We were lucky to catch up with Jermaine Browne recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jermaine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
As a child, my mother introduced me to dance by putting me on her feet and teaching me how to slow dance. It was a beautiful bonding moment. When I came to America, was fascinated with the music videos and the art channels that showed dance. But everything happened when I auditioned with a friend for an MTV tv show, and I got it. If was such an amazing time; I felt a part of something great. Later I realized I needed to take professional classes, so I took classes at Broadway Dance Center; that was where I met Darrin Henson, at the time a choreographer and now an actor, who made me his assistant. His knowiedge a id mentoring helped guide many of my work ethios at the Beginning of my career.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I got into the industry with weekly auditions, but I started teaching a class at the most prominent dance school in NY, and Darren came to one of my classes when he saw my choreography; he was impressed and wanted me to assist him on a project he was working on. It felt great to have this opportunity and be in the creative space with him. At the time it was a singer called Deborah Cox. All went well, Darren left, and I became her choreographer and dancer. We toured all over the US and internationally. It was amazing. While doing that, I was still teaching at Broadway Dance Center, and Darrin came to visit me after the class. He asked me if I would be interested in choreographing a video for a new artist because he was working with Britney Spears I said yes, and who is it it was Christina Aguilera, and the Video was Gene In A Bottle. I was young and doing this video, never knowing it would be iconic, international, and a part of so many people’s lives growing up. For the video, I cast the dancers in NY and LA, worked with Christina privately, and then brought in the dancers in rehearsals. It was a fantastic experience.
Other than choreography, my job is to make the client or brand comfortable in the creative process. I also think it’s important to know what kind of material will best suit the client; sometimes it’s an open collaboration and sometimes, you’re given the floor, and we need to make the right calls.
My dance training has been in Ballet, Street Jazz, Contemporary, Latin, and Lyrical. These styles sometimes connect in my work to create a new language, and sometimes I keep them very separate. I love teaching! It doesn’t matter if it’s an artist, athlete, or dancer. Helping people to connect with their physical bodies is great. Recently, l’ve been doing movement direction for many fashion brands, including NIKE, and a lot of times, it’s working with models and regular people, and when the results are captured, they are surprised by what they’ve accomplished.
Some other work I’m proud of is choreographing Victoria’s Secret fashion show for over 10 plus years, The Voice in the Middle East, Dancing in Jennifer Lopez’s Video “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” and Working with Jennifer Hudson, to name a few.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I’s gratifying to know that you could create the end product you’ve envisioned or what the team wanted to create. But something that’s unique is when you start a project working with a team that the purpose is to do sorething that’s moving and can contribute to society, and you hear messages from people how that has effected them. Sometimes you’re walking down the street, and someone is singing a song. So many times I’ve been in different countries in cafes or taxis, and I hear songs that I’ve created, and then although it’s not English. speaking country, they are singing the song. I know some people would say that’s just the song, but if you take away the choreography or some of the traumatic movements from music performances or films, there’s an emptiness that is missed. Dance and movement direction helps to connect with people around the world and share stories in a way words can’t.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My creative journey is now driven to make a difference and share more with younger dancers and kids. I want to create a dance movement in Harlem, New York. I’m not from America, but so much of black art has been made in Harlem. And a goal is to create a program/festival that highlights dance. I’m also a fan of reality TV, so l’ve started writing a few dance ideas and concepts and bringing them to television or streaming platforms where they can inspire dancers, entertain non dancers, and tell stories; that’s my next MOVE! Well, 2 of them..
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jermainebrowne.com
- Instagram: @jermainebrowne1
- Twitter: JermaineBrowne
- Youtube: Jermaine Browne
Image Credits
The first is Inga Prada and the second Leandro Juste