Dance Greats on Zoom: Tara Brown BFA '13
An online discussion with UMass BFA dance alumna Tara Brown. Dance students and alumni are welcome to join; please contact Dance Program administrator Cathy Maclutsky at cmaclutsky@dance.umass.edu for the Zoom link.
Tara Brown is a multi-hyphenate creative entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York. She leads a career as a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher, associate professor, certified life coach and business owner.
Tara started dancing at the age of three but began her serious training at the age of nine at The School at STEPS. By the age of twelve, she had become one of the youngest members of Dancewave Company, a repertory dance company where she performed the works of Mark Morris, David Dorfman, Donald Byrd, Doug Varone, Trisha Brown and more.
She attended the Professional Performing Arts School where she trained at the world-renowned Alvin Ailey Dance School. After high school, Tara attended The University of Massachusetts (Amherst), where she performed the works of many choreographers including Mark Morris, Camille A. Brown, Ohad Naharin and more. Tara’s own choreography, Whitewash, was also selected to be performed and adjudicated at ACDFA. She has worked with an array of choreographers from Olivia Cipolla to 2X Emmy Award Winner, Kathryn Burns. She has also performed for A$AP Rocky, The Jazz Foundation of America’s honoree Gladys Knight, Cindy Salgado of Kidd Pivot and can be seen in the movies Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Good Burger 2.
In 2020, Tara moved to Boston and obtained her certification in life and career coaching. Soon after she began her coaching practice, giving dancers the resources and encouragement to navigate the dance industry successfully and confidently. In that same year, she began teaching her own series of heels classes called Dance Heels with Tara Brown. In 2023 Tara opened Boston Dance Studios, Boston’s only studio that caters to dancers pursuing professional performance careers in the commercial dance industry.