of Brown’s other high-profile credits include choreographing “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and the Emmy Award-winning “Jesus Christ Superstar Live” with John Legend and Sara Bareilles. Brown & Dancers, was born three years after “for colored girls” made it to Broadway in the late 1970s, but her mother saw it and made it a subtle part of her daughter’s childhood.