معرفی
Sara Pickett serves as Associate Professor (Lecturer) at the University of Utah School of Dance, where she has advanced from Adjunct Assistant Professor (2014-2017) to her current position since 2022. With over twenty years of teaching experience across universities, schools, and entertainment companies in Utah and Colorado, she brings extensive professional dance experience including performances with Rick Robinson's Total Control and Millennium, a theatrical hip hop company in Denver.
Dr. Pickett earned her MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah, where she received a University Teaching Award, and her BA in Dance from Weber State University as a recipient of the Lindquist Creative Arts Fellowship and numerous other awards. Her choreographic works have been presented at multiple universities and festivals including the American College Dance Festival.
Pickett's research centers on Hip Hop and American vernacular dance forms, with particular focus on their historical development and cultural significance. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes individual expression, group dynamics, musicality, polyrhythm, and poly-tension as foundations for movement exploration. She actively challenges Eurocentric dance education frameworks while honoring diverse movement traditions.
Her choreographic output shows consistent exploration of human relationships, physical boundaries, and musical interpretation, with works spanning from 2017-2023. These creations demonstrate her evolving artistic voice while maintaining connections to her core interests in social dance forms and embodied knowledge.
- University Teaching Award (during MFA studies)
- Lindquist Creative Arts Fellowship
- Multiple awards and scholarships at Weber State University
As an educator, Pickett teaches across the dance curriculum including modern, contemporary, jazz, hip hop techniques, dance history, choreography, improvisation, pedagogy, and history of hip hop. She has served as faculty advisor for student cultural exchange programs, including chaperoning dance students to Panama to teach youth and learn from local artists. Pickett co-created BRINE, a presenting organization for local Salt Lake City artists that ran for five seasons, and maintains active involvement with the American College Dance Association and National Water Dance.
