Sarah Blake is a dance artist located in the New York City area. She began training locally at the age of 3 and by 12, began studying at New Jersey School of Ballet (NJSB) as a student in their intensive training program. In 2015, she became a member of the New Jersey Ballet Junior Company where she performed in ballets such as “The Nutcracker,”“Don Quixote,” and “La Esmerelda.”  While studying at NJSB she also attended West Essex High School as a part of the class of 2018, and was an active member of West Essex Dance Team being on the Middle School team (2 years), the Junior Varsity Team (2 years) and on the Varsity team (2 years), serving as Varsity captain her senior year. She was also a member of WE CARE, Key Club (participating in Intergenerational Prom every year), National Honor Society and was a part of the first group of students to do their senior service at Give Kids the World in Kissimmee, FL. She was active within her church’s youth group attending yearly mission trips and volunteering at summer camps. While in high school, she also obtained my first teaching job. She was a teaching assistant for dance and acting classes at Carousel of Progress Academy, a studio for students with special needs. 

 

She is a May 2022 graduate of Manhattanville College where she received her BA in Dance & Theatre Concentration in Dance and Psychology and minored in Business Management. From the dance department, she was awarded the Michael Posnick Award for Academic Excellence in Dance (2020) and the Greta Levart Award for Continued Artistic Excellence in Dance (2022). She has performed works by Shawn Bible, Brad Beakes, Sarah Housepian, Michaela McGowan, Michael Trusnovec, as well as many others. While at Manhattanville she was a Clark Scholar participating in community service every semester, Publicity Chair of Manhattanville’s Chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success and Vice President of the PSI CHI Psychology Honor Society. Throughout her course work she developed a deep passion for choreography and research heavy themes through her pieces “Arachna” based on how spiders chchChinteract with their queen, performed in the Fall 2020 Dance Concert and her senior thesis “1692” based on the Salem Witch Trials and body control, performed in April 2022. During her senior year, she was selected as the student choreographer for the Theatre Department’s spring 2022 play “The Green Bird” and was the President/Head Choreographer of Manhattanville Dance Ensemble and Performance Team, the multi genre/no cut dance team on campus.

 

She began presenting her choreography around NYC and New Jersey at festivals such as KoDaFe in NYC  (Arachna, July 2022), Emerging Artists Theatre, New Works Series (1692, October 2022), Creative Performance’s 30-30-30 (Hecate, December 2023), Salvatore Larussa Dance Theatre's Queens Outdoor Festival (eidolon, October 2024), Emerging Artists Theatre, Spark Theatre Festival (eidolon, March 2025), and Extension Dance Project's, Isn't She Lovely (eidolon, May 2025). 

 

She graduated from Baruch College with her MA in Arts Administration in May 2024 where she conducted much research on funding for emerging artists and building arts and cultural centers outside of major cities such as NYC. She served as a budgeting/financial consultant for the small company Garet&Co, located in Northern CT,  where she was able to apply her extensive research, to build them a budgeting model that conforms to professional bookkeeping standards. For her research and work done with the organization she was nominated for the Marlow Prize for Arts Leadership from the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College.

 

She is a ballet, jazz, and contemporary teacher/competition choreographer Theatre NextDoor and Ady Arts Center. She coaches the Middle and High School Dance Teams and choreographs the Middle School Spring Musicals  at the West Essex Regional Schools in North Caldwell, NJ.

 

Professionally, she began dancing with Chutzpah Dance in January 2023 performing at numerous venues in NYC as well as in Philadelphia, PA and Rochester, NY. Additionally, since joining Chutzpah Dance, she has served as the company’s administrative assistant providing social media content, sending emails among other duties to keep the company organized working this position until January 2025. During the summer of 2023 she began exploring dance outside of NYC and attended summer programs with Stewart/Owen Dance in Asheville, NC (dir. Gavin Stewart & Vanessa Owen) and Vim Vigor Dance in Ann Arbor, MI (dir. Shannon Gillen). Currently, she is a freelance performer, participating in projects with organziations such as sarAika movement collective (September, 2024).