About Sara
Sara Mearns has been a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet since 2008. Originated roles with choreographers including Justin Peck, Jamar Roberts, Kyle Abraham, Alexei Ratmansky, Pam Tanowitz, Christopher Wheeldon, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. At NY City Center, Sara curated/starred in Artists at the Center, Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, Encores! I Married An Angel, Twyla Now, multiple Fall for Dances, and Dances of Isadora Duncan at Lincoln Center. At The Joyce, Sara performed a full evening titled “A Piece of Work.”, and has been long time collaborator with Jodi Melnick including “Superbloom” at the 92nd St Y. She was awarded the Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer, the Dance Magazine Award, an Honorary Doctorate University of South Carolina. Sara is currently Brand Ambassador of Phonak, Orza shoes, and a champion with the Mental Health Coalition.
CBA Project
This fellowship supports Sara Mearns in multiple project developments alongside a continued commitment to her dance education. Mearns will lead a series of workshops immersing herself in the movement worlds of Trisha Brown, Crystal Pite, and Pina Bausch, working with former dancers and stagers from each company; conducted without pressure to present or produce an end product, these sessions are intended purely as a space for study, with close friends and past collaborators invited to join.
A second focus of the fellowship is the development of an immersive experience exploring sound and hearing loss, informed by Mearns’s own experience navigating extensive hearing loss as both a person and a performing artist, and her role as an ambassador for Phonak advocating for others facing similar challenges. She will collaborate with director and choreographer Warren Carlyle to shape the work, and will consult with NYU faculty in sound/technology and disability studies to further her research, with the goal of developing the project to a pitch-ready stage for institutions such as the Armory or The Shed by the fellowship’s conclusion.
Additionally, Mearns will use studio space to continue ongoing collaborations with Jodi Melnick, Beth Gill, and Bobbi Jene Smith, and will use office space to develop a possible book and a dance play.
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