Deneane Richburg

Deneane Richburg is the founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody, the home for her choreographic work. Deneane grew up a competitive figure skater—spending time in spaces where she had to check her blackness at the door, as the skating world was dominated by whiteness and rooted in values that subjugated her ancestry’s truths. Working in this space, 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 blackness hence her decision to establish Brownbody. Since 2013 Brownbody has honored complex narratives of U.S.-based Black communities by inviting the nuance, beauty, and complexity of blackness into the work. Richburg 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. Deneane has been creating work for both the ice and the stage for over 15 years and, thru her company, had the good fortune of working with Urban Bush Women on translating two of their works onto the ice. Deneane has also performed with companies including FlyGround, and Kariamu and Company. Deneane is a grateful recipient of a 2017 and 2023 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center, funded by The McKnight Foundation, a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and a Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.