About
My story
I am Russell Patrick Brown, American Bashaldo Gypsy dancer, harper, embodied engineer and writer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio into a family with an unbroken travelling tradition, I have spent my life continuing what was given to me: tradition, fortune-telling and the knowledge of how to move through time.
My work bridges somatic movement history, physical performance and technology. I hold a PhD in Arts Practice from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, where my doctoral dissertation, Intimate Violence: Feeling Impact in Irish Step Dance, examined percussive dance, embodied knowledge and the hidden Romani and Irish histories carried within rhythmic traditions.
To bring this research into modern, practical daily life, I write and teach on my Substack platform, Gypsy Fires.
The Work: Moving Through Gypsy Fires
Through Gypsy Fires, I provide guided, embodied education designed for when the ground is shaking. I translate PhD-vetted dance impact literacy and ancestral survival wisdom into practical somatic tools.
- The Timedancing Lab: An exploration of hyperchronicity — the felt experience of all times in this time, and this time in all times. The Lab is a historical, theoretical and psychic archive built to help us find a way out through rhythm and repetition.
- The Micro-Dance School: A physical somatic toolkit designed to break corporate fatigue and colonial mind-fracking, allowing you to reclaim your body directly at your desk. This space offers instant access to premium streamable audio loops, rhythmic tapping tracks, movement frameworks and guided meditations.
Code & Choreography: Organizing Time
Beyond the stage and the studio, I previously served as an Engineering Manager and Technical Lead for major publications including Fortune Media and People, Inc. (formerly Dotdash Meredith).
For me, these worlds are not separate. Code is choreography, and choreography is code. I approach technology with the same somatic, intuitive and precise focus that I bring to movement. My background in performance engineering — optimizing systems for speed and efficiency — is, at its core, simply the art of organizing time.
Performance as Living Ritual
I have performed internationally as a dancer, harper and storyteller, appearing with RTÉ, BBC and Mabou Mines. Whether performing on the streets of New York, staging practice-based performances like AngelAI (2023) and Who is Allowed to Fall (2025), or teaching ballroom and Vogue movement practices to neurodivergent actors at Galway's Blue Teapot Theatre Company, I view performance as a living ritual of survival and identity.
Spiritual Embodiment, Lineage, and Sound
For over a decade, I have worked at the intersection of spiritual embodiment, vibrational medicine and ritual as a resident practitioner, harper and educator within the historic community of Lily Dale, New York. There, I have served seeker communities of all ages, using the resonant strings of the Irish harp as a physical channel for intuitive guidance, memory and healing.
My approach to spiritual embodiment and the psychic archive is grounded in rigorous, ancestral discipline. I was mentored directly in the British spiritualist tradition by the legendary Mavis Pittilla. Rather than treating spiritual work as an abstract mystery, I approach it as a physical, somatic practice — using sound, rhythm and lineage to help others anchor themselves, process trauma and remember who they are.
Languages
English (Fluent) · Spanish (Advanced) · Irish (Advanced Beginner) · Romungró (Beginner)
Press
- 2025 — “Rediscovering the Romani identity.” The Clare Champion.
- 2025 — “UL graduate embraces identity and heals trauma through dance.” Live95.
- 2025 — “I am whole: Journey in dance helped UL graduate embrace identity and heal trauma.” University of Limerick News.
- 2025 — “Journey in dance helped UL graduate embrace identity.” The Clare Herald.
- 2023 — “Holdout tenant in $1,500 West Village apartment fears demolition of historic townhouse.” Gothamist.
- 2020 — “Fortune adopts paywall in major redesign of site, magazine.” New York Post.
- 2019 — “Growing Up Roma in America: Russell's Story.” Roma Peoples Project.
- 2012 — “Russell Patrick Brown.” Time Out New York.
- 2011 — “In Focus: artist, musician and dancer — Russell Patrick Brown.” IrishCentral.
- 2009 — “A hot front.” New York Post.