Photo by David Gonsier

mayfield brooks

mayfield brooks improvises while black, and is currently based on Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people, also known as Brooklyn, New York. brooks is a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. They are faculty at Movement Research NYC and Editor-in-Chief of the Movement Research Performance Journal. brooks is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Merce Cunningham Award in dance granted by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and a 2021 Bessie/New York Dance and Performance Award nominee for their film, Whale Fall. brooks teaches and performs practices that arise from their life/art/movement work, Improvising While Black (IWB).

2017 Artist-in-Residence,

Faculty,

Workshop Faculty,

The Sounding Body Faculty,

MELT Faculty,

Performance Journal Editor-in-Chief

Past Classes & Events

[Virtual] MELT – Dancing Rebellion: states of suspension, vibration and endurance

 Jan 11 – Jan 15, 2021
melt

[Virtual] Festival | GPS Chats: Close Encounters of a Dance Kind (Croatia/Iran/USA)

 November 24, 2020
event

[Virtual] MELT – Decomposing dance and choreographing breath

 Aug 10 – Aug 14, 2020
melt

[Virtual] The Sounding Body: Speaking in Tongues

 Wed, Apr 15 – Apr 29, 2020
class

MELT – We Got Soul: Improvising While Black as Movement Practice

 Jan 6 – Jan 10, 2020
melt

Morning Class

 Fri, Dec 13 – Dec 20, 2019
class

Morning Class

 November 01, 2019
class

Morning Class

 September 30, 2019
class

Morning Class

 September 26, 2019
class

The Sounding Body: Speaking in Tongues

 Wed, Apr 24 – May 8, 2019
workshop

Movement Research at the Judson Church

 April 01, 2019
performance

MELT – Improvising While Black/IWB

 January 23, 2019
melt

[email protected] – The Sounding Body: Speaking in Tongues

January 22, 2019
class

[email protected] – Studies Project: Creating the Score

January 17, 2019
event

MELT – Improvising While Black/IWB

 January 15, 2019
melt

MELT – Improvising While Black/IWB

 Jan 7 – Jan 11, 2019
melt

MELT Reading Group

 July 23, 2018
event

Movement Research at the Judson Church

 May 14, 2018
performance

Rupture: Improvising In the Break

 June 09, 2016
class