Sarah Crowner: Garden Blue

In the Fall of 2018, the American Ballet Theatre presented Garden Blue, a choreographed piece by Jessica Lang as part of their Women’s Movement initiative that works to balance the gender inequality in ballet. Lang, a choreographer of 20 years who has created over 100 dances and tours her own ensemble worldwide, collaborated with Brooklyn-based artist Sarah Crowner on Garden Blue’s sets and costumes.

Crowner’s practice encompasses painting, sculpture and installation that invite the viewer to enter the work, often employing platforms that require a physical shift to engage with works hung on the wall. Crowner’s interests lie in “pure, saturated, unfiltered color, and in color relationships.” This is evident in her collaboration with Lang, where she created a 46 x 40 foot backdrop that plays with intersecting fields of blue and green. The dancers costumes—second skins—are bright hues of red, ochre, fuschia, with the exception of a single performer dressed in green and white. Wing-shaped wooden structures rest on the stage and hang above the dancers. As the piece progresses the dancers manipulate the shapes on stage that serve at times as supports, at others, as obstacles. The collaboration between Crowner and Lang fruitfully produces a stirring exploration of movement, form and color.