Photo by Skyler Greene
Sarah Butler likes making things.
Working with movement, embroidery, poetry, film, wearable structure, and vocal harmonies, she is interested in exploring how the weaving of seemingly separate mediums can result in something surprising and honest.
Sarah graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA with a BFA in Dance. She was a founding member of Ate9 Dance Company from 2012 - 2020. Since 2021 Sarah has worked closely with Tom Weinberger, assisting on the creation of dance-theatre works in and around Europe. She has guest taught, staged work, or assisted on creations with GöteborgsOperans DansKompani, Iceland Dance Company, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Dock11, Nagelhus Schia Productions, Cornish College of the Arts, CalArts, John Hopkins University, and Ryan Heffington’s The Sweat Spot.
Sarah designs and builds large-scale, wearable pieces on commission & for her own performance-based productions. Her flowerhead wearable sculptures have been featured in both film & live performances, including short films Year 31 (2023) by MUDA & BLACK.ECO (2021) by Shauna Davis , as well as at Navel LA (2019), and the DTLA Art Walk (2017). Sarah’s short film To the Bones of this Home won first place in the Franconia Sculpture Park Short Film Festival in 2021 & Alder SIFF in 2022, and can be seen on Dance Filmmaking. Her photography-embroidery work has been shown as a part of IGNITE LA, MdW Fair, Good Hands, and Seattle’s Capitol Hill Art Walk. Her chalk art, pen drawings, and menu design work have been featured in LA establishments including Pantry LA, Petty Cash Taqueria, Gold Line, and Sari Sari Store.
Along with her visual work, Sarah builds multilayered vocal harmonies and lyrics for her own acapella compositions, often working in tunnels, stairwells, and other unusual resonant spaces. Her EP Grainary Songs in available for purchase on Bandcamp. She has performed backup vocals with singer-songwriter Russian Red at Jardin Botanico Alfonso XIII in Madrid, Spain as well as with singer-songwriters O’Greta, Thom Sawyr, & Natasha Pasternak.
Sarah’s first evening length solo performance work EILEEN (FKA “Horses”), weaving together her movement, vocal, and wearable sculpture work, premiered in May 2024 at Jergon Gallery to two sold out shows. She is based in Berlin, Germany.
