Sarah Skaggs DANCE            

 

ABOUT US

Sarah Skaggs Dance merges formal concert dance with "club" or social dance, drawing on a range of traditional and contemporary influences in movement, music and visual media to create an exciting new, audience-inclusive format for dance. Under the direction of dancer/choreographer Sarah Skaggs Dance, the Company is comprised of a diverse group of dancers and multimedia artists who, since 1991, have worked together to broaden the audience for modern dance. In 1993, Sarah Skaggs and her Company premiered Higher Ground, a new non-proscenium, audience-inclusve dance format that they have performed throughout the United States and Europe, bringing their unique movement style and community-based dance philosophy to theaters, community centers, parks and universities. Sarah Skaggs Dance Inc. was incorporated as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization as Higher Ground Projects, Inc.

Core company members include dancer/choreographer Sarah Skaggs and dancers Jeremy Laverdure, Brittany Reese, Kathi McGowan, Eric Dunlap, Jae Gruenke who bring a variety of movement styles and traditions to Ms.Skaggs' eclectic "dancer-driven" choreography. Photographer/lighting designer Mary Gearhart, creates settings that incorporate visual elements unique to each community in which the Company performs. Nancy Westcott, the Company's mulit-media designer, works with an array of slide, film and video images. The Company currently receives support from The Greenwall Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, The Harkness Foundation, The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, The Robison Foundation and individual contributors.

In 1993, through Dance Theatre Workshop's Suitcase Fund, Sarah Skaggs was invited to teach in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Prague. In 1994, she and her Company returned to both Prague and Hong Kong to collaborate with dancers in those regions. These movement exchanges resulted in the piece Reeling, which premiered at The Joyce Theatre's "Altogether Different" series to sold-out houses in 1995.

Sarah Skaggs began her dance training at the age of four, in ballet. She first studied modern dance at Sweet Briar College with Eija Celli, her teacher and mentor. She has trained in the traditional modern techniques of Jose Limon and Erick Hawkins, as well as spending ten years studying alternative body awareness techniques such as Alexander, Ideokinesis and Elaine Summers.

From 1981 to 1985, she danced, performed and collaborated with Dana Reitz, appearing with Reitz at BAM's "Next Wave Festival". She has received six National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. Ms. Skaggs' choreographic works have been presented at Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, Irving Plaza, P.S. 122, The Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Bryant Park and The Kitchen, and in venues in the U.S., Europe and Asia.