SARAH BARTLETT
Ballet

Sarah Bartlett started her dance career right in her hometown of Orono, Minnesota. At the tender age of five she took her first ballet and tap classes through Community Ed and knew from that point on she was in this for life. Growing up beside her dad who ran the Southern Theater in Minneapolis for almost 30 years, she has been surrounded and passionate about dance since even before she could walk. Sarah also follows in the footsteps of her Grandmother who attended Juilliard as a vocalist, and mother who is a classical concert flautist. They all proudly celebrate the arts as a family tradition.

Sarah went on to study at Ballet of the Dolls School & Minnetonka Dance Theater, performing in the Nutcracker and a large variety of performances. Most notably at MDT she performed in Loyce Houlton’s Nutcracker Fantasy, studio sketches, and was a member of MDT’s Repertoire Ensemble. She adhered to a strong practice regimine of 4-5 days a week from a plethora of instructors including some from Alvin Ailey. She even found herself once in class as a teenager with Mr. Baryshnikov himself, who applauded her technique! Her path led to ballet, pointe, jazz, Horton technique, improvisational dance, hip- hop, contemporary, tap, and even African dance. To this day she still works hard perfecting her ballet technique!

As a professional, Sarah went back to the Ballet of the Dolls and joined as an apprentice for a number of years, performing in many shows from Cabarets to Nutcrackers. Next she decided to spice up her passion for dance at Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater and School. There she took classes three to four times a week and was also was heavily involved in the company. Sarah went on to perform her first flamenco show back in February 2012, and is very proud to have added flamenco to her long list of training.

Sarah’s endeavors then lead her to perform a fiery Flamenco number Las Flamencas under the direction of Deborah Elias in 2013, and Sacred, a contemporary piece by Lisa Conlin in 2014. To finish off that round of performances, then came another wonderfully crafted ballet meets burlesque Nutcracker?! Not so Suite, by Myron Johnson. Since then, her focus has been on giving back! She has been teaching ballet to little ones and wants to get back to performing again very soon! In addition to Zenon, Sarah teaches at Dancercise Kids and facilitates a Yoga for children class at the YMCA. Sarah feels extremely honored to have been given this amazing opportunity to bring her passion, technique, and skills to Zenon!