Brown is a postmodern choreographer known for staging avant-garde performances in public spaces.

Born in Washington State, Brown received her B.A. in dance from Mills College, and after studying for a few summers with Louis Horst at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College, she moved to New York in 1961. She quickly became one of the founding members of the experimental Judson Dance Theater and worked with the likes of Twyla Tharp and Lucinda Childs. By the early 70s she co-founded the Grand Union and went on to create the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Known for her gravity-defying pieces which utilize harnesses and ropes, Brown has made a career of testing dancers' balance and stability. She also tends to stage her pieces in unusual, outdoor settings, such as Roof Piece, which was staged on a dozen rooftops in Soho and subsequently re-staged on the High Line, and Accumulation, which was once performed with dancers floating on a raft on their backs. Brown also has collaborated with numerous artists over the decades, like sculptor Nancy Graves, and she has become quite the fine artist in her own right, with a retrospective of her drawings featured at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. [Image via Getty]