Sara Shelton Mann trained and performed in the companies of Alwin Nikolais and Murray. Louis from 1966‐1972. After working with the Halifax Dance Co‐Op in Nova Scotia from 1972‐1979, she settled in San Francisco. Mann created Contraband and established a complex interdisciplinary performance style and movement vocabulary that significantly influenced the evolution of contemporary Bay Area dance. Contraband toured through 1996. From 1996‐1999, Mann collaborated and toured internationally with Guillermo Gomez‐Pena. Mann’s more recent creations include: Zeropoint (2011), The Eye of Leo series (2012‐2016), and ECHO (2018) in collaboration with composer and sound artist Pamela Z. Her large‐scale retrospective, Erasing Time in collaboration with David Szlasa, premiered in December 2015 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Mann has received 6 Isadora Duncan ("Izzy") Awards, a 2000 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, and a 2016 artist award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
Photo: Robbie Sweeny