Sarah Butler

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, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Bad Lemons / Jasmine Ellis Projects, Tanzfabrik Berlin, K3 Hamburg, Freiburg Profitraining, 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 as a part of her Flowerhead series, both on commission & for her own performance-based productions. She has shown film work with 0→1 gallery (NL, 2024) and won first place in the Franconia Sculpture Park Short Film Festival in 2021 & Alder SIFF in 2022. Sarah’s 35mm 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. She has two albums available on Bandcamp.

In 2024 Sarah was commissioned by Wormfarm Institute & the Farm/Art DTour to create The Hayrake Ballet, a site specific performance working with local farmers, community members, and large-scale farm machinery in rural Wisconsin. The work was featured in New York Times, Hyperallergic Magazine, & more. Sarah’s first evening length solo performance work EILEEN, 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.

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