Sarah Swenson in Stabat Mater, Mvt. III. Photo by Carmen Garcia.
MEDIA
At Work With The Dance Constructions
by Sarah Swenson
Perspectives Magazine, National Gallery Singapore, July 2, 2021
Viola Farber, Black Lives Matter, and the 21st Century: a covid diary
by Sarah Swenson
Los Angeles Dance Chronicle, January 7, 2021
Performance Assembles Publics: Contact Improvisation as Landmark
By Jeremiah Day
artandeducation.net, April 25, 2019
Tracing Bloodlines
By Deborah Jowitt
ArtsJournal, April 9, 2019
Reviving Rudy Perez’s Dance Drama of an Everyman
By Siobhan Burke
New York Time, April 8, 2019
The Everyday Life of Simone Forti's Dance Constructions
MoMA Magazine, January 28, 2019
Dancing Wheels Brings Successful New York Program That Includes New David Dorfman Work Home to Cleveland
Arts Air, October 30, 2017
Fire Within and Vox Femina Choir Los Angeles, by Jeff Slayton. video clip
download pdf.
Vox Femina's Press Release Fire Within. download pdf
June 12, 2017
Dancing Wheels 35th Anniversary Legacy Concert review from Cleveland.com. October 12, 2015)
download pdf
Radio Interview with Mary Verdi-Fletcher on Dancing Wheels' Legacy Concert.
CNN video on Dancing Wheels, including interview with Dancing Wheels Artistic Director
Mary Verdi-Fletcher and dancer DeMarco Sleeper, with clips from choreography by Sarah Swenson, Catherine Meredith, Dianne McIntyre, and Mark Tomasic.
“Sarah Swenson…a passionate caring for humankind is her artistic motive force.” ~Simone Forti
"Vox explores important human struggles in their material…this beautiful disciplined movement, matched with rigorous thematic work, transcends gender and age. ~ Debbie Devine, Artistic Director, 24th Street Theatre, Los Angeles
“…wonderful rollicking, hunkering wildness…” ~ Jennifer Dunning, New York Times
"Sarah's managed to find some of my most obscure releases, and has given them new life with some wonderfully intelligent choreography." ~Carl Stone, Composer
"…intelligent and original...a stamp of penetrating emotion ." ~La Ventana, Ensenada, Mexico
Download pdf español. Download pdf English.
Audience Feedback, Baja, Mexico video October 2011
"… Swenson’s choreography was honest and clean, stripped of unnecessary encumbrances. Their performance was enthralling, infused with both tenderness and strength - the element of surprise invigorating… ” ~ David Waite
“Vox Dance Theatre performed at the Toronto International Dance Festival with great energy and focus. Performing on our outdoor stage in front of thousands of onlookers can be daunting at best but their work stilled the entire audience each time they performed. Some people even returned in the evening to see the work under lights. Vox Dance Theatre’s performance was deeply moving. They transformed the historic Distillery District with a magical work that has led to a return invitation for our main stage.”
~Michael Menegon, Artistic Director, Toronto International Dance Festival
“…Swenson has a good ear for music, and her three-movement "Fimmine" -- set to a Philip Glass score --is an emotionally effective take on wedding rituals: Swenson and another sextet, clad in an array of nuptial gowns, manipulated the dresses' trains, the swooshing sounds a boon before the skirts were doffed. Rife with metaphoric suggestions, the piece also featured the bridal brigade leaping, running and pairing off, their mouths sometimes open wide and their unison moves a counterpoint to Swenson's solo swirling.” ~ Los Angeles Times, Victoria Looseleaf
“Swenson’s signature piece "Fimmine," which explores the contentious ritual of marriage, was the pinnacle of Sunday's lineup at the Casa del Prado Theatre. Emotional, provocative, and professional, it was an outstanding outlier within a very diverse program. “
~San Diego Arts Online, Kim Eitland
“Also of note is Vox Dance Theatre…the all-female troupe, clad in bridal-wear, cavort barefoot together in a show of sisterhood. Like the alluring sylphs of the Romantic era, they demonstrate the playful yet headstrong nature of young women bound together by their situation and sex. It is a visual treat with beautifully crafted choreography by Sarah Swenson.” www.theskinny.co.uk, Laurin Campbell
“A series of balancing poses, quarter-turns, and leaps (think glorious gazelles) punctuated Swenson’s 2006 work, Cuatro. Rededicated to Perez for the occasion, this fierce segment featured Tamsin Carlson, Courtney Meadows, Katrina Obarski and Swenson as a kind of prelude to Perez’ 1964 classic Alligator Variations (originally the duet, Take Your Alligator with You). “ ~ Dance Magazine, Victoria Looseleaf
“…Swenson performed most of the sustained dancing in the piece, and also invoked a war mentality in her satiric speech about one of the least celebrated opportunities that feminist equality allows: "I can bayonet your head just like the boys. Isn't it great?" ~ Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"...Sarah Swenson…wedded her lyrical choreography, "Ancestors," an homage to modern dance pioneers, to the music of Philip Glass. Punctuated with fugues, Swenson and eight other women beckoned with lovely arms, collapsing into powerful lunges and weaving intricate line formations as the swirling-gowned damsels called to mind a garden of Greek statuary..." ~ Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
Surrender Dorothy at Highways Performance Space (Rudy Perez) L.A. Times Dec. 8, 2008 -Victoria Looseleaf
Histoire du Soldat. Backstage.com
by Sarah Swenson
Perspectives Magazine, National Gallery Singapore, July 2, 2021
Viola Farber, Black Lives Matter, and the 21st Century: a covid diary
by Sarah Swenson
Los Angeles Dance Chronicle, January 7, 2021
Performance Assembles Publics: Contact Improvisation as Landmark
By Jeremiah Day
artandeducation.net, April 25, 2019
Tracing Bloodlines
By Deborah Jowitt
ArtsJournal, April 9, 2019
Reviving Rudy Perez’s Dance Drama of an Everyman
By Siobhan Burke
New York Time, April 8, 2019
The Everyday Life of Simone Forti's Dance Constructions
MoMA Magazine, January 28, 2019
Dancing Wheels Brings Successful New York Program That Includes New David Dorfman Work Home to Cleveland
Arts Air, October 30, 2017
Fire Within and Vox Femina Choir Los Angeles, by Jeff Slayton. video clip
download pdf.
Vox Femina's Press Release Fire Within. download pdf
June 12, 2017
Dancing Wheels 35th Anniversary Legacy Concert review from Cleveland.com. October 12, 2015)
download pdf
Radio Interview with Mary Verdi-Fletcher on Dancing Wheels' Legacy Concert.
CNN video on Dancing Wheels, including interview with Dancing Wheels Artistic Director
Mary Verdi-Fletcher and dancer DeMarco Sleeper, with clips from choreography by Sarah Swenson, Catherine Meredith, Dianne McIntyre, and Mark Tomasic.
“Sarah Swenson…a passionate caring for humankind is her artistic motive force.” ~Simone Forti
"Vox explores important human struggles in their material…this beautiful disciplined movement, matched with rigorous thematic work, transcends gender and age. ~ Debbie Devine, Artistic Director, 24th Street Theatre, Los Angeles
“…wonderful rollicking, hunkering wildness…” ~ Jennifer Dunning, New York Times
"Sarah's managed to find some of my most obscure releases, and has given them new life with some wonderfully intelligent choreography." ~Carl Stone, Composer
"…intelligent and original...a stamp of penetrating emotion ." ~La Ventana, Ensenada, Mexico
Download pdf español. Download pdf English.
Audience Feedback, Baja, Mexico video October 2011
"… Swenson’s choreography was honest and clean, stripped of unnecessary encumbrances. Their performance was enthralling, infused with both tenderness and strength - the element of surprise invigorating… ” ~ David Waite
“Vox Dance Theatre performed at the Toronto International Dance Festival with great energy and focus. Performing on our outdoor stage in front of thousands of onlookers can be daunting at best but their work stilled the entire audience each time they performed. Some people even returned in the evening to see the work under lights. Vox Dance Theatre’s performance was deeply moving. They transformed the historic Distillery District with a magical work that has led to a return invitation for our main stage.”
~Michael Menegon, Artistic Director, Toronto International Dance Festival
“…Swenson has a good ear for music, and her three-movement "Fimmine" -- set to a Philip Glass score --is an emotionally effective take on wedding rituals: Swenson and another sextet, clad in an array of nuptial gowns, manipulated the dresses' trains, the swooshing sounds a boon before the skirts were doffed. Rife with metaphoric suggestions, the piece also featured the bridal brigade leaping, running and pairing off, their mouths sometimes open wide and their unison moves a counterpoint to Swenson's solo swirling.” ~ Los Angeles Times, Victoria Looseleaf
“Swenson’s signature piece "Fimmine," which explores the contentious ritual of marriage, was the pinnacle of Sunday's lineup at the Casa del Prado Theatre. Emotional, provocative, and professional, it was an outstanding outlier within a very diverse program. “
~San Diego Arts Online, Kim Eitland
“Also of note is Vox Dance Theatre…the all-female troupe, clad in bridal-wear, cavort barefoot together in a show of sisterhood. Like the alluring sylphs of the Romantic era, they demonstrate the playful yet headstrong nature of young women bound together by their situation and sex. It is a visual treat with beautifully crafted choreography by Sarah Swenson.” www.theskinny.co.uk, Laurin Campbell
“A series of balancing poses, quarter-turns, and leaps (think glorious gazelles) punctuated Swenson’s 2006 work, Cuatro. Rededicated to Perez for the occasion, this fierce segment featured Tamsin Carlson, Courtney Meadows, Katrina Obarski and Swenson as a kind of prelude to Perez’ 1964 classic Alligator Variations (originally the duet, Take Your Alligator with You). “ ~ Dance Magazine, Victoria Looseleaf
“…Swenson performed most of the sustained dancing in the piece, and also invoked a war mentality in her satiric speech about one of the least celebrated opportunities that feminist equality allows: "I can bayonet your head just like the boys. Isn't it great?" ~ Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"...Sarah Swenson…wedded her lyrical choreography, "Ancestors," an homage to modern dance pioneers, to the music of Philip Glass. Punctuated with fugues, Swenson and eight other women beckoned with lovely arms, collapsing into powerful lunges and weaving intricate line formations as the swirling-gowned damsels called to mind a garden of Greek statuary..." ~ Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
Surrender Dorothy at Highways Performance Space (Rudy Perez) L.A. Times Dec. 8, 2008 -Victoria Looseleaf
Histoire du Soldat. Backstage.com