acclaim
"Where structure is concerned, the complex physicality of Brittany Brown Ceres' "Columbia Chasing" made it the ideal program closer. A sextet for four women and two men, set to sundry techno and minimalist scores, the work etches shifting balances of power, often in successive phrases. A man lifts a woman and somehow he ends up, vulnerable, on her back. Maybe continuity slips occasionally, but the dancers led by Yukie Fujimoto (once of ODC Dance) and Roel Seeber were palpably convincing. The piece looked as if it was assembled with a watchmaker's eye for detail."
—Allan Ulrich, SF Chronicle 11/9/10
"What impresses the most about this engrossing (in/divisible '09) work is how a carefully plotted structure and meticulous direction can uncover the richness of movement. Choreographer Brittany Brown Ceres has been honing in/divisible for a year and a half, and the result is a smart, well- focused and tightly paced assemblage. Ceres and her dancers have devised a compelling landscape in which gestures from the hieratic to the ecstatic reflect a turbulent internal world. ... it maintains an organic pulse and appealing contrasts in rhythm. Indeed, the last image of jittering arms set off like jangled nerves as a single dancer wanders slowly among the others is finally profoundly affecting."
—Mary Ellen Hunt, San Francisco Chronicle; 6/09
"Then, in Shade, Brittany Brown Ceres deployed her formalist sensibility, a welcome visitor in this context, on a dance for five women. The stop-start trajectory, accumulation of detail and air of muted despair made the five minute time limitation seem too short. One felt rudely awakened from a dream."
—Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance on the WestWave Dance Festival, August 2008
"Brittany Brown Ceres's dances are voluptuous and lucid. They are also finely crafted...for those of us who value imagination and brains, Ceres is a choreographer to watch."
—Rita Felciano, SF Bay Guardian (12/07)
'Corps de Co, a collaboration between WestWave director Brittany Brown Ceres and video artist Austin Forbord, was invigorating... The six women (Cari Bellinghausen, Claudia Hubiak, Jennifer Kesler, Gianna Shepard, Emma Stewart, Jenny Ward) advance upon us like a tornado from the rear of the performance space, all to a stop-and-start New Age score by Stephen Mackey. Then, Ceres energizes the entire body with rigor and purpose and displays much adeptness at fashioning patterns in a small space.”—Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance, July 2007
“brainy and luscious” –Rita Felciano, July ‘06
“Brittany Brown Ceres may be WestWave Festival producer, but her Simultaneous Solos, premiered at the top of the bill last Saturday earned its place through talent alone. An abstraction for five women set to Michael Gordon’s industrial strength Weather, the piece was carefully plotted. Vibrating wrists seemed to unleash a contrapuntal exercise constructed with almost lapidary precision. Movement motives were introduced austerely and leavened with group strides; the trajectory was swift and irresistible.”
—Allan Ulrich, Voice Of Dance (7/06)
“Kate Weare’s premiere of Drop Down and WestWave festival producer Brittany Brown Ceres’s Simultaneous Solos were also stunners. Ceres’s Solos, also a premiere, was set to the the composition“Weather” by Bang on the Can co-founder Michael Gordon. With its post-Cunningham elemental elegance and artful use of a mere five performers to fill the stage, Ceres juxtaposed slicing, linear leg work with circling, shuddering arms, nervous hands and undulant torsos. Where many young choreographers seem to make a fetish out of gesture without knowing what they are supposed to communicate, Ceres embedded the gestures in the impulse of the dance itself.”
—Ann Murphy, Dance View Times (7/06)
"Brittany Brown's Recollection - suggested we were in the presence of genuine craft and individual sensibility"
—Allan Ulrich, Voice Of Dance (8/03)
“(Ceres' choreography) created a sense of urgency towards the climax of a new place, of change and resolution."
—Rebecca Hirshman, Critical Dance (8/04)
COMMENTS FROM PRODUCERS
"(Ceres' work is) subtle and complex, but also accessible. Unlike many contemporary choreographers, she doesn't shy away from creating beautiful movement. But through that beautiful movement, she explores the intricate, personal, and often painful details of life that affect all of us. She's guaranteed to push you out of your comfort zone, but you're also likely to enjoy the process."
—Jessica Robinson,Executive Director of CouterPULSE (2/08)
“ Brittany makes great dances- She also builds community.” —Diane Frank, Stanford University & the Merce Cunningham Studio
“Ceres is an emerging leader in the region and a dance maker of considerable gifts. Her dual passions for creative community and smartly conceived, beautifully executed dance combine in investigations of social issues and matters of the heart, rendered with insight and wit in brave movement of the highest caliber.”—Rob Bailis, ODC Theater Director
Image by Andy Mogg