Sarah Silverblatt-Buser is a dancer, director, choreographer, educator and writer raised by New Mexican skies. She uses movement and technology to bridge worlds.
As director and creator, she created the Atlas V produced Virtual Reality experience Collective Body, commissioned by Lincoln Center and Onnasis Onx and supported by the French CNC. Alongside Gordon, she co-directed Rave-L Party, a multimedia chamber orchestra performance and rave party for the Theatre du Chatelet, commissioned by l'Ensemble les Apaches. She choreographed Street Art, a concert relating the music of Steve Reich with the French street art of parkour, as well as La Petite Danseuse, an Augmented Reality experience for the Musée d’Orsay, and Danse, Danse, Danse - Matisse, a VR experience for the Paris Museum of Modern Art, both produced by Lucid Realities and directed by Gordon.
For fall 2023, she was Artist-in-Residence at the Movement Lab at Barnard College of Columbia University while serving as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Dance Department. She created two courses: Dance Improvisation and Digital Performance, exploring topics of embodiment, presence, VR/AR, immersion and the future with undergraduate students from across Columbia University.
As a performer, Sarah tours internationally with acclaimed cirque artist Yoann Bourgeois. She has danced in commercial videos ranging from fashion to public service and most recently performed at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards with Harry Styles. Sarah also dances throughout France with Compagnie 47-49, directed by François Veyrunes. In NYC, she performed works by George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Richard Isaac, Larry Keigwin, Claudia Schreier and Colleen Thomas.
Sarah uses written language to translate and expand on movement languages. She has written for the Aspen Institute, Pam Tanowitz Dance, the Vail Daily, and the Vail Dance Festival Magazine, where she served as chief editor.
Before committing herself entirely to her artistic work, she held positions at major cultural institutions including the Aspen Institute Arts Program, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Vail Dance Festival, and as assistant to Damian Woetzel, the current president of the Juilliard School.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Dance from Barnard College of Columbia University. Her dance training ranges from the Boston Ballet and LINES Ballet to professional intensives with Batsheva’s Ohad Naharin and the Merce Cunningham Trust.
She is a member of Onassis ONX, an accelerator for a global community of member artists who create immersive XR and AI works. Paris is her landing spot.
Sarah studied the sociology of culture at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her thesis argued that artists are essential to a democratic society in a study of public programming and education through arts programs. Arts institutions, she claimed, are responsible for making space for and amplifying voices of the public they assume to serve. Sarah’s conviction and love for the performing arts brought her into the inner workings of major arts institutions including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Vail Dance Festival and Aspen Institute Arts Program.
Sarah served as public programming intern, artist representative, special project associative, festival coordinator, writer, and editor, all while pursuing her own artistic research. She worked as assistant to Damian Woetzel, current president of the Juilliard School, on numerous projects that were guided by the principle of collaboration across disparate fields and identities. Her many different responsibilities have always been in support of artists and the role art has for catalysing change and provoking reflection.
Directed by Damian Woetzel from 2008 - 2018, the Aspen Institute Arts Program, based in NYC, is a branch of the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan policy think tank whose foundation is in the Socratic method of question and text based dialogue. The Arts Program insists upon the positive social, economic and cultural implications of the arts in society.
Sarah worked as Special Project Associate for the Arts Program. She contributed to the conception and organization of large and small scale events, including conferences, debates and performances in collaboration with The Cooper Union, The Public Theater, the Park Avenue Armory and other major New York City cultural institutions. Sarah also assisted the Arts Program in convening 18 youth poets for an Aspen Institute Seminar at the Aspen IDEAS Festival in 2016 and 2017.
The Brooklyn Academy Music is New York’s premier contemporary performing arts institution, known for presenting the highest-caliber of progressive and avant-garde performances. Sarah served two years as Artist Services Representative, acting as point person for all artists performing in the Fisher Theater during the iconic Next Wave Festivals of 2015 and 2016. She coordinated between world class local and international companies and key Brooklyn Academy of Music artistic leaders.
One such international artist was Yoann Bourgeois, who after inviting her to learn his choreographic work in between performances, subsequently invited her to France to audition for and eventually join his company.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts was envisioned as a major performing arts center in New York City that would develop and present the finest and brightest in all types of performing arts to a diverse audience drawn from all walks of life.
Sarah served as a Programming Intern and Special Program Associate at the David Rubenstein Atrium, one of Lincoln Center’s key public spaces directed by Jordana Leigh. She supported a wide variety of free programming, ranging from salsa nights with local musicians to watch and learn events in collaboration with VICE media.
Sarah returned to Lincoln Center as interning assistant to Producer Emily Rasmussen during the national launch of Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance, which brought world class performances to cinemas throughout the country.
Directed by Damian Woetzel, Vail Dance Festival is a performing arts incubator. Each summer, some of the world’s most highly respected artists in dance and music are assembled including Misty Copeland, Michelle Dorrance, Lil Buck, Tiler Peck, Caroline Shaw and more to embark upon unprecedented creative collaborations.
Sarah began the summer of 2015 immediately out of Barnard as one of nine administrative interns. She was asked to return the following year as the Festival Coordinator, managing and developing the intern program while simultaneously serving as the key point person for all 150 visiting artists and assisting the Festival Manager. She has since returned each summer to continue developing management aspects of the Festival, as well as served as editor of the 2017 VDF Magazine. She continues to write for both the VDF Magazine and the Vail Daily, covering the dance festival.
Homepage photo by Amy Gibson and La Seine Musicale, Above photo by Terry Tsiolis. Additional Photos by Patrick Fraser, Suzanne Distaine, Tatiana Bulgakova, and India Lange.