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Year In Review – SBDP’s 2019 Highlights

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Dear friends, fans and family,

Thank you for being part of SBDP’s 2019. I hope you’ll take a moment to read through this year’s highlights below and celebrate all we created together.

‘Tis the season to consider all the important causes, individuals and organizations we will cheer into another year. I truly hope you, like me, will include Sarah Bush Dance Project in your list. I believe with every fiber of my being in the power of dance, art, collaboration, creativity, community, process, and performance to change lives, build and deepen connections, support local economies, and ripple out to change the world.

We have an exciting 2020 ahead of us! Please join me in making a year-end gift to SBDP. Donations of all sizes are needed to help us meet the financial demands of our 13th season. We look forward to making and sharing meaningful art with ever more people in the Bay Area and across the country. As an audience member told us,

“Your work draws us all in and gradually, beautifully, takes us through the layers of skin and surface, to the bones and to the core of the heart.”

From my heart to yours, Thank You for your important role in SBDP’s past, present, and future. Cheers to YOU and all we, together, create.

Wishing you a cozy December full of love. ❤️

With gratitude,

Sarah

Sarah Bush, Artistic Director

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Sarah Bush Dance Project’s 2019 Highlights

Home Season

For Sarah Bush Dance Project’s 12th home season, we:

  • developed Un-Changing Nature, a collection of dances exploring how humans impact the environment and how it, in turn, impacts us
  • assembled a stellar cast of dancers: Sarah Bush, Lydia Clinton, Julianna Cressman, KJ Dahlaw, and Frances Sedayao
  • teamed up with renowned photographer Irene Young to create a promo video
  • collaborated with KC Cohen on beautiful and dramatic lighting design
  • presented three sold-out shows in October at The Flight Deck theater in Oakland
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Behind the scenes with photographer Irene Young and dancers Frances Sedayao & Julianna Cressman. Photo by Lisa Harding

Repertory Performances

  • A performance of Spirit & Bones excerpts was the opening entertainment prior to the keynote address at the National Women’s Studies Association’s 2019 annual conference, “Protest, Justice, and Transnational Organizing”.
  • The cast of Homeward reunited for an excerpt performance at Oakland Ballet’s East Bay Dances festival.

Residencies & Awards

  • The 2019 Della Davidson Prize was awarded to Sarah for dance theater.
  • SBDP were resident artists at Krissy Keefer’s Dos Rios retreat center.
SBDP at Dos Rios
Sarah Bush Dance Project’s Artist Residency at Dos Rios. Pictured: Julianna Cressman, Lydia Clinton, KJ Dahlaw, Sarah Bush. Photo by Frances Sedayao

Community Engagements

  • Sarah had the honor of serving on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee.
  • KJ and Sarah created a site-specific duet exploring resilience of bodies and safety in public spaces for BulbFest at Albany Bulb community art and open space.
  • The American Himalayan Foundation commissioned SBDP to create and perform an energizing number for its Stop Girl Trafficking fundraising event.
  • We danced in services at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula.
  • Sarah taught free classes at the Berkeley YWCA for Bay Area Dance Week.
  • With former Club Q dancers, Sarah created a tribute to Curve Magazine for an Ahead of the Curve movie fundraising event, amongst fabulous art at the Jessica Silverman Gallery.
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Sarah Bush Dance Project performing at fundraiser for “Ahead of the Curve” movie. Pictured: Alex Morrison, Sarah Bush, Richelle Donigan, Fredricka Keefer

Development of Future SBDP Projects

  •   Sarah met with Laura Rifkin, Kin Folkz, and Lenn Keller, and listened to oral history recordings collected by Elena Botkin-Levy to continue gathering Oakland LGBTQ stories.
  • With collaborator, Becca Wolff, Sarah traveled to Red Cloud, Nebraska and the National Willa Cather Center to conduct research and to deepen relationships with the town, people, and landscape.

Theater, TV & Film

  • Theatrical director Becca Wolff brought Sarah on to choreograph for a rock opera by The Kilbanes — Weightless at A.C.T.’s The Strand theater.
  • Sarah auditioned and got a dancing role in the pilot for NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” working with an incredible cast under direction from the dream team of choreographer Mandy Moore and assistant choreographer Jillian Meyers.
  • Sarah choreographed a California College of the Arts MFA student’s film project starring dancers and actresses, Priscilla Regalado and Stephanie Bastos.
sbdp beca nebraska
SBDP collaborator, director Becca Wolff beneath a fogbow on the Nebraska prairie.
Photo by Sarah Bush.

Plus…

Sarah did a few other things along the way:

  • drummed and danced as a member of Dance Brigade
  • participated in a performance workshop with Israeli choreographer Miriam Engel
  • consulted as a movement coach for the three-Michelin-star restaurant, Quince
  • took technique classes from Corey Action Harrison, Joan Lazarus, and others
  • appreciated feedback from mentors and colleagues: Chelsea Brown, Nina Haft, Rose Huey, Wendy Jones, Krissy Keefer, Sue Li Jue, Qilo Matzen, Priscilla Regalado, Rhea Speights, and Nina Wu
  • edited sound scores; budgeted; wrote newsletters, grants, applications, and proposals; built and maintained relationships with incredible donors, artists, venues, theater tech, and press; taught classes; choreographed; directed; researched; dreamed; danced…

… and appreciated YOU!

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