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Peter Tonguette for The Columbus Dispatch April 4, 2019 https://www.dispatch.com/story/entertainment/dance/2019/04/04/dancer-8217-s-childhood-launchpad/5538035007/ As the daughter of an aerospace engineer, Sarah Hixon is comfortable with talk of outer space and physics. “He would bring us home the little stickers of the badges from the missions that he worked on,” said Hixon, whose father worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “I was around the talk and the ideas about the space station.” Hixon now serves as the artistic director of Hixon Dance, a central Ohio modern-dance company. For the troupe’s latest offering, Hixon aims to blend her familiarity with science with her passion for dance. “Entanglement: Where Science Meets Dance,” featuring seven dancers from the company, will be performed Friday and Saturday at the Fisher Theatre at Columbus Dance Theatre. An additional performance will take place on April 13 at the McConnell Arts Center in Worthington. The idea for the program was proposed by Gregory Mack, senior program officer at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Hixon met Mack while both were graduate students at Ohio State University; he was pursuing physics and she was studying dance, but their interests overlapped. “He actually has a real interest in dance,” Hixon said. Years later, “He wrote me an email late at night: ‘I have this great idea. Let’s talk about this,’” she said. The dance that emerged from their conversations is called “Spooky Action at a Distance,” a reference to a quantum-mechanics concept in which two objects can affect each other despite never coming into physical contact. “The whole piece is designed on this idea of two units becoming connected in some way and then operating in some kind of opposition,” said Hixon, who choreographed parts for various groupings of dancers. “At the center point of the piece, they start moving in opposition,” she said. “Every dancer and her partner will be in opposition from the other throughout the rest of the dance.” The work will feature mirrored movements. “Sometimes that means one goes left, one goes right,” Hixon said. “But sometimes that means when somebody faces front, somebody faces back.” Like Hixon, composer Jacob Reed — who created an original score for “Spooky Action at a Distance” to be performed by the Columbus Ohio Discovery Ensemble — found artistic possibilities in scientific ideas. “It has some of the elements that good art has, where there’s some mystery, there’s something not normal happening,” said Reed, who is married to Hixon and is the music director of Hixon Dance. “To me, that’s always grounds for art exploration.” In the second half of the program, the company will turn to another science-inspired dance, “Entangled.” The dance refers to a pending collision in outer space. “The Milky Way and the nearest galaxy to us, the Andromeda Galaxy, are actually already beginning to collide,” Hixon said. “These galaxies, over billions of years, are going to basically start crashing into each other.” Hixon choreographed a three-part dance that references not only the Milky Way collision but also more earthbound collisions. “Then we have a narrative that’s more on a global scale, which is a philosophical approach to borders and the environment,” Hixon said, adding that the third section revolves around “two people in an intimate relationship beginning to share their space together.” The soundtrack for “Entangled” will consist of a text assembled by playwright Chris Leyva as well as sounds from the Voyager Golden Records. Hixon appreciates the opportunity to return to her science-filled childhood — and to learn some new things, too. “Some of it has certainly been an education,” she said. “I can’t say I’m deeply knowledgeable about physics, particularly. … It’s been kind of fun to revisit that part of my life.”

Chris Leyva is an area playwright and director who recently sat down with Sarah Hixon, the artistic director of Hixon Dance, whose new show Entanglement: Where Science Meets Dance opens at Columbus Dance Theatre and the McConnell Arts Center in April. Chris: Is there a particular way you approach creating work? Sarah: I use different approaches depending on the topic. I will do research almost always. If I have an idea or inspiration from a piece of music or writing, I will sometimes find related poetry, visual art, or historical context to get into the world that’s inspiring me. I find that it makes work richer and opens up new possibilities to branch out in different directions. Chris: How did you decide that the scientific topics of astrophysics and quantum mechanics that you use in your new performance, Entanglement, were something you wanted to explore? Sarah: I am always trying to challenge myself and grow as an artist. If my process is providing that challenge, then I’m usually on the right path. I am typically drawn to ideas that have a very human or emotional core. That’s why I like poetry and music as inspiration. This time I felt that trying something opposite of that would be a good challenge. And it’s been really hard actually. [Laughs] Chris: Has it been difficult because it's science versus narrative? Sarah: I think so, partially, because everything is a little abstract. Gestures can portray a lot of emotional information, but there’s no emotion to portray when you’re exploring subatomic particles. My hope is that even though the performers aren’t intending to portray an “emotional narrative,” people will still find connection. They will find meaningful relationships between the dancers. This is certainly not a “dancers as PowerPoint” of the science. Chris: How much do you consider the audience when you’re creating your works? Sarah: I do consider the audience quite strongly. I try to create work that is accessible, so the audience experience is important. In making this piece, there were lots of moments that were accurate to the science concept, but visually too complex. I thought, “No one’s going to understand what they’re seeing if presented this way.” I don’t mind challenging an audience, challenging their eye, and making them sit with complexity, but I was concerned they would not see what I was trying to portray. Chris: What has been the audience response to your previous works? Sarah: People really enjoyed our interactive show because there was humor and informality that broke down some barriers. Last year, False Prophets was one of the most “topical” works I’ve made, but that resonated with people. For me, when someone tells me about how a work made them feel and the emotional core is what I was portraying, I consider that a successful work. The dance connected with that person. Chris: What’s the best thing about the Columbus art scene right now? Sarah: I think there’s a lot of possibility and potential. There’s also support. It is amazing that we have granting organizations that supply money to individual artists. That’s very rare. I also enjoy how interested other artists, organizations, or even businesses are in collaborating. I think it makes more exciting art possible. Entanglement happens at 8pm on April 5, 6, and 13th. Tickets and information are available online at www.hixondance.com

By: Olivia Minnier ThisWeek Worthington https://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20181016/hixon-dancers-hope-to-involve-audience-in-mcconnell-arts-center-show October 15, 2018 Photo: Ken Falk Members of the Hixon Dance company hope to break down the barrier between the audience and dancers with their newest show. “From the Ground Up,” scheduled this weekend at the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center of Worthington, will allow the audience to create a dance. Hixon Dance was founded 11 years ago by Sarah Hixon, 38, after she completed her master’s of fine arts at Ohio State University. The eight-member company is in its third year as the McConnell Arts Center’s in-residency dance troupe, according to Hixon. Hixon said the goal of the weekend show is to make dance more approachable for the audience. “I feel like modern dance is a little hard for people to understand,” she said. “One audience at a time, we can break down those barriers. In the first section of the show, the audience will be given 10 cards with a variety of words that can be used to dictate how the dancers move, Hixon said. The next part is what Hixon likes to call “build a dance,” in which the audience members will make decisions on the speed of the dancers and how to put together the movements they have created. “It’s kind of a ‘choose your own adventure’ for them,” Hixon said. During the performance, a jazz trio will improvise music based upon how the dancers are moving, Hixon said. Short, choreographed pieces will be included but all eight dancers will improvise otherwise, she said. Jon Cook, director of the McConnell Arts Center, said the performance would be inside the facility’s gallery space instead of the stage that is normally used, to help with physical proportions. “I think that comfort level will rise,” he said about the audience. “From the Ground Up” will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, and at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the McConnell Arts Center, 777 Evening St. Tickets, which cost $20 for adults and $10 for students, may be purchased at mcconnellarts.org or by calling the center at 614-431-0329. Hixon said the weekend dates are the only scheduled performances, but that troupe members hope to set up more.

Jim Fischer, Columbus Alive! April 11, 2018 Dance group examines identity, community. ​ Sarah Hixon is as concerned as anyone about the current political climate, and had been simultaneously investigating and resisting making art as a response. ​ Not wanting to make dance that was overly timely or political, Hixon ultimately conceived “False Prophets,” an examination of the assault on individual identity from outside forces. ​ “I started with an old idea, that your life, your identity, is fated,” Hixon said. “So then what happens when we give up autonomy to war or propaganda or consumerism or social media? In the end, it’s kind of a statement about finding that individual self.” ​ While there is no linear story, the program does feature “a series of images or vignettes that all relate and are cohesive,” she said. It’s the recurring theme of identity and the challenges to it that binds the program. ​ Eight performers in varied groupings will present the primarily metaphorical story, accompanied by pieces of recorded and live spoken word. ​ “In the end it’s a hopeful piece about the power of the individual to participate in a community but not be forced to conform,” Hixon said.

Jim Fischer, Columbus Alive! November 1, 2017 Independent dance companies keep scene on the move ​ A mainstay of the independent dance scene, Hixon Dance marks its 10-year anniversary with a retrospective program Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3 and 4, at the McConnell Arts Center in Worthington. ​ Founder/director Sarah Hixon dug through 10 years of movement-making and selected both a representative cross-section of work and choreography that returns to particular themes and movement qualities. ​ “I am taking movement I had used before and seeing how I could change it and alter and manipulate it to make it seem different and totally new,” Hixon said. “It’s funny now looking at [individual dance pieces] as a body and seeing movements or movement qualities that are the same, [or] occasionally some concepts that are related or similar. It’s interesting for me to step back and look at them in that way.” ​ One recurring theme is conflict. While Hixon said the pieces don’t necessarily have a linear narrative, several of the pieces build on the notion of competing interests. “Gestures from the Sawdust Root,” a work for seven dancers set to music by French composer Francis Poulenc and inspired by an Allen Ginsberg poem, is a loose social commentary on the conflict between nature and machine. A piece set to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” played on toy piano devolves into a child-like, self-involved tantrum. “No Exit” comments on situations that infringe on our personal space. The piece finds four dancers sharing a 4-foot-by-4-foot raised platform, trapped with one another and afflicted by the close quarters. ​ “Having no conflict is kind of boring,” Hixon said. “People in their daily lives are experiencing conflict, even if it’s not dramatic.” ​ “In live performance or art, people bring their own perspective or lens to what they see or hear,” she added. “I feel like a successful piece isn’t one where audience members totally understand what I was saying, but where they get that nugget or essential element, that universal emotion or thought or some kind of experience that I want to portray through my work.” ​ Some music will be performed live on stage, and a new sculpture by Chicago artist Hannah Barco will also be featured.

Jay Weitz, Columbus Alive! April 8, 2010 When it comes to dance, forget the cliche about legislation and sausage. Watching dance being made can instill an even greater appreciation of the finished product. ​ In mid-March, Hixon Dance allowed Alive to watch rehearsals for two of the works in its upcoming “Airs and Dances II,” to be presented at Columbus Dance Theatre. ​ Artistic Director Sarah Hixon stands on a chair - for better perspective, no doubt, but also symbolizing the choreographer’s kindly omniscience. ​ “Don’t let this get mushy,” she implores her dancers - Lindsay Calvert, Marie Klaiber, Gregory Mack, Morgan McFarlan, Sara Mitchell and Tina Tidwell - as they smooth out a transition from two trios into three duets in “Welspryng.” ​ During a break, Hixon and her husband and musical collaborator, Jacob Reed, discuss his commissioned score - its dynamics, its structure, its points of drama - as together they shape the movement. In this rehearsal, they use a recording of synthesized wordless voices, but in performance, all the music will be live. ​ “Welspryng” is set to Reed’s motet-like “But a Mouthful of Sweet Air,” borrowing two verses from the song that concludes the W.B. Yeats play “At the Hawk’s Well.” He must be careful, Reed says, not to “box her in with the text.” ​ The four-voiced, contrapuntal score lies on the floor in front of Hixon and Reed as they sit and talk. With his stockinged right foot, Reed traces a particular passage where the voices move in a way to guide Hixon. ​ The dancers retake their positions. Hixon asks them to run slowly through a previously discarded section of movement. As they move, she scrunches up her face and beats time on the score. As the dancers nearly collide, Hixon sees in her mind’s eye what she needs to adjust. ​ She asks them to do it again, “Only you’ll be doing that in canon, not all at the same time, so you don’t kill each other.” ​ Snapping her fingers as the music resumes, Hixon watches the dancers begin at four-beat intervals, and that section comes together. ​ “Gunter und Gertrude” takes shape as an adorable courtship duet. Dancers McFarlan and Mack (shadowed by Cristina Duryea and Sara Mitchell) spend a good deal of the work doubled over at the waist, arms clasped behind their knees. From that stance, these odd creatures flirt, nuzzle and celebrate. An observer’s back aches in sympathy. ​ By the time “Airs and Dances” is ready for the public, we can ask Yeats’ immortal question, “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

Monday, June 29, 2015, 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) NAS Building, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W. Free and open to the public. Registration and photo ID required. http://www.cpnas.org/events/arcadia.html Iteratia Iteratia, a dance inspired by the mathematical ideas in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, will be performed at the NAS prior to the staged reading of the play. One of the mathematical ideas in Arcadia is iteration: using a method or formula to get an estimated answer, and using that answer as the new starting point to apply the method or formula again to arrive at a new answer. The cycle repeats as necessary in order to get as close as possible to the actual solution to the problem. Along with inspiration from other aspects of Arcadia, Gregory Mack is using the idea of iteration in the choreographic process for this dance work in collaboration with fellow dancers/choreographers Sarah Hixon and Amanda Whiteman. Mack, Hixon, and Whiteman will perform the dance on June 29 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the West Court of the NAS Building. Photo IDs are required. No charge. Reservations are included with Arcadia. Gregory Mack is an astrophysicist and a dancer in the modern dance company Hixon Dance. Sarah Hixon is the artistic director of Hixon Dance and a dance educator at BalletMet Columbus and New Albany Ballet in Columbus, Ohio. Amanda Whiteman is the founder of GroundShare Arts Alliance (formerly GroundWorks Dance Ensemble) and a Master Teaching Artist at Wolf Trap where she integrates the performing arts with literacy, math, and science.

Vox Novus is partnering with Columbus Movement Movement (cm2) to present 60x60 Dance at Wallstreet Nightclub in Columbus, Ohio. Be sure to come see this exciting performance. 60x60 - 60 works each 60 seconds to create a one hour art performance. http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/2009_Dance_Wallstreet_Ohio.htm 60x60 is a churning wheel of production, performance and dissemination. Representing an aesthetic and geographic diversity of composers, choreographers, and artists, 60x60 is an annual performance project containing 60 works where each piece is 60 seconds in duration. The mission of 60x60 and its presenter, Vox Novus, is to expose contemporary music, modern dance, experimental video, and other contemporary art forms to the largest audience possible. 60x60 combines grassroots ideology with innovative methods of presentation and distribution. Each year the project grows in artistic and distributive scope. Achieving its initiative, 60x60 presents performances across the globe. "The idea--60 new dance pieces are performed to 60 new pieces of music, each lasting no more than 60 seconds--is quite mad. But it's this kind of madness that makes the cultural world go round..." - An Express Without Any Delays, By ROSLYN SULCAS, New York Times, November 17, 2008

The Lantern November 1, 2006 Megan Partlow https://www.thelantern.com/2006/11/dancers-mix-old-new-for-genre-defying-performance/ From ancient traditions to hip-hop to today's technology, this weekend's dance concert has a bit of something for everyone. From Nov 2 - Nov 4, Ohio State's Department of Dance will present "virtual.rituals/altered.worlds,' a graduate and seniors honors dance performance at Sullivant Hall Theater. Tickets are $5 at the door and the performances begin at 8pm. The production will feature works by two masters of fine arts candidates and a senior in dance, and will cover a range of aesthetics, styles, and concepts. Sarah Hixon, a third year student of the master's program, will present "Of the Transcendent Unknown," a group piece she choreographed which incorporates both Asian art traditions and European Baroque dance styles. In the piece, common societal and cultural values are interpreted through theater and dance and the work portrays a spiritual journey and transformation. "The piece is more about ritual and mythology, relating a lot of imagery but not necessarily a linear story," Hixon said. "Abandoned Revolution," is a multimedia work to be presented by dance and technology MFA candidate Boris Willis. It is a live video game that integrates animation, live action, game shows, dance, and theater, and is set to an original score created on a Nintendo Game Boy. "I wanted to do a piece about the culture we live in-- the 21st century," Willis said. .... Whether interested in the b-girl styling of Wiseman's piece, the modern dance techniques of Hixon's or the fusion of performance and technology in Willis' work, viewers are promised an enjoyable evening. "It is going to expose people to different ideas about dance and different kinds of dance," Hixon said. "A lot of it is about contemporary times, mine is definitely a piece about the current generation and uses the tools this generation is familiar with," Willis said. "The night will definitely be a lot of fun, entertaining and educational, without trying to be educational."