Sara Shelton Mann – director/healer. Her company Contraband  appeared on stages, in warehouses, abandoned buildings and outdoors from 1979-1996. She collaborated and toured internationally with Guillermo Gomez-Pena 96-99. She has received 4 Isadora Duncan Awards. She was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography in 2000. Her ODC Theater 06 presentation of Te’lios/Teli’os was awarded 1 of top 10 dance performances in SF, Ca. She created “Inspirare” in 2007 and was commissioned to direct “Alarma” a performance project by Galeria de la Raza inspired by the immigration marches. The “Inspirare Trilogy was presented by ODC Theater in spring 2008. She taught intensives in Berlin, Budapest, Stolzenhagen, Freiburg and the Freiburg Contact Festival in summer 2007. Tribes/zeropoint was presented at Potsdammer Festival of Theater and Dance in 2008. Sara’s work has been supported by artistic fellowships at Djerassi Artist in Residence Programs, ODC sponserships and funding through Irvine Foundation, NDP, NEA, SFAC, SFF, Zellerbach and other organizations. She is a recipent of Gerbode Choreographers in Collaboration Award. Her next work “Tribes” created with collaborator David Szlasa will premier at YBCA, San Francisco in 2010.

Sara has many years of study in various spiritual traditions, shamanic practices, and healing trainings. She is a Master NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) Practitioner, certified Reconnection Healer(TM), TheReconnection(TM). and a continual student of dowsing. Major influences in her path have been Qi Gong, Hameed Ali, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, George Conley, Leslie Temple Thurston and Pranic Healing.