User:Jennifer.Marie.Hoff/ssm

Sara Shelton Mann is an American dancer, choreographer, healer, and teacher. Born in Tennessee, she currently resides in San Francisco, CA. Throughout the 80s and 90s Mann had a profound impact on contemporary dance in the San Francisco/Bay Area and abroad while directing the multidisciplinary performance ensemble, Contraband. Mann continues her influence in dance and performance art as a teacher and independent choreographer, creating work that deals with political, social, and environmental issues. Her work has appeared abroad in Germany, ... in addition to San Francisco.

1. Background and Early Career:

Mann was born in Tennessee. Moving to New York, she danced with the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater from 19?-19?. She then moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she directed the Halifax Dance Co-Op from 19?-19?,... In 19?, she traveled with the contact improv performance collective, Mangrove, to San Francisco. There she began a group called Contraband in 1979. In 1985, the company began in earnest with a newer group of performers working on a project titled Evol (love spelled backwards). With Contraband Mann developed her unique inquiry into movement-- blending dance and contact improv with music, vocals, theatricality, props, ritual, and healing. ... From 1996-1999, after the dissolution of Contraband, she collaborated with Guillermo Gomez Pena on the Mexterminator project and began to make dance as an independent choreographer. Her most recent work, Tribes, uses dance, visual design, text, and film, with collaborator David Szlasa. She continues her performance and teaching work, with a movement practice called Movement Alchemy, a mix of dance, contact improv, energetics, Qigong, and object work. She became a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow for choreography in 2000.

2. Contraband:

Contraband, a collection of artists, was directed by Mann from 1979-1996, developing a core group of performers by the mid-80s. Together the group developed Mann's experimental performance work, including site specific performance, contact improvisation, live music, ritual, political activism, energetic healing, theatricality and circus, and the expression of experiential states. One of its most well-known works, the trilogy Mira Cycles, is based on the 16th century Indian poet, Mirabai. Many members have continued to further professional careers in music, dance, and circus. Members include Keith Hennessey (Circo Zero Performance), Kathleen Hermesdorf (MotionLab & La Alternativa), Jess Curtis (Jess Curtis/GRAVITY), Kim Epifano (Epiphany Productions), Norman Rutherford (Out of Round Records), Peter Whitehead, Abby Crain, Brook Klehm, and Jules Beckman. The company dissolved in the mid-90s due to financial concerns.

3. Style and Choreography:

Highly dynamic and physical, Mann's choreography utilizes contact improvisation http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Experiment_Called_Contact_Improvisation

4. Awards and Recognition:

Isadora Duncan Award

2000: John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography

Djerassi Artist in Residence

Gerbode Choreographers in Collaboration Award

Mann also currently receives funding from:

Irvine Foundation

NDP

National Endowment for the Arts

San Francisco Arts Commission