Villa San Francisco’s First Artist in Residence of the Season Is… Sarah Crowell

This summer, Crowell played an integral role in the success of the unique and interactive artistic performance of Oakland residents during SPACES: Oakland, an immersive experience which merges contemporary performances and the ancient art of storytelling from local communities. Crowell was both a choreographer and dancer for this event.  

Sarah Crowell is Villa San Francisco’s first artist this season and is also Kaimera Productions’ associate artist where she works closely with other local dancers like Rose Huey, Macio Payomo, and Rashidi Omari, and will continue to do so in close collaboration for this winter’s residency. Crowell and her team will create artistic movements through dance and choreography to share the stories they collected from Oaklanders during SPACES: Oakland.   

Her profound experience in the arts is supported by the myriad of leadership roles she’s had at the Destiny Arts Center, which includes co-founding and co-directing the center. Crowell’s leadership goes beyond the realm of organizations. She is a teacher with a passion for sharing her art, knowledge, and experience with young people. As a teacher of both modern and hip-hop dance, her philosophy is that the arts are an essential component in the journey toward social justice. In her work with the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, she assists teens in co-creating original works of art like movement/theatre pieces. She encourages teens to take their inspiration from their personal experiences and embrace their own identity. In addition to teaching youth about the arts, she also shares her knowledge on violence prevention to youth and educators on both local and national levels.  

She has toured with various dance/theatre companies like the Impulse Jazz Dance Company and the Dance Brigade in Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, Crowell has received many grants, including nine California Arts Council Artist in Residency grants and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. The latter has gone toward the creation of her curriculum written for artist/educators working with teens known as “Youth on the Move: A teacher’s guidebook to co-creating original movement/theatre performances with teens”.  

Sarah Crowell’s impressive and profound influence on the local community was greatly recognized when in 2016 she was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame, and was added to an annually assembled list of visionaries by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts knowns as the YBCA 100. She has also been a finalist for four Tony Awards for Excellence in Theatre Education.