Sara Mearns To Perform in iHeartDanceNYC’s Benefit for Ukraine!

On April 9, the New York City–based nonprofit will present a benefit performance with funds supporting the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Held at the French Institute Alliance Française Florence Gould Hall the program will feature volunteer performances by dancers from American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Broadway and more. All proceeds benefit Friend Fund: A Ukraine Wide Charity Foundation, which provides direct support to Ukrainian soldiers and their families. Click here to purchase tickets and donate.

Sara Mearns Will Perform in New York City Ballet’s Upcoming Spring Season!

The centerpiece of Spring 2022 is a two-week celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Company’s legendary 1972 Stravinsky Festival, with four thrilling programs including a premiere by Silas Farley and the now-classic trilogy inspired by Greek mythology and concepts. Guest artists from the Dance Theatre of Harlem grace the stage in the NYCB premiere of Gustave le Gray No. 1 by Pam Tanowitz, who also contributes her second world premiere for the Company, and the season comes to a close with the perennial favorite A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Click here to visit the New York City Ballet’s website for tickets and more information!

Sara Mearns Stars in the Winter Season of the New York City Ballet!

“Mearns operates on another plane entirely, from everyone. This season, she has dropped yet another layer — not of artifice, she never had that — but of the kind of performative veneer that any dance artist has. In one work after another — “Walpurgisnacht Ballet,” “La Valse,” “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” and a particularly ravishing “Mozartiana” — she was effortless, even somehow casual within the drama of dancing ballet.” – The New York Times

Sara Mearns was featured in BBC World Service’s “In The Studio” Twyla Tharp Documentary!

“Clem Hitchcock joins Twyla as her latest performance, Twyla Now, opens at New York City Centre. For this performance, Twyla is drawing on dances from her mighty back catalogue, some famous, some never seen before. In a rare interview, Twyla chats with Clem Hitchcock about refreshing the dances of her past by collaborating with some of the superstars of American dance today. We hear from two of them: New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns, and James Gilmer from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.” Click here for the episode!

Sara Mearns will perform at the Joyce Theatre March 8-13!

The Joyce Theater Foundation will present one of classical ballet’s biggest stars, Sara Mearns, for a highly anticipated evening of dance that stretches far beyond classical ballet with unpredictable collaborations. Mearns’s goal with this ambitious project boils down to one simple idea: to reveal herself through the bold act of trying something new. This highly anticipated Joyce Theater Productions event, pairing Mearns with dance artists who bring her unmatched skills out of the ballet box including Guillaume Côté, Beth Gill, Jodi Melnick, Vinson Fraley, and a Merce Cunningham MinEvent, plays The Joyce Theater from March 8-13.

For tickets, visit: https://www.joyce.org/performances/sara-mearns

Sara Mearns Performs in Twyla Now at NYCC!

“Pergolesi” is a different sort of experiment. For it, Tharp has taken a duet that she choreographed for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1992, and set it on Robbie Fairchild, a former City Ballet principal and Tony-nominated lead for the Broadway musical “An American in Paris,” and Sara Mearns, a City Ballet principal known for stretching herself far beyond ballet. (During the program, Mearns performs in jazz shoes, pointe shoes and ballet slippers — an athletic tour de force, says Tharp.)”

Sara Mearns leaps thrillingly over the lines with “Beyond Ballet” at Jacob’s Pillow

“In her show Beyond Ballet, presented this week at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Sara Mearns, a star principal dancer with New York City Ballet, joins a long line of big-name ballet dancers who’ve leapt over any perceived dividing lines between ballet and modern dance. Sometimes Mearns has skipped over that line, à la Isadora — in recent years she’s performed some of Duncan’s iconic solos — or slithered over that line, à la Merce: in April she danced in “Night of 100 Solos,” the worldwide Cunningham centenary celebration.

Mearns, who gobbles up space with a thrilling largesse, a glistening musicality, and a formidable, clarifying technique, is an authentic mover regardless of what she’s dancing. This doesn’t mean she’s now a Duncan or a Cunningham expert — she’s not: these things take time and deep immersion. But she’s interested in exploring their movement, and is thus interesting to watch.”

Read more here.

NYC Ballet star Sara Mearns discusses dance before Jacob’s Pillow performances

“‘Ballet is comfortable to me. So I want to get out of my comfort zone literally and doing these other things gets me out of that. It also makes me a stronger dancer and more full artist. So when I do come back to City Ballet, in a way I feel more myself when I’m on stage. I feel like a stronger artist. It’s hard to explain but all these experiences really help me in my ballet career.’

One of the five pieces Mearns will perform this week at Jacob’s Pillow is No. 1 with Honji Wang of the French hip-hop duo Wang Ramirez. Created in 2017, No. 1 is a Pillow-commissioned work that brings together French hip-hop duo Wang Ramirez (Honji Wang and Sebastien Ramirez), recipients of two Bessie Award recognitions (2013 award for Outstanding Performers and 2017 nomination for Outstanding Production) and Sara Mearns.”

Read more here.