Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance with James Sewell. Season 3, Episode 44

A Minneapolis native, James moved to New York and studied at the School of American Ballet with David Howard, and began performing with ABT II. He was a lead dancer with Feld Ballets/NY for six years and has performed as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet, Zvi Gottheiner and Dancers, and Denishawn. He, along with co-founder Sally Rousse, started James Sewell Dance in NYC in 1990, and then moved the company to Minnesota in 1993.Ballet is the central technique of the company, but the goal has always been to expand the boundaries of the art form. James has choreographed more than 100 ballets for companies in the United States and around the world. He is recognized nationally by numerous fellowships and commissions over the course of three decades making work, and regularly develops pieces along with live musicians and artists of other idioms. His work Titicut Follies, in collaboration with famed documentarian Frederick Wiseman and SNL band-leader Lenny Pickett, made its European premier at the Cannes Festival de Danse in France in December 2019. Moving is moving, in every sense of the word, and his work as both choreographer and educator continually seeks to expand that notion and its reach.