Review: Sara Mearns Performs at New York City Center

Last night, Sara Mearns debuted her Artist at the Center program, a three-day show from April 3-5 at New York City Center, presenting two brand new, larger-scale works to the audience. 

The American ballet dancer and principal dancer at New York City Ballet captivated the crowd with a wide range of dance styles from contemporary to classical, but also showed her comedic side while giving us all a deeper look into the real-life struggles of a dancer. 

In the first work, Don’t Go Home with Guillaume Côté and Jonathon Young, we see Mearns portray a dancer struggling to convey a particular character she needs to play for an upcoming show. She is seen and heard (with actual words) struggling with self-doubt throughout her dance as she tries to challenge this portrayal, all the while trying to make her own comeback to the stage after the pandemic, injuries, and depression. The way she effortlessly changes dance movements from Claire to Sara in a roughly thirty-minute segment is incredible and proves to us just how versatile a dancer she really is. 

In an interview with Alastair Macaulay, Mearns explains, “Basically, I’m playing a character named Sara who’s auditioning for a role named Claire. Claire is a character in a dance movie that is based around my [Sara’s] personal story. It’s partly creepy, and partly you have to go in and out of the story. Sometimes you get confused—I’m playing both Claire and the role in the movie she’s auditioning for. For Claire in the movie, everything in her personal life has imploded. It’s affecting her at work. She gets to the point where she is so depressed and so burnt-out that she cannot get to the theater.”

The second work, Dance Is A Mother, was choreographed by the legendary Jamar Roberts, former Resident Choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who also starred in the performance alongside Mearns. The 26-minute piece showcases Mearns' highs and lows during depression and stage burnout with a contrast of fluid, gentle movements paired with fast, jabs of intensity, presenting a gorgeous and moody piece on self-reflection and self-acceptance.

New York City Center Presents Sara Mearns Artists At The Center is running now until April 5. For more information and tickets, please visit https://www.nycitycenter.org/. 

(Photos courtesy of New York City Center)