Sara Shelton Mann has been a choreographer, performer, teacher since 1967. She was a protégé of Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis in N.Y.C. before moving to Canada where fell in love with contact improvisation. In 1979 she moved to San Francisco, CA and started the performance group, Contraband, combining the principles of contact, systems of the body, and spiritual practice into a unified system of research. Among her awards are a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 6 Isadora Duncan Awards, Djerassi Artist in Residence Awards, Headlands Center for the Arts Residency 2016, Lifetime Achievement Bay Guardian Award, 10 Women who made a Difference, Bay Guardian Award, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award (2016). Sara has practiced dowsing as a healing modality since 2010, is a Master Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner, and has a Master Certification in Intuition Medicine©. Her Moving Alchemy training is an ongoing teaching project and is influenced by certifications and studies in the metaphysical and healing traditions over many years. Sara’s performance work is a platform for collaboration and research in consciousness.
