Joe Brown performing at Coachella, 2018
Joe Brown (2nd from left) performing with Beyoncé at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA, 14 April 2018.
From "Stepping on Stage with Beyoncé," Slice of MIT, 7 May 2018
[Choreographer and professional dancer Joe Brown ‘07] was among dozens of performers who delivered a show [at the Coachella Music Festival] that he says was, “Everything I’ve been working for—a celebration of everyone involved.”
“My goal was to be the next Walt Disney,” Brown explains. “I majored in Course 2 [mechanical engineering] because I wanted to design rollercoasters and to create my own theme park.”
[Beyoncé's Coachella performance was] a two-hour long, tour-caliber set that paid tribute to black culture, from song selections to traditions of historically black fraternities and sororities—something Brown says was especially important for him. “They created a show that pretty much represented my whole life—from the stepping to a lot of the cultural aspects, and even to some songs that my parents would play for me back in the day,” he says. “It was profound.”