About Sara Zalek aka 01saratonin

Artist

S Zalek is a transdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, and poetic. They make performances into learning situations, workshops, and sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections.

Zalek performs often in both live and online situations; the City of Chicago named them an Esteemed Artist in 2022. Elastic Arts Foundation awarded them a Curatorial Grant in 2020 for Hot Mess! This episodic performance event featured over seventy artists who engaged in interdisciplinary tactics using audio, video, and spatial mixing.

They have been conducting research and teaching for fifteen years and currently work with the Japanese Cultural Center, the Roman Susan Gallery, and Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education. They were a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist in 2015, 3Arts Make a Wave Awardee in 2017, and a Ragdale Foundation Fellow. They have performed and curated performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, High Concept Labs, Elastic Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, Links Hall, Lumpen Radio, dfbrl8r, Boston Center for the Arts, Urban Guild in Kyoto, Japan, and many more.

Through Butoh Curious Chi, Zalek connects national and international teaching artists with Chicago art makers across genres in the independent and fringe arenas (including dance, butoh, physical theater, and experimental and improvisational music). They create opportunities for positive communication and arts integration using workshops, performances, and conversations about personal and collective body. Butoh Curious

Education:

2025-04 Butoh/Dance Training: Yoshito Ohno, Yumiko Yoshioka, Koichi & Hiroko Tamano, Yukio Waguri, Tadashi Endo, Yuko Kaseki, Lori Ohtani, Mari Osanai, Natsu Nakajima, Minako Seki, Joan Laage, Ken Mai, Yumi Umiumare, Diego Piñón, Atsushi Takenouchi, Ayako Kato, Michael Sakamoto, Vangeline Theater

2018 Thai Bodywork Certification, Blue Lotus Thai Healing Studies
2006 B.F.A., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sculpture, Performance
1998 Yoga Teacher Certification, Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health

1991 B.A., Syracuse University, Marketing/Business Communications

Teaching:

2025 Monthly Butoh Class, Japanese Culture Center
2023-5 Research and Teaching Artist, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education

2020-25 Mooov Voice: Voice and Movement Choreographic Workshop co-facilitated with Elaine Lemieux

2024-5 Guest Artist Teacher, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2023 Guest Artist Teacher, Beloit College

2021 Guest Artist Teacher, Columbia College

January 2019, January 2016 @ Light Box Detroit, MI

2014-5 High Concept Laboratories Chicago

Series of weekly intro to Butoh classes

2012-18 Butoh Body

OuterSpace Studios Chicago

ongoing open weekly movement class
taught and/or curated by Sara Zalek

Press:

04.26.22 The Daily Northwestern

02.18.22 Means of Production

10.29.21 S3:EP1: The Process

03.05.20 The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: Feb 2020

01.08.20 Performance Response Journal

04.30.19 See Chicago Dance

05.01.19 New City Stage, Dance Top 5

10.18.18 Scapi Magazine
04.03.18 Chicago Sun-Times

04.19.17 Windy City Times
03.31.17 New City Stage
03.15.17 Creative Imposter (podcast interview)
12.01.16 Performance Response Journal

04.15.15 Chicago Tribune

02.08.14 See Chicago Dance

03.31.12 Time Out Chicago

05.03.11 Time Out Chicago

Awards/Grants:

2025 3AP Project Grant & Fellow Nominee
2022 DCASE IAP Grant & Esteemed Artist Award
2021 Curatorial Resident at Elastic Arts
2020 3Arts Emergency Relief Grant
2020 Columbia College Virtual Dance Resident

2017-8 3Arts Fellow Nominee

2017 Ragdale Foundation Fellow

2017 Make a Wave Grant Recipient, 3Arts
2016 DCASE Residency & IAP Grant Award
2016 RDDI Artist (National Dance Project/NEFA)

2016 Cheney Foundation Grant Award
2015 Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) Lab Artist
2015 3Arts Sponsored Artist Project

2014 HCL Sponsored Artist

2014 DCASE Grant for Spawned Seeds: Post-Butoh Festival

2012 LinkUp Residency in collaboration with Aurora Tabar

Business

Butoh Curious Chi is an ad hoc arts organization, birthed in 2014 with a desire to bring opportunities to foster diversification in the field of art. Through dedication to artistic practices, public art, and community workshops, Zalek directs and produces all aspects of www.butohcuriouschi.com

Zalek discovered Thai bodywork through a chronic condition, which led to a 200-hour training at Blue Lotus in Chicago in 2017-8 and later full hip replacement. In March 2019, they visited Pichest Boonthumme in Thailand for more intensive study. Following a strong curiosity about body/mind integration, movement of body and energy, deep listening, and community involvement, they are dedicated to somatic healing and creative arts for all. Zalek also toured Japan for the first time, visiting the Tatsua Hijitata archives, the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio, the Ko Morubushi Archives, performing at Urban Guild, and learning with legendary artist Ima Tenko.

Zalek co-managed OuterSpace Studios with a changing cast of dancers from 2012 until 2020. By fostering this loose community of artists, they advocated for teaching and rehearsing artists to have access to space and community. In 2019 they began serving on the Board of Trustees of the Runaways Lab Theater. In 2021, they co-created an apartment artist residency program in the Rogers Park neighborhood that continues in various iterations, including Honolulu, HI called Roger Dodger.

Graphic and web design, marketing, and administrative arts are skills Zalek has acquired throughout their professional career; the desire to share this experience with artists is fierce.

Curatorial:

Min Yoon, aka "Citizen Truth"

& bam bam boom_____, Links Hall, Chicago
Min's solo performance & student performance

May 31 & June 1, 2025 dancing-being-in-time

Butoh Lovers Showcase
Eighteen artists perform over two nights, including

artists from Atlanta, Oregon, Baltimore, Seattle, and Chicago.

April 11–12, 2025, Dovetail Studios, Chicago

Joan Laage/ Kogut Butoh
Piercing Heart, solo performance
Feb 22, 2025, Asian Improv Arts Midwest, Chicago

Tadashi Endo
Shinkai no tamashīi 深海の魂, solo performance
Aug 3, 2024, Asian Improv Arts Midwest, Chicago

HOT MESS!
Curatorial Residence featuring 5-10 artists per event, creating new works, combining performance art, poetry, butoh, emerging technologies, and experimental music.

October 28, July 29, May 27, March 4, 2023

Nov 12, Oct 22, May 28, March 5, 2022

June 5, Aug 14, Nov 13, 2021

Elastic Arts, Chicago

Tadashi Endo

HAUTNAH, Student Intensive Workshop & Performance
May 31-June 6, 2019, OuterSpace Studios, Chicago

Yuko Kaseki

Shoot Geez My Gosh
May 3, 2019, No Nation Tangential Art Space & Gallery, Chicago

Yumiko Yoshioka
100 Years of Solitude

Bridge Dance Festival

April 25, 2018, Links Hall, Chicago

Yelling at the Dark!

Chicago-Madison Exchange
March 3, 2018, Elastic Arts, Chicago
March 10, 2018, Arts + Literature Lab, Madison, WI

BATTLES: SS3 Post-Butoh Festival

Guest Teachers: Mari Osanai, Paul Michael Henry, Ken Mai
April 5-30, 2017 25+ performers
Locations throughout Chicagoland

Tadashi Endo

Fukushima Mon Amour
August 2016, the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago

Yumiko Yoshioka / Hector Canoge
LIGHT | BODY | SOUND | MACHINE
April 2016 DFB Gallery

Tadashi Endo

IKIRU, Requiem for Pina Bausch

June 2015, Old Town School of Folk Music
Link to Video

SSII: Post Butoh Festival
April 2015, Chicago Cultural Center Chicago, IL
Chicago Tribune Preview
C hicago Tribune Review

Link to Video

Vangeline Theater in Chicago

December 2015, High Concept Labs at

MANA Contemporary Chicago

See Chicago Dance Review

Spawned Seeds: Post Butoh Festival

April 2014, Chicago Cultural Center

Chicago Tribune Review

Organizing Workshops in Chicago:

bam bam boom______

Min Yoon aka "Citizen Truth"

workshop & student performance
May 27-June 1, 2025 Links Hall