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Tel 401.743.9172 •Website by: Co-Lab Inc.

Photo Credit: Francis Poulain, Arthur Walking Turtle

Sara June is a New York City-based choreographer and movement artist. Her work is informed by on-going studies in Japanese butoh and western dance forms and formal training in the visual arts. She considers movement to be a distillation process, an on-going effort to define the essence of human and inanimate forms. Often described as movement-based installations that explore a range of states and conditions in nature, Sara's numerous solo and group projects have been presented at venues throughout New England and New York. Deborah Butler, curator of the Boston Butoh Series said of her recent work, Phloem, “Sara transformed herself into particles of nature, animal forms and reflections of the human psyche…her presence was startling and very moving and beyond human.”

Though she has been dancing for most of her life, butoh is the primary movement influence in Sara's work. She was first seduced by the obscure japanese dance form in 2000, after viewing a stunning performance by movement artist Jennifer Hicks at the Boston-based artists' collective, Pan9. For the next two years, she devoted herself to studying and occasionally performing with Hicks at Mobius in Boston. In 2002, Hicks introduced her to Master butoh artist Katsura Kan who was auditioning dancers for his critically acclaimed traveling work, Curious Fish. She was fortunate to join the cast as a member of his Saltimbangues troupe and perform in Fish that Spring. There she met fellow cast member, Deborah Butler, who became her next mentor, life-long friend, and collaborator. Butler founded the Kitsunebutoh troupe in 2003 and for the next several years choreographed a series of majestic outdoor butoh installations and theater pieces in which Sara was honored to perform. During this time, Sara June augmented her studies with international artists Hiroko Tamano (San Francisco), Su-En (Sweden), and Diego Pinon (Mexico).

In 2006, Sara relocated to New York City where she has trained and performed with the Vangeline Theater in butoh ritual mexicano, and continued to choreograph and perform as a solo artist. Sara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master’s degree in Psychology from The Harvard Graduate School of Education.