FALL RESIDENCY SHOWCASE 2026

Sarah Council is a choreographer, teaching artist and the artistic director of Sarah Council Dance Projects, a project-based dance
company focused on movement research, creation and performance. Council’s work explores themes of shifting perception, power, and
identity, creating dances that range from up-close observations of daily life and relationships, to wider focused explorations of socio-
political issues.

“What happens to bodies in conflict? What does it feel like to be misunderstood? What shifts in our physiology when we are confronted
with difference? I am curious about the phenomenon of being caught in well-worn ruts of thinking and communication during
disagreements. Mental processes that combine the particulars of the present moment with each individual’s history, catapulting bodies
into past memories, emotions and sensations; as if sending them both into separate realities. These are the guiding thoughts and
wonderings that have led my explorations during this residency. My collaborators, Rahquelah Conyers, Mackenzie England and I have
delved into personal stories of conflict, misunderstanding, hurt and rage. We have explored these moments using writing and embodied
memory as entry points to movement. We have also intentionally stepped out of the particulars of our own experience into purely physical investigations of muscular force, resistance and effort.

For this type of work to take shape, an important part of our residency period has been to build the rehearsal “ritual” that invites us into
these vulnerable spaces and creates the ground that will grow this new work. This focused time spent in process has allowed us to craft our ritual and begin collecting ideas, images, phrases, concepts words and threads that will continue to inform this new work as it emerges over the span of the next year.”