Sarah Beth Oppenheim

I come from: 39 dance studios, 4 particular kitchens, and 2 synagogues from the Wild Wild West, skyscrapered NYC, trampoline sidewalks of Berlin, and begrudgingly beautiful sunsets over the Potomac. I use scraps, abandoned tools, and painters tape to cut and paste curious inquisitions into everything from pelvis-motored site-specific choreography to burritos. I believe in deepest plie to bend traditions, antiracist pedagogy to bend academia, and dance as an everything salve. As a Teaching Artist Mom, I mine, swap, and alchemically mix choreographic research, subversive practices, and arts & crafts between stage, studio, classroom, and nursery.

Educational letters include BFA SUNY Purchase and MFA University of Maryland. I teach/work/love/make at Dance Place, American University, University of Maryland, and BlackLight Summit. And as Artistic Director of Heart Stück Bernie (HSB), I make site-specific and proscenium extravaganza works in museums, theaters, stairwells, back rooms, storage facilities, and other places I convince you to engage with dance. Recent career highlights include Artist in Residence at Dance Place, Parent Artist Residencies with GALLIM and TheMarble House Project, the Fillmore Prize for creating work at the nexus of art and social impact, and the 2024 Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievements in Dance. My newest work Wolver Maroon will premiere at Dance Place in July 2025, supported by a National Dance Project Grant and The Carla Fund.

I live in Silver Spring, Maryland with my husband, three children, and every-floor-a-dance-floor.

sarahbethoppenheim.com

Instagram @heartstuckbernie

 

Class Description

Monday Nights are for jigglewiggle, super She-Ra, WitchyNotBitchy, you catch me/I’ll catch you vibes. We take up space. We rock gently. We fly. We plummet. We get lost, then circle back up. We change, ring the bell, wax philosophic, tell jokes, and then wield deepest plies, revved-up pelvii, luscious grounding, and wild abandon at full tilt. We soften, we elaborate, we are flair and flame, but also loving the same sameness of weekly dance ritual. It’s pleasant inside smush + dance your heart out. It’s for you. It’s for me. It’s only for us. Oh, and there’s really great music.  

This class stems from the African diasporic traditions of community, groundedness, splay, full-bodied expression, and the fluid, necessary role shifting between witness and participant – in concert with European and American traditions of modern, modern with all the posts, tanztheater, AND all the contemporary fusions contributed by your dancing presence in the space. We generally do plies, tendus, and a leg warmup before moving across the floor, and finishing with an ongoing phrase. You’ll find classical hallmarks if you’re looking, but you can also take class like you’re careening around some California cliffs in a vintage corvette – bringing a love of adventure sans tactical logistics. The advanced dancer will be challenged. The intermediate dancer will enjoy multiple points of entry. And the newcomer will be warmly welcomed.  

Class starts with a Land, Music, and Movement Acknowledgement and ends in Carla Perlo’s and Sam Turner’s Dance Place class tradition of clapping 6/4/3 to close the practice, but open the week ahead. Please join us! 

 

Learn more about our teaching artists!

Photo Credit: Oliver Mertz
Photo Credit: Oliver Mertz
Photo Credit: Jonathan Hsu