Sarah J. Ewing is an Australian-born, US-based choreographer who pursues her creative work through multiple avenues: as the Director of S. J. Ewing & Dancers and Dancing in Pixels, through which she builds projects that aim to leverage technology's power to augment, amplify, and deliver contemporary dance experiences, and as an independent choreographer with a keen interest in both cross-medium collaborative performance projects and the creation of main-stage contemporary concert dance. She has developed and directed projects including theatrical and site-specific performances, media installations, virtual-reality dance films, dance-themed computer games, and motion-tracking interactive projections.
Ewing has received extensive support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, CityDance, Dance Place, Dance Metro DC, and CulturalDC to create and present new works throughout the District, including at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as both an awardee of their Local Dance Commissioning Project and as one of the first artists commissioned for their recently opened REACH campus. In 2020, she made her choreographic debut for a main-stage opera for Maryland Lyric Opera’s “Thais,” and in 2021 was the first artist to create and present at Dance Place, DC’s leading contemporary dance theater, following COVID lockdowns with her Carla Award-winning VR film, “TECHNE.” In 2024, she will create, “EXPOSURE”, a project that melds dance, photography and projection, on her company for their home season.
Across 2024-25, she will create and direct her largest project, “Dancing in Pixels”, a 100-day interactive gallery installation that will immerse participants in the magic of dance and creativity through Virtual Reality dance films and interactive, motion-activated projection installations. The project is specifically designed to introduce dance to young children, with family-friendly workshops and programming, as well as free public elementary school field trips and workshops. Dancing in Pixels is a project of CityDance, where Ewing is a Resident Artist, and is funded by Washington DC’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
In DC, S. J. Ewing & Dancers have presented at the Kennedy Center, Dance Place, Source Theatre, Dupont Underground, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Bread for the City, 2M, Flash Nightclub, and The Warehouse. They have also completed residencies at George Washington University (DC), Cranbrook School (MI), and Lightbox (MI). National touring engagements include Green Space (NYC), Boston Contemporary Dance Festival (MA), White Wave Dance Festival (NYC), Ailey Citigroup Theater (NYC), Your Move JC (NJ), Dance Gallery Festival (TX), CityDance Studio Theater at Strathmore (MD), and Detroit City Dance Festival (MI).
Internationally, Ewing has presented in Paris, France, at the Mona Bismarck American Center for Art & Culture (2012), Theatre Douze (2022), and the Maison des Arts de Créteil (2023), and with the support of a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International grant, in Wellington,
New Zealand, for The Performance Arcade (2023), New Zealand’s premier alternative arts festival. Her Virtual Reality films have been screened in Washington DC, Miami, Berlin, and Istanbul.
Ms. Ewing is on faculty at CityDance Conservatory, a leading pre-/professional training program in the National Capital Region and is represented by KMPArtists.