Symara Sarai, a Portland, Oregon native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally with deep recognition. Named Dance Magazines’ 2025 “Top 25 to Watch,” a 2023 Bessie Winner for Breakout Choreographer, and a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago, she is known to be a courageously committed performer and maker.  Sarai is a 2019 graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance Program and a 2015 graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy.  They are currently a 24-26 Movement Research Artist in Residence and a 24-26 Abrons Arts Center Performance AIRspace Resident. They have presented work at New York Live Arts, The Clarice at UMD, The LGBT Center in NY, Judson Church, BAAD, Kestrels, and other venues throughout the United States, China, and Germany. She is currently an Urban Bush Women company member. She has also notably worked with Jasmine Hearn, Ogemdi Ude, Pioneers Go East Collective, Kevin Wynn, Joanna Kotze, Nattie Trogdon+Hollis Bartlett, and Slowdanger, among others.

Yvonne Meier, originally from Zurich, Switzerland, began choreographing and performing her work in 1980. She has since created countless solos, 14 large-scale evening length pieces as well as a deep investigation into the art of improvisation. 

She has been awarded a three year studies grant (1979), three Project Grant from the Swiss Foundation, Pro Helvetia (1986, 1993, 2004), three Choreography Fellowships from National Endowments for the Arts (1987, 1988, 19991), two NEA Inter-Arts Project Grants (1990, 1992), three New York Foundation for the Arts Choreography Fellowships (1988, 1994, 2006), a Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (1994), and has received choreography commissions from The New York State Council for the Arts, the American Master Grant from the NEA, and Lambent Foundation. In 1993, Yvonne Meier was awarded a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for her interactive dance/performance installation, “The Shining.” She received another Bessie Award for “Stolen” in 2010, a Guggenheim Fellowship (2016), Doro the Tanning award from FCA (200), a Creative Capital grant (2023), and a NYSCA grant (2025). 

In New York, Yvonne Meier’s work has been produced by Performance Space 122, The Dia Foundation, The Kitchen, The Dancspace Project, P.S.1, Franklin Furnace, Movement Research’s Judson Church, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Swiss Institute, and Creative Time. Her work was also produced by The Painted Bride (Philadelphia), Sushi (San Diego), Project Artaud (San Francisco), Wesleyan University, and Upper Catskill Council for the Arts. In Switzerland Ms. Meier has performed at Kunsthaus Zurich, Tanzhaus (Zurich), Seefeld Tanzprojekt (Zurich), Tanzwerkstatt (Zurich), Rote Fabrik (Zurich), Rote Fabrik (Zurich), Kunsthalle (Basel), Kunsthalle St. Gallen, Roxi (Basel), Belouard (Fribourg). She has toured extensively in France, Germany, England, and Holland. Over the past thirty years she has taught Releasing Technique, Authentic Movement, and “Scores” at Movement Research, ADF American Dance Festival, Hollins College, Tanzhaus Zurich, the Center for New Dance Development in Arnehem, Holland, Chisenhale, London, Parts and Rosas, Brussels, the Meg Stuart Company, Zurich, Switzerland, etc. 

Yvonne Meier has also developed improvisation early childhood technique. She taught those in NYC public schools and at “`Little Missionary” early childhood school. Her work has been published in the books: Caught in the Act by Dana McAdams, Footnotes by Elina Alexander, and The Danspace Project 25 Years. In the past few years Yvonne Meier has developed new solos for herself in shows at American Realness and “Invisible Dog.”

Over the years Ms. Meier has developed a high-risk movement vocabulary that takes the audience through transformation by exhaustion. Her evening length group pieces are wild, anarchic and provocative post-modern spectacles, featuring maze-like installations of hundreds of cardboard refrigerator boxes and collapsible shelves bearing thousands of china dinner plates. Her excessive use for oversized props creates an environment in which the dancers are exposed to high-speed, complex and eccentric movement scores-combining elements of dancer and total physical commitment. Yvonne Meier created 2 site specific short dance films named “Kokpito” and “Hidden” plus an animation film “Butter Babies.”