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.