BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Maureen Brown took a final bow to thunderous applause as the curtain closed, following what she felt was an amazing dance performance in New York City. Making her way backstage to the dressing room, she spotted a starry-eyed child standing in the wings. She reminds me of myself at that age, Maureen thought. The youngest of six children raised in St. Louis, Mo., Maureen hadn’t been satisfied just watching her older sisters dance. By age 4, she had been sneaking into class so often the instructor finally allowed her to stay. Thus, Maureen got to study dance from a very young age, under the black prima ballerina at the Pelagie Green Wren Academy of Dance. By age 12, she was dancing under Nathalie Le Vine at the Metropolitan Ballet of St. Louis. Even while attending Rosati-Kain High School, a private Catholic girls’ college preparatory school, Maureen had managed to excel at academics while studying dance, acting and singing. By 15, she was choreographing and teaching younger children. That same year, she auditioned for the world-renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem and was accepted into their eight-week summer program in New York City. After graduating from high school, Maureen moved to New York City and attended New York University, where she studied at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts for a year. From there, Maureen entered a career that became nothing short of spectacular. She performed in the 1988 Maurice Hines musical production, Harlem Suite, which starred such well-known actors as Jennifer Holliday and Stephanie Mills and ran for a year and a half. She lived in Luxembourg while performing in France, Belgium and Germany in such diverse productions as Aida and Bubblin’ Brown Sugar. She also toured Japan and Australia. Stateside, she performed in The Best of Broadway, and in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular in New York City and she now does a number of other performances each year. From her New York apartment, Maureen faced something else that was spectacular—a view of the city’s Twin Towers. Pouring herself a cup of coffee, Maureen looked out her kitchen window and pondered her life. She’d met and exceeded all her goals and expectations. She’d traveled the world. She’d danced, acted and sung her way into the hearts of countless thousands. She was building an impressive résumé. She had a wonderful life and an apartment with a spectacular view. So why, she wondered, did she have the unshakable feeling that something was missing? A Still, Small Voice “My parents were born in 1921 and they both earned master’s degrees in education,” Maureen recalls. “I realize now that they must have suffered persecution for their color, but they never mentioned it. We grew up surrounded by educated and influential black people, but none of them was ever bitter. We never heard anything negative. Even today I shy away from negative diatribes about this country. *** article continues on p. 14 *** BVOV : 13

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