Choreographer Amy Seiwert Shares What Inspires Her
Amy Seiwert is an important voice for contemporary ballet. Since 1999, her company Amy Seiwert’s Imagery has been showing San Francisco audiences just how experimental, passionate, and relevant ballet can be. It’s a philosophy Seiwert developed over 19 years dancing with the LA Chamber Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and Smuin Ballet, and while choreographing on major companies like New York City Ballet (for the New York Choreographic Institute). Next year, Seiwert will become the artistic director of Sacramento Ballet. Catch AXIS Dance Company performing Seiwert’s Reflective Surface in October in Oakland, CA—and read on to learn how Seiwert keeps thinking of new ways to look at ballet.
—Helen Rolfe
For seven years now, I’ve worked with my company in a space called Zaccho that’s primarily used for aerial dance, so it’s got high ceilings, natural light, and enough space that you can be far enough from the dancers to get a sense of the work. There’s a fun rumor that the building used to be a mattress factory, and that the Zaccho space is where they made the pillows! It’s one of my favorite places to create in the city.
“Wandering” rehearsal (photo by David Desilva, courtesy Seiwert)
A version of this story appeared in the September 2017 issue of
Dance Spirit with the title “Choreographer’s Collage: Amy Seiwert.”