Šara Stranovsky

Šara Stranovsky is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer, global culture curator, and educator. She currently owns and directs Bilingual Birdies Asheville, an early childhood sing-a-long program that teaches foreign language through live music, puppetry, and theater games. The program is one arm within her larger project, Global Grooves Kids. She holds a PHD in Global Culture and Performance from UCLA and a BA in Dance and Creative Writing from Middlebury College. Her doctoral research was about Brazilian, West African, and Cape Verdean dance. She learned how to draw and take photographs from her mom. 

As a performer, Šara has sung styles from funk to folk to musical theater, has played percussion in a Brazilian marching band, and she performs her own songs. Šara’s performance credits as a singer, dancer, and rollerskater include Off-Broadway’s Fuerza Bruta Wayra (Cirque), Anais Mitchel’s Hadestown (Broadway), and various independent contemporary dance theater projects in Paris, LA, Cape Verde, Brazil, Dakar, and New York. 

In New York, Šara also worked as a global performance curator for Lincoln Center, spearheading community programs that brought Lincoln Center shows to senior centers and low income areas around the city. She also worked as a Lead Teaching Artist and curriculum designer for Lincoln Center Education, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and other community-based arts organizations, bringing her to classrooms around NYC.

Now based in Asheville, Šara sings with the Asheville band, The Royal Suits, directs Bilingual Birdies Asheville, collaborates with Asheville Community Arts, and aspires to show kids how expressive arts can connect people around the world. Global Grooves Kids is the name of her larger company under which she plans to teach additional kids classes connected to global arts. 

Her most treasured awards come from the giggles of her students.

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