Sara Zalek
Sara Zalek is a transdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator of Butoh related situations. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, poetic. They make performances combining sound, movement, image and voice, host movement workshops, and dream of large sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections.
Zalek performs very often in both live and online situations. They are a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist (2015), a 3Arts Make a Wave Awardee (2017), and Ragdale Foundation Fellow (2017). The City of Chicago named them an Esteemed Artist in 2022 for a Curatorial Grant Project with Elastic Arts Foundation for Hot Mess! virtual/irl hybrid performance events. They have performed and curated performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, High Concept Labs, Chicago Parks District, Elastic Arts, Ragdale Foundation, Experimental Sound Studio, Links Hall, Lumpen Radio, dfbrl8r, Headwaters Theater (PDX), Philosophical Research Society (LA), Urban Guild in Kyoto, Japan, and many more.
Through Butoh Curious Chi, Zalek regularly connects national and international teaching artists with Chicago art makers across genres in the independent and fringe arenas including dance, butoh, physical theater, experimental and improvisational music. Their teachers include many Butoh masters: Yoshito Ohno, Yumiko Yoshioka, Lori Ohtani, Tadashi Endo, Yuko Kaseki, Mari Osanai, Natsu Nakajima, Koichi & Hiroko Tamano, Yukio Waguri, Joan Laage, Ken Mai, Yumi Umiumare, Diego Piñón, Atsushi Takenouchi, Minako Seki, Ayako Kato. They create opportunities for positive communication and arts integration using workshops, performances, and conversations about personal and collective body.
www.saratonin.com
www.butohchicago.com
Sara Zalek performing at Freedom From and Freedom To
Ricardo Adame
Featured Artworks
In:Between Worlds
Sara Zalek accompanied by Johanna Wiesbrock on viola for In:Between Worlds
Ji Yang
for Out of Site, Chicago, 2015. https://youtu.be/N5Yi7N9G22c?feature=shared
In:Between Worlds
for Sara Zalek, In:Between Worlds, Out of Site, Chicago, 2015.
Ji Yang
In: Between Worlds was performed for Out of Site, Chicago, 2015 and featured live improvisation on viola with Johanna Wiesbrock
If Not Now, When? Chicago Cultural Center, 2016
Sara Zalek, Chicago Cultural Center, 2016.
Rebecca Ciprus
If Not Now, When? Was a collaborative live film shoot, where over the course of 5 hours, Sara Zalek and her collaborators descend the staircase in the Chicago Cultural Center https://vimeo.com/294868707/40c794628b
Formidable Dreams: Expanded Cinema
Sara Zalek, Formidable Dreams
Ji Yang
Formidable Dreams, created and produced by Sara Zalek and Eugene Sun Park https://vimeo.com/193829019
Formidable Dreams
Sara Zalek dancing inside Silent Funny, where parts of Formidable Dreams was shot and Expanded Cinema created another world for the audience, included installations and projections and live sound by a host of artists.
Eugene Sun Park
Formidable Dreams, created and produced by Sara Zalek and Eugene Sun Park. https://vimeo.com/193829019
Sara Zalek has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $5,140 raised of $5,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
This June, I am organizing a week–long visit in Chicago by one of the world’s great Butoh masters, Tadashi Endo. Performing for the first time in the U.S., Tadashi Endo will present IKIRU-Réquiem para Pina Bausch at the Old Town …
Read more about Butoh Chicago: Tadashi Endo -
- $940 raised of $6,000 goal
- 27 Days 07:19:34 LEFT
Featuring artists from North and South America, NexGen Butoh Lovers Showcase (April 9-13) will feature opportunities to learn from Butoh artists at workshops, community discussions, and two stacked nights of performances by featured artists that carry Butoh into the present …
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