Thrive Dance

Category: Artist

Thrive experiments with the boundaries of how audiences experience dance and movement; making work that encourages the audience to have an active role that impacts the journey of the performance and their experience within it. They strive to create work that allows the audience to have a more tactile and personal interaction with the work. They do this by experimenting with unconventional structures and a creation process that is deeply influenced by the input of both the dancers and participants from beginning to end. They seek to find a balance that allows the performers to take ownership of the space while also giving the audience room and impetus to play within it.

Thrive Dance was founded by Sarah Poekert, a contemporary dance artist originally from America but based in London. After completing a BA (Hons) in Dance and Psychology at Roger Williams University, Poekert moved to London and gained an MA in Creative Practise from Trinity Laban. Subsequently, she has had work selected for venues and festivals across the UK (The Place, Ugly Duck, RichMix, Close to Home Festival, MingBeasts Solo Exhibition, Trinity Laban, Dance Shots at The Point Eastleigh, The Shunt Lounge, The Brick Box and Trispace Gallery).

Sarah is the Artistic Director Thrive Dance and Thrive Youth Dance Company. For Thrive, she choreographs, creates performance work and produces the Thrive Youth Dance Festival, which has received funding from the Arts Council England. Additionally, Sarah teaches dance and creative movement for Siobhan Davies Dance, Middlesex University, Roger Williams University and the Royal Academy of Dance.

Sarah has worked internationally in Norway with dance artist Lisa Colette Bysheim to develop duet ‘oh, and one more thing’, which was shown as part of Resolutions 2016 at The Place. She continually collaborates with Angie Moon Dance Theatre of New York City; most notably, their film ‘Places Between’ which was an official selection at Movies by Movers and Art of Brooklyn film festivals. She was also selected to take part in the Barbican Theatre’s Open Lab in 2015 and a 10-week Residency at Space Clarence Mews in 2016.

Currently, Sarah is collaborating with Sebastian Lobbers, who is developing a visual system that cues the composition of live music for his PhD Research at Queen Mary University. She is also making new work as a Residency Artist at Space Clarence Mews from Jan 2018 – January 2020.

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