Sara Mearns is a principal dancer with New York City Ballet and a winner of the prestigious BESSIE AWARD (2018) and Dance Magazine Award (2019). Sara is known for her roles as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake and for Balanchine ballets including Jewels (Diamonds) and Symphony in C, among countless others. She has originated roles in ballets by choreographers including Justin Peck, Kyle Abraham, Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon, to name a few, and has appeared as a guest artist with the Paul Taylor Dance Company with Dances of Isadora (Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation), The Martha Graham Company (2019 Gala in Etkasis), The Ashley Bouder Project (Duet by Liz Gerring) and Company Wang Ramirez (No. 1). Sara appeared in New Bodies, a collaboration with Jodi Melnick, at the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina and the Guggenheim Museum in NY. At New York City Center, she has appeared in the Fall for Dance Festival (2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019), and the 2018 Balanchine Festival. Sara was a guest artist alternating the role of Victoria Page in the US Premier of Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes. Sara made her theatrical debut in I MARRIED AN ANGEL directed/choreographed by JOSH BERGASSE at NY City Center Encores in March 2019. This past summer she danced at Jacob’s Pillow in a week long tribute to her called BEYOND BALLET. In December she made her debut with The Metropolitan Opera in La Traviata, and this coming season she has an outstanding partnership with The Joyce, where she is producing and starring in a new “vision” of highly stylized new dance works. Honorary Doctorate: University of South Carolina (2019)