Get To Know Our New Artist in Residence Raianna Brown ’13
By AC Wilson
Originally published in the spring edition of "PAIDEIA", the Paideia magazine.
Raianna Brown ’13 is an artist of many different disciplines, ranging from performing on international stages to directing and producing her own short films. Her expansive and dynamic career embodies the life of an interdisciplinary artist. Chosen as Paideia’s 2024-25 Cecelia Caines Artist-in-Residence, Raianna Brown’s Komansé Dance Theater will instill curiosity in Paideia’s High School students while challenging them to see beyond traditional constructs of creativity by teaching them different ways to ask, “What if?”
Beyond her artistic pursuits, Raianna emphasizes the importance of social action. While obtaining her engineering degree from Georgia Tech, she embodied this value by serving in several leadership positions on campus and utilizing her platform as a student leader. As a member of Georgia Tech’s dance team, the Goldrush, she took a knee to call attention to the issue of the ongoing silence about police brutality in our country.
The majority of Raianna’s artistic work has been centered around creating and holding space for marginalized people and bringing their stories to the forefront. With a bachelor of science in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech and extensive coursework in dance from Emory University, she is especially interested in integrating arts and technology to expand storytelling capabilities.
Raianna’s parents, Terri and Cedric Brown, exposed her — from an early age — to the rich artistic culture and history of Atlanta. Further-more, her educational environments directly influenced her artistry and activism alike. Paideia provided her with knowledge and invaluable research tools and methods to dive deeply into questioning her lived environment from both a scientific and humanitarian lens, and Georgia Tech provided a platform to amplify her activism. She attributes much of the depth of her work to her time at Paideia.
Raianna is the youngest of the Brown sisters also graduating from Paideia, with Niquelle ’04 and Sheereen ’08 coming before her. She feels lucky to have been taught by some of the best Paideia teachers, including Donna Ellwood and Catharine Tipton, whom she credits with helping to shape a lot of her artistic voice. “Being in their classes provided me with language for thoughts I had always wanted to express, but never quite had the words for,” she notes, and continues: “ [Reading] “A Black Liberation Theology” by James Cone in the Revolution and Society class with Donna changed my life. The literary analysis we did in Catharine’s class refined my ability to approach both poetry and prose with an inquisitive research mindset. Donna and Catharine provided me with tools so I could speak clearly about the topics of my work.”
Since completing her undergraduate degrees, Raianna has danced alongside Beyoncé and Shakira; danced in several feature films and TV shows; completed her first international tour; choreographed two evening-length, sold-out shows; produced short dance films; choreographed for the NAACP; and founded the professional dance company Komansé Dance Theater.
Raianna was excited to build on the legacy of Cecelia Caines by returning to Paideia in January as the artist-in-residence. During January, Raianna brought the spirit of uncompromising storytelling that she shares with the world through Komansé dance to our students and will continue this exciting work into the spring. Accompanied by fellow Georgia Tech graduates Ta Nycia Wooden (That’s The Rumor Productions) and Michole Washington (STEMulation) as creative consultants, these dancers will offer the Paideia community a season of artistic exploration focusing on performance, which will immerse them in the educational capacity aspect of art. Together they will build community programming to create longevity in the practices ingrained in Komansé: storytelling emphasizing world creation, representation and movement.
Raianna and Komansé will produce and host full evening-length shows, immersive art performances, workshops, dance classes and masterclass-es with local and international artists who are part of the Komansé community. This spark of passion and enthusiasm will bring culture, art and history to campus and inspire creativity and joy throughout our entire community as students, teachers and parents are invited to participate in the activities.
Komansé Dance Theater uses art to challenge, create and cultivate, utilizing the medium of Black cultural expression to unpack current issues surrounding social activism. Komansé’s mission is to create work that speaks to people’s experiences and the universal connection we all have with one another. Komansé has recently partnered with the High Museum of Art, the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, Red Bull and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
To learn more about Komansé, please visit komansedance.com.