Artist
Sara Zalek (@01saratonin) is a transdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator of situations and curious objects. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, 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! A hybrid performance event.They were a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist in 2015, a 2017 3Arts Make a Wave Awardee, and 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, Urban Guild in Kyoto, Japan, and so many more.
Through Butoh Curious, Zalek connects national and international teaching artists with Chicago art makers across genres in the independent and fringe arenas (including dance, butoh, physical theater, 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
Awards/Grants:
2025 3AP Project Grant
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
Education:
2023-04 Butoh/Dance Training: Yoshito Ohno, Yumiko Yoshioka, Tadashi Endo, Minako Seki, Yuko Kaseki, Mari Osanai, Natsu Nakajima, Koichi & Hiroko Tamano, Yukio Waguri, Joan Laage, Ken Mai, Lori Ohtani, Yumi Umiumare, Diego Piñón, Atsushi Takenouchi, Ginger Krebs, 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
Select Solo Performance & Installation:
June 2020 Listening, Walking, & Circling Up, “hOme,” Nancy VanKegan, Olivia Gallery, Chicago
April 2020 I'm Going Outside @Acorn Series, ESS Quarantine Concert Series
September 2019 Gold Test: Trees @Ignition Project Space
June 2019 Gold Test: Long Poem @Oliva Gallery, Chicago, Performative response to the visual work of Tamara Wasserman
March 2019 Gold Test: Heart @UrbanGuild, Kyoto, Japan
May 2018 Gold Test: Eyes @Jazz Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
curated by Peter Woods
May 2017 (Outer)Space is the Place @Links Hall, Chicago
2 nights w/2 guest musicians, K.G. Price, N.W. Long
October 2016 / Formidable Dreams Expanded Cinema @Silent Funny, Chicago
November 2016 Lilt / InLine by InHabit performance series, @No Nation Gallery, Chicago
September 2015 In:Between Worlds Out of Site Chicago @Polish Triangle, Chicago
August 2015 Idols Red Rover (force to Power theme) @OuterSpace, Chicago
Select Collaborations:
2023 Cri du Coeur with Elaine Lemieux @BimBom Studios
2023-17 Environmental Dialogues with Norman W. Long, soundwalks & public performance @Big Marsh & Marion Byrnes
2022 Earth Day Soundwalk with Veronica Salinas at Northwestern University
2023-2019 Freedom From and Freedom To, curated by Cristal Sabbagh @Elastic Arts
April 2020 Quarantine Concert Series: Homeroom, with Cher Jey on voice (@19.44)
February 2020 Steelworkers Drone with Norman W. Long, Cassette Tape @Reserve Matinee
June 2019 Sensitive Circuits: A silent walk focusing on listening to the diverse soundscape of the west Edgewater neighborhood, with Norman W. Long and Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson @Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N Ravenswood, Chicago
November 2019 There's No Edge to Imaginary Things, written by Olivia Cronk & Philip Sorenson, directed by Logan Berry
3 days @Otherworld Theatre Company, Chicago
November 2018 OSCILLATIONS: Les Chanteuses du Rien @Experimental Sound Studio, Ravenswood, Chicago
March 2018 Trickster Quartet with Hanna Brock and Elaine Lemieux
Yelling at the Dark, 2 cities, 2 nights @Arts + Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI & @Elastic Arts, Chicago
October 2017 Les Chanteuses du rien, @Regional Dance Development Initiative/Elevate as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennale
June 2016 If not now, when? And Puedo tener su basura? @Mexico City Museo, Mexico City
August 2014 Emergency Response Team Out of Site with Ginger Krebs @Polish Triangle Chicago
December 2012 WatchTower with Jose Hernandez, Ginger Krebs, Bryan Saner, Aurora Tabar, 24HRS/25DAYS @New Capital Projects Chicago
Teaching:
2023 Research and Teaching Artist, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education
2023-20 Mooov Voice: Voice and Movement Choreographic Workshop co-facilitated by Elaine Lemieux
2021 Guest Artist Teacher, Columbia College
January 2019, January 2016 @Light Box Detroit, MI
2018-2012 Butoh Body
OuterSpace Studios Chicago
ongoing open weekly movement class
taught and/or curated by Sara Zalek
2014-5 High Concept Laboratories Chicago
Series of weekly intro to Butoh classes
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
Business
01saratonin is an ad-hoc arts organization, seeking opportunities to foster diversification in the field of art through dedication to artistic practices, public art, and community workshops. Zalek creates, 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. 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 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, The Runaways Lab Theater. In 2021, they co-created an apartment artist residency in Rogers Park for summer months 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 Adventures:
Min Yoon aka "Citizen Truth"
May 31 & June 1, 2025 dancing-being-in-time
& bam bam boom_____, Links Hall, Chicago
Min's solo performance & student performance
Butoh Lovers Showcase
April 11, 12, 2025 Dovetail Studios, Chicago
Eighteen artists perform over two nights, including
artists from Atlanta, Oregon, Baltimore, Seattle, and 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!
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
100 Years of Solitude by Yumiko Yoshioka
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 Chicago
Tadashi Endo
IKIRU, Requiem for Pina Bausch
June 2015 Old Town School of Folk Music Chicago
Link to Video
SSII: Post Butoh Festival
April 2015 Chicago Cultural Center Chicago, IL
Chicago Tribune Preview
Chicago Tribune Review
Vangeline Theater in Chicago
December 2015 HCL, MANA Contemporary Chicago
Spawned Seeds: Post Butoh Festival
April 2014 Chicago Cultural Center Chicago
Organizing Workshops in Chicago:
bam bam boom______
Min Yoon aka "Citizen Truth"
workshop & student performance
May 27-June 1, 2025 Links Hall
Butoh Lovers Showcase
visiting artists' workshops by
Luciana Arias, Peter Redgrave, and Sophia Solano
April 10-13, 2025 Movement on Montrose
Embodying the Spirit: the body finds its way
Joan Laage / Kogut Butoh
Feb 20-23, 2025 Dovetail Studios and Movement on Montrose
HAUTNAH with Tadashi Endo
Aug 6-10, 2024 at Co-Prosperity Sphere
Body Resonance with
Yumiko Yoshioka
May 4-7, 2023 at Color Club
March 18-20, 2022 on Zoom
April 9-11, 2021 on Zoom
July 10-12, 2020 on Zoom
April 2018 Japanese Culture Center
April 2016 Defibrillator Gallery
April 2014 OuterSpace Studios
Yuko Kaseki, Frontier in Body
May 2019
OuterSpace Studios
Jakob Maché, Body Tales
March 2018
OuterSpace Studios
Mari Osanai, Noguchi Taiso
February 2018 & April 2017
Japanese Culture Center
Diego Piñon, Body Ritual Movement
November 2017
OuterSpace Studios
Joan Laage, Butoh workshop
September 2017
OuterSpace Studios
P. Michael Henry, Poetics of Body
April 2017
High Concpet Labs
Ken Mai
April 2017
Japanese Culture Center
Tadashi Endo, Butoh workshop with student performance
2016 and 2015
OuterSpace Studios
Michael Sakamoto, Body Mind Funk Time
November 2016
Reunion Chicago
Vangeline Theater, Butoh Workshop
January 2016, December 2015, 2014, 2013
OuterSpace Studios