Erin Brown ’09 started dancing when she was 6 years old, majored in dance at Hamilton College and after graduation launched her own dance company, the Noumenon Dance Experience, in Chicago.
She’s also working on a graduate degree in sports leadership, with a thesis about the black influence in dance.
“I went to a performing arts high school where they really encouraged us to enter the dance world professionally or attend a conservatory or major university and study dance,” Brown says. “I never wanted to attend a conservatory, and I feared that going to a large university I would get lost in the crowd. The thing that attracted me to a liberal arts school was the fact that I would receive a well-rounded education, and even though I was going in as a dance major, I would still have to challenge myself intellectually.”
The dance faculty at Hamilton, she says, was amazing. “Elaine (Heekin) and Bruce (Walczyk) were very encouraging and I honestly don't think I would've made it through without their guidance,” she says.
Brown’s ultimate career goal – to choreograph a Broadway musical.