Imagine a little girl, the oldest of three who is super shy and would not leave her mom's side even though her mom was taking care of an infant. That was me when I was just about three years old. My mom signed me up for ballet classes at a local studio located in the small-town Roseland, New Jersey. It is told that with that first ballet class, I walked straight into the studio and did not say goodbye to my mom which was strange for me. I believe that was the moment I knew that I was born to dance.

​

Hello! I am Sarah Blake, a 23 year old graduate student at Baruch College in New York City. My life has always been devoted to dance. When I was five my mom signed me up for cheerleading but I quit after a week because I just wanted to be in a studio dancing. My mom always asked me if I wanted to do any other sports growing up and I always declined, asking if I could add another dance class to my week. By the age of six, I was taking ballet, tap, and jazz as well as becoming a member of the Roseland Performing Arts Company. That involved me performing in my first ballet in December of 2006 which was The Nutcracker. By my third year of performing the ballet, I had my first solo in the production, Solider Doll in the Party Scene. That same year I participated in my first musical production Annie, being casted as Katie (an orphan), a servant and a New Yorker. 

​

In May 2011, I was invited to join the senior company of the Roseland Performing Arts Company, to attend the Regional Dance America Festival that was held in Pittsburgh, PA that year. I took two ballet classes a day with the third being either modern or jazz over a three day time spanned. It was the most rewarding trip of my life. Flashforward a year later, and I was performing in the company's production of Snow White, where I was casted as a Deer and Dopey Double (performing in the Wedding Scene and Finale). In the summer of 2012, I attended my first summer intensive at New Jersey School of Ballet in which I enrolled in for Fall 2012 studying in their pre-professional, year-round intensive training program where I got to perform children's roles in their professional ballets. I also was a member of my school's dance team, dancing basically any moment I got. I continued choreographing and dancing on the West Essex Dance Team until 2018 when I graduated high school, with being captain of the Varsity Team my senior year. 

​

In 2015, I auditioned for New Jersey Ballet's Junior Company, in which I got to take partnering classes with the professional males in the New Jersey Ballet Company as well as participate in more roles and more ballets with the company. I had the honor of dancing in The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, and La Esmerelda while being a member of Junior Company. 

​

During my senior year of high school I landed a job working at Carousel of Progress Academy, which is a special needs dance and theatre school. I work there as an Instructor/Aid to help the children with the steps or monologues that are being taught. I additionally started teaching as a Guest/Substitute at Theater Next Door, dance school; where I have taught  ballet, contemporary and jazz. 

​

Outside of dance I was devoted to serving my community. I was President of West Essex Community Acting Responsibly and Environmentally (WE CARE) during my senior year of high school, a member of the Key Club where I attended the annual Intergenerational Prom every year, a member of the National Honor Society and an active member of the Saint Peter's Youth Group (SPY).  With being a member of the National Honor Society, I was one of twelve students that traveled to Kissimmee, FL to volunteer at the Give Kids the World Village. As a volunteer I had the opportunity to dress up as characters participating in a Winter Wonderland parade, serve food to families and operating the carousel. The most rewarding part was that I was making a terminally ill child's day no matter the activity I was participating in. As a member of Youth Group, I volunteered as a Sunday School Teacher, the dance/music instructor during Vacation Bible School and participating in the annual Mission Trip. One year we went to Altoona, PA for Mission Trip and helped a family with a severely autistic son who could not walk. We were able to build a deck and wheelchair ramp in FOUR DAYS! The week of Mission Trip was always my favorite during the summer. 

 

In May 2022, I finished my undergraduate degree double majoring in Dance and Psychology with a minor in Business Management at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. I graduated magna cum laude with honors for both of my majors. I continued to serve my community with being a Clark Scholar where I participated in weekly community service events with a local shelter. I was a member of the Manhattanville Dance Ensemble and Performance Team serving as Treasurer my junior year and President/Choreographer for the team my senior year, as well as being the Publicity Chair for the Manhattanville Chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success  (junior and senior year) and Vice President of PSI CHI Psychology Honor Society (senior year). I was a Peer Tutor for Intro to Global Studies, World History and Math for Liberal Arts for three years. I was also given numerous opportunities to support the Dance and Theatre Department, assisting with auditions for the incoming classes and choreographing for the spring theatre production, The Green Bird in March 2022. In my sophomore year, I was awarded the Michael Posnick Award for Academic Excellence in Dance and my as a senior I received the prestigious Greta Levart Award for Continued Artistic Excellence (Dance) that one only senior dancer receives. During my summers I served as a lifeguard/swim instructor at Jeff Lake Camp continuing my passion of working with children. 

 

Although I focused solely on ballet training growing up, I am more interested in dancing professionally in the modern/contemporary world.

Through college I have also been able to gain an interest in choreographing contemporary works and creating dance films as well. After graduating from Manhattanville College, my piece Arachna was performed at the KoDaFe in NYC Festival at Peridance Theater in July 2022 and my piece 1692 was performed at the Emerging Artist Theater's "New Works Series" at the TADA Theater in New York City in October 2022. In December 2023, I presented an extended solo Hecate at Creative Performances' 30-30-30 at Dixon Place in New York City. I acquired jobs at two dance studios Theatre NextDoor and Ady Art Center both located in Livingston, NJ as a ballet instructor as well a choreographing contemporary, jazz, ballet large group, small groups and solos for dance competitions. I edited all the music as well as operating the sound board at Theatre NextDoor's June 2024 recital. In addition to all this work after the recital, I edited the recital footage into a cohesive video showcase the titles of each dance along with who is dancing and who choreographed the work.  As of October 2023, I am one of the coaches of the West Essex Regional School District's Dance Teams (Middle and High School teams). As coach, I choreograph football, kick line, precision jazz, and contemporary team dances as well as organizing the dance team showcase held in February each year. As coach I perform other administrative tasks such as taking inventory, obtaining quotes from costume sites, sending emails, editing music and creating the programs. 

 

In May 2024, I completed my Master of Arts in Arts Administration at Baruch College located in New York City. As a part of fulfillment of my degree, I was a budgeting/financial consultant for the small, emerging dance company, Garet&Co located in Northwestern Connecticut. While consulting for this organization, I organized their FY23 and FY24 data into a programmatic budgeting model, so all admin and potential funders can clearly seeing apples to apples comparisons among programming as well as if the programs are increasing creating a surplus or deficit for the organization. Along with this information I then created an FY25 budget based on previous financial information along with extensive research conducted on dance outside of major cities. While completing my degree I was also a dancer with Chutzpah Dance from January 2023 to June 2024. As a dancer I had the opportunity to perform solo and group works at various venues in New York City, South Jersey, Philadelphia, PA and Rochester,NY.  Along to dancing with the company, I am the administrative assistant to the company continuing administrative work despite no longer dance with the organization. I post on social media creating intriguing visuals along with videos showcasing upcoming works and descriptive captions.  Additionally, I create email blasts to send out, tracking payments for our curated programs as well as tracking how much we pay venues for our self produced evening length shows. I also rehearse the company when the Artistic Director is out of town,  aiding in cleaning pieces. During the summer of 2023,  I traveled to Asheville, NC to dance with Stewart/Owen in their DELVE intensive and to Ann Arbor, Michigan to study with VIM VIGOR. Looking forward to hearing and working with you.