mayfield brooks

mayfield brooks improvises while black and is based in Lenapehoking, the unceded land of the Lenape people, also known as New York City. brooks is a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. brooks teaches and performs practices that arise from Improvising While Black (IWB), their interdisciplinary dance methodology which explores the decomposed matter of Black life and engages in dance improvisation, disorientation, dissent, and ancestral healing. brooks is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Merce Cunningham Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a 2021 Bessie/New York Dance and Performance Award nominee for their experimental dance film, Whale Fall and a 2022 Danspace Project Platform artist. They were a 2022-3 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, the 2024 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair at UCLA with the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program, and currently a Creative Time Research and Development Fellow.

Black dancer in a shimmery strapless silver dress leaning headfirst into the frame, bent at the waist, with arms outstretched and bent at the elbows. Hair is styled in afro puffs and face is animated, eyes looking down and mouth open. Light is reflecting off the dress, brown skin and a shimmery object in the background in the bottom part of the image. The rest of the background is black. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.
ID: Black dancer in a shimmery strapless silver dress leaning headfirst into the frame, bent at the waist, with arms outstretched and bent at the elbows. Hair is styled in afro puffs and face is animated, eyes looking down and mouth open. Light is reflecting off the dress, brown skin and a shimmery object in the background in the bottom part of the image. The rest of the background is black. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

Upcoming classes and workshops

Category: Workshop

Sounding Body Series

mayfield brooks

Thu, Nov 6 - Nov 20, 2025

black artist kneeling in the sand on a beach with an elongated golden blindfold surrounded by a small group of people. Ocean in the background. Artist siittting in front of a mound of seaweed and plant parts captured in a gesture of throwing, leaves suspended overhead. Dynamic colors of ocean blue, green leaves, brown sand, the artist brown skin and the silver shimmer of the sun on the water in the background. Nir Arieli.

Past classes and workshops