Šara Stranovsky

About Šara Stranovsky

EDUCATOR: I have over 10 years as a Lead Teaching Artist, educator, and programming director. After working as a full-time Lead Teaching Artist where I taught educators and developed curricula, I am now the director of Bilingual Birdies Asheville, an early childhood program in Asheville North Carolina. I am also on faculty at Brooklyn Academy of Music as a dance, music, and theater educator. I develop workshops for kids and youth through theater, music, puppetry, and dance. I am an arts-integration specialist which means that I customize projects that help students learn academic coursework with meaningful and engaging creative projects. Some of my most recent curricula includes integrating visual arts with social studies, storytelling with science, music with science, and using theater to empower ESL students. I have also taught at the university level at UCLA, Middlebury College, NYU, and UCSB, through my MA and PhD in Culture and Performance Studies. PERFORMER: I am an interdiscplinary performing artist of dance, music, and immersive cirque theater. I have toured in Senegal, Brazil, Cape Verde, and participated in a number of contemporary dance theater companies, including Raiz di Polon Dance Company, and Fuerza Bruta Wayra. My interests are in dance theater, cultural exchange projects, and contemporary remixes of traditional dances. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND CURATING EVENTS. I have over 10 years of experience in cultural programming, event production, and arts management experience for museums and arts institutions. I also work as a youth mentor and educator for various education programs using social justice and arts activism models. I have also worked as an Arts & Humanities professor, researcher, ethnographer, musicologist, dance ethnologist, program manager, and scholarly consultant for various cultural institutions. I am specialized in cultural knowledge of French, Brazilian, and Cape Verdean cultures, and my doctoral research was about politics and the performing arts in creole cultures. I am known for my ability to work with a team, come up with creative problem solving tactics, and multitask while managing a number of projects. Administrative skills: • Over 15 years experience researching, planning and coordinating projects in a fast-paced work environment • Successful track record collaborating with and managing teams, and interacting with personnel at various organizational levels • Able to manage and prioritize schedules while balancing multiple assignments.

Experience

1. Taison (Lead Educator)

   Brooklyn Academy of Music

   Aug 2019 — Present · Brooklyn, US

   I serve as liason between Teaching Artists (who develop curriculum and teach students about BAM performances), schools, and Education staff members. This is a hybrid position that puts me in teaching, facilitating, communication, and administrative roles. I also help with program evaluation (qualitative and quantitative systems of review), program management, and quality improvement.

Education

• ACBEU

  Summer Intensive program, Portuguese Language and Culture

  2008 — 2008

• Middlebury College

  BA, English, Dance, French

  2000 — 2004

• University of California, Los Angeles

  MA, Cultural Studies

  2007 — 2009

• University of the People

  M.Ed., Secondary Education and Teaching

• University of the People

  M.Ed., EDUCATION

  2019 — 2021

• Sarah Lawrence College

  Paris Study Abroad Program, Political Science, French, and Art History

  2004 — 2004

• University of California, Los Angeles

  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Culture and Performance Studies