Deneane Richburg (Choreographer, Dancer, former Competitive Figure
Skater, Founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody) grew up a competitive figure
skater—in spaces where she had to check her blackness at the door, as world
skating was dominated by whiteness and rooted in values that subjugated her
ancestry’s truths; to quote Zora Neale Hurston, she always felt “most colored
when [she was] thrown against a sharp white background.” Richburg realized
the need to carve out space for her ancestral history hence her decision to
establish Brownbody.
Since 2013 Brownbody has honored complex narratives of U.S.-based Black
communities by disrupting assumptions, and disenfranchising ideologies,
around blackness. She received her MFA in dance and choreography from
Temple University in 2007, an MA in Afro-American Studies from UW
Madison, and a BA in English and African American Studies from Carleton
College. Richburg has been choreographing work for both the stage and ice
since 2007 most recently completing an evening-length work called “Tracing
Sacred Steps” which brings ring shout onto the ice. Deneane was a recipient
of a 2017 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist
Fellowship, and a Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists made possible with
generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Deneane Richburg (Choreographer, Dancer, former Competitive Figure
Skater, Founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody) grew up a competitive figure
skater—in spaces where she had to check her blackness at the door, as world
skating was dominated by whiteness and rooted in values that subjugated her
ancestry’s truths; to quote Zora Neale Hurston, she always felt “most colored
when [she was] thrown against a sharp white background.” Richburg realized
the need to carve out space for her ancestral history hence her decision to
establish Brownbody.
Since 2013 Brownbody has honored complex narratives of U.S.-based Black
communities by disrupting assumptions, and disenfranchising ideologies,
around blackness. She received her MFA in dance and choreography from
Temple University in 2007, an MA in Afro-American Studies from UW
Madison, and a BA in English and African American Studies from Carleton
College. Richburg has been choreographing work for both the stage and ice
since 2007 most recently completing an evening-length work called “Tracing
Sacred Steps” which brings ring shout onto the ice. Deneane was a recipient
of a 2017 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist
Fellowship, and a Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists made possible with
generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.