About

Sarah is a movement and teaching artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is passionate about presence and aliveness while performing, and seeks to perform work which centers humanity and complexity. While she is investigating subtlety and nuance, she is a notably bold and expressive performer, using her theatrical and compositional intuition to inform her dynamic yet grounded choice making.

After a brief hiatus from performing, Sarah is back in the studio working with a number of choreographers for upcoming performances. She is excited to kick off her spring with Mover’s Make, a new endeavor by Black Label Movement in which company movers have the opportunity to choreograph short works to stretch the idea of the “Black Label aesthetic.” Sarah will be performing in works by Hannah Albers, Kaitlyn Hawkins, Rachel Lieberman, and Javan Mngrezzo. You can catch this show at The Barker Center for Dance on March 8 and 9.

Later in March, she will join an exciting and dynamic ensemble for Here, Dear Life — a new work by Mathew Janczewski and Taja Will in the Goodale Theater at the Cowles Center for Dance. While she has worked with Mathew many times since moving to MN, this is her first time working with Taja Will, after being a fan of their work for years. The Cowles Center has recently announced the closure of the Goodale Theater, but this combined show with Janczewski and Will is slated to go on as the final performance in the Goodale. Having performed at the Goodale Theater a number of times, she is saddened by the news of its closure but grateful to be able to share the magic of live dance on the Goodale stage once more. Sarah is thrilled to join this cast of powerhouse performers for what will certainly be a bittersweet weekend of queer joy, community, and paying respects to the legacy of the Goodale Theater. The performances are March 23 and 24; tickets are on sale now.

Looking ahead — be on the look out for the premier of Mamko Moja, a new dance film by Doma Dance Theater (formerly Alexandra Bodnarchuk Dance Projects) in which Sarah performs a new duet with Amanda Sachs. Sarah is also excited to join Hatch Dance and HoneyWorks for the fourth Live @ the Shed in June 2024. Additionally, she has just joined Zoë Koenig’s cast for Physical Prizes slated to premier in Summer 2025.

These projects are all very exciting to Sarah for a number of reasons. First, having been a company member of Black Label Movement from 2019-2023, it is exciting to join 4 choreographers in their endeavors to make new work while questioning “what makes the Black Label aesthetic?” Second, in Mover’s Make, A Merge in March, and Physical Prizes, Sarah is working with 5 choreographers for the first time, many of which are emerging talents in the Minneapolis community. Finally, all of these projects are lead by queer and/or woman identifying choreographers, which is important to Sarah as a queer, woman performing artist.

Prior to her brief hiatus, Sarah had just come off the heels of an exciting 2022-2023 season. She closed the summer with “Au,” Hatch Dance and HoneyWorks third installment of Live at the Shed. In autumn, she premiered a new work by Black Label Movement as an original cast member of “Canary, Crimson, then Emerald” which examines the energetic states before, during, and what could emerge after the COVID pandemic. She later joined Black Label for “Riding the Maelstrom” as a part of The Cowles Center’s Fall Forward Festival. In March 2023, she premiered in Alexandra Bodnarchuk Dance Project’s “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” an evening length duet with Nieya Amezquita, a project that was supported by the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. To round out the season, she joined Black Label Movement’s 15th anniversary performance of “Wreck,” and “CEDARBACKE,” a new work by Berit Ahlgren’s HoneyWorks premiering at ARENA DANCES’ CANDYBOX Dance Festival in April.

Originally from Virginia, Sarah began her dance training at Seven Hills Dance Studio. She then earned her B.A. as a double major in Dance and Mathematics at James Madison University. While studying performance, choreography, and mathematical theory, she toured with the Virginia Repertory Dance Company, JMU's pre-professional performance company, from 2016-2018. In 2016, Sarah spent the summer studying contemporary dance in London. She returned to England in 2018 to perform and teach with the Virginia Repertory Dance Company. As a senior, she was selected to serve as the co-director of the Associate Dance Ensemble, JMU's performance ensemble of freshmen dance majors. At the time of her graduation in 2018, she was awarded the School of Theatre and Dance’s “Performer of the Year” and was selected to perform “True Confessions: My Boyfriend, Mic”, a solo by Shane O’Hara, at the Richmond Dance Festival. That summer, she relocated to Minnesota to join the vibrant arts community of the Twin Cities. 

Since moving to MN, Sarah has performed with Black Label Movement and ARENA DANCES on a number of projects. With these organizations, Sarah has performed in MN, FL, NYC, and AZ* (cancelled due to COVID-19). In 2020, she began incorporating dance film into her repertoire in response to the constraints of the pandemic. She joined Alexandra Bodnarchuk for the first time in Bodnarchuk’s debut film, “Heritage Sites” and Black Label Movement for their fourth TED Talk, “A dream of touch when touch is gone”. This past year, she joined Berit Ahlgren’s Honey Works and Helen Hatch’s Hatch Dance for their third Live at The Shed production, “Au.”

In addition to her work as a performer, Sarah is an established and sought after teaching artist. She has recently offered open contemporary practice at The Arena - ARENA DANCES’ professional training school in Minneapolis. She has offered guest contemporary classes at university dance programs in Minnesota, Virginia, North Carolina, and England. She has been a guest teacher with DanceON, ARENA DANCES’ residency-based, dance education program, bringing an immersive, high quality dance education to Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools. During her time with Black Label Movement, she was in residence at the Performing Institute of Minnesota with Black Label Movement, where she offers classes to young theater and dance students. As a guest teacher, she has been invited to give workshops for the Limón/ Black Label Twin Cities Intensive, ARENA’s Instinct Summer Dance Intensive, District Four High School Dance Festival* (canceled due to COVID-19), high school dance teams, and studios through Minnesota, Virginia, and New York. 

Sarah seeks out vulnerable and honest dance experiences through performance, creation, and education. She is a highly collaborative artist and teacher. If you are interested in working with her, contact her here.