Performance & Choreography
Framing everyday farming practices within a classical dance aesthetic, The Hayrake Ballet pays homage to the inherent beauty and craft of small-scale agricultural practices. Commissioned by Wormfarm Institute for the 2024 Farm/Art DTour, visiting choreographer Sarah Butler works with local farmers and community members to orchestrate a coordinated dance performance of farm machinery through the beautiful setting of rural Sauk County. The Hayrake Ballet invites participants and audiences to consider that stewarding this land is a choreographed effort among many, and that a web of nuanced, creative decisions made by many have shaped, and continue to shape, our agri/cultural landscapes. Starring Andy Enge, Darin Rosenbaum, and Brian Markley.
Read more in New York Times, Hyperallergic, WPR, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Photos by Alexander Arena
EILEEN
EILEEN is a solo performance exposing the honest process of navigating uncomfortable and self-made circumstances. Multi-media artist and performer Sarah Butler intricately weaves movement, live vocals, and wearable sculpture to undress themes of identity and transformation, highlighting the impossible situations we willingly create for ourselves. Straining both the body and voice in an attempt to access a raw, almost disturbing sense of vulnerability and beauty, the work features highly nuanced movement, dissonant harmonies, extreme physicality, an indoor forest, and the live layering of an original acapella sound score.
Premiered 17 May 2024 and Jergon Gallery, Berlin
Read the review by Apricot Productions
