Theater Arts  

Selena Brown

Selena La’Chelle Brown, from Southern California, received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California, Riverside in the spring of 2004. It was during her time at UCR that she discovered a passion for dance and the intersections of performance and identity. As a graduate student she has had the honor of participating in several student and main-stage productions, performing in the 2005 Spring Dance Concert under the choreographic genius of Chris Elam and with MEZCLA, the Latino Performing Arts Troupe, in spring 2006. She worked closely with Constance Crawford and Annamaura Silverblatt, serving as co-choreographer for Compleat Female Stage Beauty in Spring 2005, worked as choreographer for the stage adaptation of Brown alum Sage Morgan Hubbard’s senior thesis “Lorna Simpson: Re-Imaging (In)Visible Black Female Creating ‘Back-talking’ Resistant Performative Images” in Spring 2005, and collaborated with Patricia Ybarra serving as choreographer for The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea in Spring 2006. Selena looks forward to teaching "American Modern Dance Legacies," a course modeled after Julie Strandberg's "Modern Dance History," for Summer@Brown this year and to continuing her studies in the fall, working towards a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies here at Brown.  She would like to thank her entire family for their endless love, support, and encouragement, her life partner Mike Amezcua for sharing the journey, her advisor Patricia Ybarra for her guidance and tireless dedication, and all the faculty and colleagues who continue to raise the bar of intellectual vigor. This degree is dedicated to Selena’s great-grandmother, Mrs. Bertha Riley, whose passion for education and service has inspired many generations.