SIDRA BELL

Sidra was commissioned as the first black female choreographer to make works for New York City Ballet (NYCB) in the fall of 2020 (Fall Digital Season) and 2021 (Fall Fashion Gala/Innovators & Icons Program). Recent features of her historical work at NYCB include Essence Magazine, NY1 and Amsterdam News. She was the choreographer of ARENA in collaboration with acclaimed visual artist Derek Fordjour for his feature solo show at Petzel Gallery in Fall 2023 (New York Times Critic Pick).

 

Her career has spanned over 20 years and her choreography has been seen throughout the United States and in Denmark, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, China, Canada, Aruba, Korea, Brazil, and Greece. Bell has created over 100 works notably for BODYTRAFFIC, Ailey II, The Juilliard School, Whim W'Him, Boston Conservatory at Berklee College, River North Dance Chicago, Big Muddy Dance Company, Ohio State University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Sacramento Ballet, Boulder Ballet, New Dance Partners Kansas City, Ballet Austin, Springboard Danse Montréal, and Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Schools, University of Texas at Austin among many others. 

 

Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY, Inc.) her nonprofit dance troupe celebrated its 20th anniversary in December 2021. The company tours internationally collaborating with cutting edge institutions in dance, theater, and design. Its body of work has been presented in venues across the globe including the critically acclaimed evening length works ReVUE, STELLA and MÖNSTER OUTSIDE. The company received a 2023 Creative Capital Award in collaboration with composer Immanuel Wilkiins (New York Time Best Jazz Albums 2020).

 

Bell has been a cultural ambassador for contemporary dance in Bulgaria (America for Bulgaria) and Turkey (the U.S Embassy). She is currently a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and a recent artist-in-residence at Harvard University. She has also held Adjunct Professor positions at Ball State University in Indiana, Georgian Court University in New Jersey, Marymount Manhattan College, LINES B.F.A. Program at Dominican University and Barnard College. She has a B.A. in History from Yale University (named a Yale Scholar) and an MFA in Choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. She was a University of Minnesota Theater Arts & Dance Cowles Visiting Artist and an artist in residence at Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle). Her body of work was featured in the Harvard University Theater, Dance & Media course Contemporary Repertory: Dance Authorship in the 21st Century University of Oklahoma named her the Brackett Distinguished Visiting Artist Chair in 2021 and she was the 2019 Honoree at CPR-Center Performance Research’s Gala in New York City.

 

She has won several awards, notably a 1st Prize for Choreography at the Solo-Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany in 2011 for Grief Point and a 2015 National Dance Project Production Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. February 3 was named SIDRA BELL DAY by Mayor Thomas Roach in the City of White Plains, NY. In 2012, she was commissioned as the choreographer for the feature film TEST set in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1985. TEST was awarded two grand jury prizes from Outfest. She has been a pedagogue at many prestigious programs for dance and theater including University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Movement Invention Project, SpringboardX, University of Wisconson-Madison, and Vancouver’s Arts Umbrella among many others . She was the inaugural teaching artist at University of the Arts Sophomore Performance & Coaching Project where she has led a teaching team under her pedagogical methods since 2012. Bell is the founder and creative director of the award winning MODULE Laboratory™, a New York City based immersive platform centered in improvisation for intergenerational movement and theater artists.