Sarah Frangenberg

Sarah Frangenberg strives to share dance, poetry, and performance art with a wide variety of audiences, demonstrating creativity and vulnerability with her work. After growing up in Wichita, studying at Kansas Dance Academy and various summer ballet programs, she left home to study dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. While in school, she danced in several Kansas City based professional dance companies, and had opportunities to study, perform, present her own choreography, teach, and perform professionally. After receiving her BFA, she continued to dance with one of the KC companies, Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and then moved to New York City to further her dance career. After living in New York for a little over a year, she decided to move back to Wichita and continued pursuing her career as a freelance artist. During her time away, she realized how much she valued her Kansas community, and how much more she wanted to be invested in it, not only as a social human being, but as an artist. She desired to embrace her Kansas roots and give back to this arts community that raised her. Upon returning home, she began striving to produce quality dance work and invite others along for the journey. She began choreographing and presenting her work, and touring to Kansas City. Soon after returning home, she was contracted to perform with a local dance company, Regina Klenjoski Dance Company. She is currently contracted for the 2019-2020 season, along with choreographing and producing her own free-lance work, and teaching the students of Kansas Dance Academy. She dreams of producing more of her own work, involving others, providing art that reaches out to the community, and sharing pure light.

The public performance is an evening-length solo dance work titled “Expectation.” Sarah spent two months this past summer in creative process and premiered this work in Kansas City’s Fringe Festival this past July. “Expectation” is a personal narrative of her experiences with the expectations she placed on herself and felt from others, both met and failed, and her research on others’ perspectives and experiences with ‘expectations.’ Through movement, she explores and demonstrates the highs and lows of her journey and learning process, showing both joy and comedy, and great depth of emotion and despair. It incorporates her own poetry, interviews from peers, and beautiful music by various composers. This was the first full evening length work she has choreographed, and she wants to continue to share it, because of the humanity and relatability of it, and the desire to experience it with others. It is fit for both dance performance spaces (theaters) and unconventional spaces, such as museums, galleries, etc.

• Public Program Fee: $180. includes 1 hour warm-up, 1 hour performance, 1 hour post-performance wrap-up, Q&A, meet and greet and any other factors post show that may occur. $60/hr of travel + gas and hotel if applicable.
• Additional activities: $60/hour
• Rates can be negotiable on a case by case basis.

In addition to the educational activity, Sarah is thrilled to offer community activities/workshops to go along with her performances. She is passionate about involving people of all ages and she would offer workshops geared toward young children, students, adults, and elderly, people with no dance experience, or people with great dance, art, and poetry knowledge. These classes would have material for all. One option for a community activity workshop would be a movement class: no dance experience required. Participants would move from their humanity, using meditation, improvisation, contact, and creative expression. It would be fun and exploratory. The class would be able to follow along easily, listening to the prompts and guidance she gives. Another workshop Sarah could provide would be on poetry. Participants would use prompts to generate original creative writing material, and would use their own words to inspire movement. Finally, there would be time in the workshop for questions and conversation about the creative process.

For a masterclass geared toward dancers, Sarah offers a variety of classes.

• If hosts were wanting something more classical/technical, she could offer a ballet or modern masterclass. This would relate to her performance because she uses ballet and modern as the foundation for her choreography. Though she may incorporate other forms of contemporary movement, it is always extremely important to have a strong technical foundation. Sarah also offers a movement class using improvisational tools, based in our most raw movement, rather than only technique. She guides participants through a movement meditation, tapping into new ways of moving their bodies. She would then teach a phrase of choreographed movement, perhaps from her work, or generate new movement, to give them a taste of her choreographic process. To help them better understand and grasp the ideas and concepts, She would leave time for questions.
• An additional workshop would center on poetry, in which Sarah would guide participants through writing prompts to develop their own poetry and creative writing, and turn their words into movement. This could be done in addition to a dance masterclass, or as its own masterclass. Workshops can range from 1.5-3 hours in length, depending on the group’s desires and demands.

Depending on available time, workshops could be combined or done separately.