ARTIST BIOS

Sara Shelton Mann has been a choreographer, performer, teacher since 1967. She was a protégé of Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis in NYC before moving to Canada where she fell in love with contact improvisation. In 1979 she moved to San Francisco and started the performance group Contraband, combining the principles of contact, systems of the body, and spiritual practice into a unified system of research. Her Movement Alchemy training is an ongoing teaching project and is influenced by certifications and studies in the metaphysical and healing traditions over many years.

Jesse Zaritt’s work engages drawing as dancing – a visual and physical practice linked to dreaming, drafting, and materializing futures. His choreographic, performance and teaching practices research the ways in which excessive, contemplative and resistive dance practices change how movement arises in the world and how dancing participates in processes of social transformation. Jesse has performed his solo work in Taiwan, Uruguay, Korea, Germany, Japan, Mexico and throughout the United States. He has performed with Shen Wei Dance Arts and in the work of Netta Yerushalmy and Faye Driscoll. Jesse is a faculty member of the newly formed Bennington College BFA Dance Lab. He currently works in creative dialogue with Sara Shelton Mann.

*Photo by Robbie Sweeny

HOW TO SUPPORT

To join the community of support for Sara + Jesse, please contact erin@velocitydancecenter.org, or make a gift at the link below.