HILARY BROWN-ISTREFI is a Canadian-American director, choreographer, performer, curator, educator, and cultural organizer. Originally from Toronto, now living in Rockaway Beach, she is a graduate of École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and over the last decade has performed in the works of Melissa Riker, Bouchra Ouizguen, Jillian Peña, Doug Elkins, Linda Tegg, and Candice Breitz.
In 2013, she co-founded the award-winning performance collective, Same As Sister (S.A.S.), with her twin Briana Brown-Tipley. Their interdisciplinary commissions have been presented internationally at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance (Toronto); Base: Experimental Arts + Space (Seattle); Marmo - Libreria d’Arte Contemporanea (Italy); Archaeological Museum of Messenia (Greece); Danspace Project (NYC); Centre d'Art Marnay Art Centre (France); BRIC Arts | Media House (NYC); and New York Live Arts (NYC), among other venues. S.A.S.’s 2022 commission, This is NOT a Remount, was nominated for a Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts’ 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production (Dance). They were selected as an Alternate and Finalist for the Jerome Foundation’s 2021-22 and 2019-20 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (Dance), and is the recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ 2022 and 2017 Emergency Grant (Dance); a Queens Council on the Arts’ 2020 Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant (Multi-Discipline); and a New York Foundation for the Arts’ 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship (Choreography). S.A.S. is currently a commissioned resident artist of the 2023 HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) in NYC.
Hilary initiated HB² PROJECTS in 2017, as a choreographic platform to expand her collaborations in performance. HB² has presented work throughout NYC as a resident artist of Trisk’s 2023 Resident Artist Program at Triskelion Arts; Norte Maar’s 2018 Dance at Socrates Residency at Socrates Sculpture Park; and Exploring the Metropolis’ 2017-18 Choreographer + Composer Residency at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning. HB² has also performed at Summer on the Hudson Festival at West Harlem Piers Park; Movement Research at the Judson Church; and The Beach Sessions x AUNTS at The Castle Rockaway.