Sidra Bell has a BA in History from Yale University and an MFA in Choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. Recent commissions include River North Chicago Dance Company, The Ailey School, The Duo Theatre, Ballet Divertimento (Montréal), Arts Umbrella Dance Company (Vancouver), Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre (Toronto), Purchase College Conservatory of Dance in conjunction with the St. Luke’s Orchestra, LaGuardia High School, Springboard Danse Montréal, National Choreographers Initiative, The Margie Gillis Foundation, Stella Adler Studio of Acting/NYU, The Kelly Strayhorn Theater, LINES Ballet Training Program, University of Michigan, August Wilson Dance Center, Bessie Schönberg Choreographers Residency at The Yard, New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble, Ballet Austin, Mystic Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Ailey II, Tisch School of the Arts Dance/NYU, The Juilliard School, The Barnard Project with New York Live Arts and Dance Theater Workshop. Her work has been seen at many premiere venues throughout the United States and internationally in Denmark, Austria, Germany, Canada, Aruba, Spain, France, and Greece.
Bell has been commissioned for many special projects nationally and internationally. A solo work, Conductivity, won a prize for performance at the Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, Germany in 2009 and was then toured in Greece and in select German cities. She was invited back to Stuttgart for the 2011 Solo-Tanz-Theatre Festival with a new work Grief Point. She received First Prize for Choreography for Grief Point and her dancer Moo Kim received First Prize for Performance. The solo will also tour Germany and Brazil in 2011/2012. Ms. Bell was selected to work as an emerging choreographer at Springboard Danse Montréal for two consecutive years and created works that were presented at Place des Arts, Piscine-théâtre, and Usine C. She has also been awarded several creative residencies at The Duo Theatre, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, The Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and Dance Theater Workshop.
Presentations of her company, Sidra Bell Dance New York, include the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out Series, Symphony Space, Skirball Performing Arts Center, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Ballet Builders, The Harlem Stage E-Moves Series, Tangente (Montréal), The Gershwin Hotel, The Riverside Theatre, Stella Adler Studio of Acting's M.A.D. Series, danceNOW, The Duo Theatre, Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center, Reverb Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Chutzpah! Festival at The Norman Rothstein Theater (Vancouver), Baruch College Performing Arts Center, Joyce SoHo and Dance Theater Workshop (Residency & Commissioning Program) to name a few. The company was noted in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s 2010 Best in Dance for the full length REVUE which premiered in October 2010 at the historic Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Critic Jane Vranish wrote- "It was a REVUE unlike any other, a blend of vaudeville, Fellini and Cirque du Soleil. Ms. Bell proved that she had her finger on the future of dance where ballet and hip-hop coexist on the same plane."
Bell is a sought after master teacher and has taught her unique approach to creative process, improvisation, and technique at many prestigious institutions for dance and theater. She has been on the faculty at Stella Adler Studio of Acting in the Movement Department as well as the Physical Theater Intensive and was also an artist in The Harold Clurman Center for New Work in Movement and Dance Theater (M.A.D.). Other guest teaching includes The Movement Invention Project NYC, The Joffrey Ballet School, Peridance Capezio Center, Project Launch San Francisco, LINES Ballet Training Program, Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, Arts Umbrella, Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, Marygrove College, New Jersey Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson, Ballet Divertimento, Perry Mansfield, New Haven Ballet, Greenwich Academy, LaGuardia High School, Elisa Monte Dance Choreography Workshop, Balance Dance Company Boise, Long Island University, youngARTS Miami (NFAA), Hunter College, and The Ailey School. sidrabelldanceny.org