Sarah Foster-Sproull

Sarah Foster-Sproull is a Senior Lecturer in Dance Studies at the University of Auckland. She is the first female Choreographer in Residence at the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company, and the 2017-2019 Creative New Zealand Choreographic Fellow. Sarah is Artistic Director of Foster Group, a dance company based in Auckland, was the Director of Choreography for WoW (2019), and is a Distinguished Graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance.

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#TFA I am thankful for art because it connects me to the global, local, domestic, intimate, critical, and political.   

Editing: Sarah Foster-Sproull 
Music: Andrew Foster 
Performers: Ivy Foster, Roman Foster, Casper the Cat, Sarah Foster-Sproull

Collaboration  

My dance work is always made in collaboration with other people. Under usual circumstances, I would work in a dance studio with a team of performers to craft material, test out ideas and rehearse content. Now that I am working from home, I am looking to the people closest to me for inspiration and collaboration.   

New skills 

To make this short film my husband, theatre-maker Andrew Foster, taught me to use Final Cut Pro, and my children Ivy (10) and Roman (3) played alongside me as collaborator-dancers. Even our cat Casper was involved. Learning how to use Final Cut Pro has been cool, I am moved by the capacity of the editing process to impact the tone of the work, and sculpt the viewer’s pathway choreographically. It occurs to me that I can apply the editorial refinement from my studio practice to this new context of structuring and editing a dance film.  

Isolation tasks 

I filmed in my bedroom in Point Chevalier, on two iPhones of varying quality. I work from this bedroom daily making dances and teaching contemporary dance technique and postgraduate choreography to Dance Studies students at the University of Auckland over Zoom. My new life. Every morning Andrew and I slide our mattress out and prop it up on its side in the tiny spare room. At the beginning of lockdown, we broke down our bed base and made a tree hut for the kids in the Rata out the back. It was one of our first isolation tasks.  

Forgotten dances 

The music is a section from a longer piece that Andrew composed for my work Forgotten Things on The New Zealand School of Dance (2015 & 2017). The track seems appropriate given that I am rediscovering the forgotten joys of dancing in my bedroom, in private, to some of my favourite music, just like when I was a teenager.  

Lost moments 

This year I was going to travel to China, Singapore, Myanmar, Norway, Canada, Scotland, and Australia. I would have made new dance work for two international tours and two national commissions. Some of these things have been postponed, some will be lost. It’s ok. It’s ok. It’s really ok. I’ve trained in resilience my whole damn life as a freelance artist.  

Giving thanks 

I am thankful that I have my beloved people here with me, that technology keeps me connected with my university colleagues, dear family, friends and artistic peers, and that I can continue to make art. I hope I can look back on this moment and remember the beautiful complexities of being in this bubble with my family in a time of global turmoil. My film is an offering to that end.