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Australian Dancer and Choreographer Sarah J.

Ewing Calls the Hill Home
Mon, 11/03/2014 - 8:42am

The CityDance Ignite Artist presents pieces throughout the neighborhood while giving back
BY MEGHAN MARKEY

A young Australian woman in the Big Apple on vacation takes a leap of faith, and on a whim goes on a single dance audition
during her week-long stay. Days later and half a world away she gets an email that will change her life and launch her
promising dance and choreography career.
Sounds like something straight out of a movie, doesnt it? For Hill resident and CityDance Ignite Artist Sarah Ewing its just a
part of how she came to settle in Washington, DC, all the way from Melbourne, Australia, and came to call the Hill
community home for the better part of the past decade.
A Dancers Journey
Ewings introduction to dance began at just five years old, when she took classes at a ballet school held in the local church
hall. She continued ballet throughout her adolescence, but it was not until she was 15 that she discovered her real passion
strayed from traditional dance disciplines it was modern dance and choreography that felt like home to her. The theme of
home would later become an important theme in one of her pieces.
She continued to study modern dance, and during her second year of college she was accepted into a month-long summer
dance program in Montreal followed by a six-month exchange program in Cologne, Germany. After her stay in Canada she
decided to fly to Germany via New York City and spend a week in the infamous city that never sleeps. I wanted to see
where Sex and the City was filmed, it was very silly a vacation. I was talking to a salesperson in one of those large
department stores, and she said, You should go on an audition while you are in New York! Its the quintessential thing to
do. So I went, and I got the job, and three months later I moved to Washington, DC. Her degree on hold, she continued to
extend her short-term visa. It eventually became clear she had found a good fit, and a good place to call home Capitol Hill.
She has been here eight and a half years and, while bouncing around different apartments, shes never left the
neighborhood.
Ewing is now with CityDance as one of four OnStage Ignite Artists, in addition to heading her own professional troupe, S.J.
Ewing & Dancers. OnStage Ignite is a program that supports talented dancers from all over the world by providing rehearsal
space at Strathmore in Maryland and assisting with the nuts-and-bolts administrative side of being an artist, everything from
assistance editing grant applications or helping with marketing, to sourcing performance venues.
Australian Homeland
Earlier in the year Ewing received a grant from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation (CHCF). She knew about the Hill

COMMENTARY

Center through a friend, who suggested she contact them as a potential venue to perform her piece Australian Homeland.
The piece was originally commissioned by the Kennedy Center and performed at the Millennium Stage last year. Ewing is
interested in the concept of home and uses her native Australia as a backdrop to explore how diverse populations call the
same place home, and the struggle that often occurs between cultures.
Its about Australia, and like a lot of countries, it has an enormous history. We had waves of Europeans arrive even though
there was a large indigenous population already residing there with its own rich history. Theres a large Greek population in
northern Australia, a huge population of Vietnamese people. Its this big melting pot, very similar to America. I was interested
in exploring how all these different people and cultures call Australia home and how they coexist. Ewing further stresses
that although the piece uses Australia, the theme is a universal one Why do we call home home? Sometimes its through
someone we meet and want to stay with, sometimes its through our jobs, and sometimes its through thousands of years of
bloodline; everyone has their own reasons for defining it, she explains.
Ewing was thrilled to receive a grant from CHCF, especially since it comes from her own backyard. It was really exciting to
find out about the grant, and to come from a funding body that really is the community. To be supported to do my own work
in what is now my home was really cool, she says. This past September, Ewing and her dance company performed the
piece outside at the Hill Center. Participants in CityDances DREAM program, their flagship community program, also
performed at the Hill Center along with Ewing.
Community Outreach
DREAM is a 32-week after-school program for elementary students in third through fifth grades, offered at schools across
the city. Participants receive two two-hour sessions of dance class a week. The programs goal is to use dance as a form of
youth development by teaching children to work collaboratively, build confidence, and instill a connection to their community
through performances and field trips.
Ewing recognizes that not all children will take naturally to dance, but the program strives to tease out a childs strengths and
nurture them in an effective way. Ewing recalls a particularly withdrawn student in one of her DREAM classes. Instead of
chastising the student, Ewing asked her to be her helper: setting up for class, organizing the music, moving tables and
chairs. It took maybe two days and her whole attitude changed from the child that had no interest, to being up in front at the
center saying, Cmon, Ms. Sarah is talking you, better listen to this! And then that translates back to her other academics as
well.
The program is so popular that in 2012 CityDance created a DREAM Alumni program. This allowed DREAM graduates to
continue their dance studies through middle and high school and also have an opportunity to mentor younger participants,
apply for summer internships with CityDance, and receive assistance on college applications. There are currently also three
students from this program who received scholarships to CityDances School & Conservatory.
Future Projects
On the heels of Australia Homeland Ewing is working on new projects and collaborating with two of her fellow Ignite Artists
for performances that will debut at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, slated for February 2015. Dubbed Intersections, Ewing
explains that they will explore how dance in their different cultures works together. Asanga Domask, a dancer and
choreographer from Sri Lanka, specializes in traditional Sri Lankan dance and has been lauded for her efforts as a cultural
ambassador of Sri Lanka. Robert Priore, from Buffalo, N.Y., is CityDances current choreographer-in-residence and is known
for his athletic style and commanding aesthetic. The whole point of having arts institutes like CityDance, notes Ewing, is to
share and learn with each other and have a constant dialogue.
Sounds like Sarah Ewing has found a home in Capitol Hill and the community is lucky to have such a talented and
dedicated dancer, choreographer, and teacher in our neighborhood.

TAGS: Publish & Archive Featured Arts & Entertainment The Hill Rag
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