Rate My Professor Sarah Barry

Sarah M. Barry is a Professor of Dance and Associate Chair of Dance at The University of Alabama in the Department of Theatre and Dance, where she served as Department Chair from 2019 to 2022. She earned her MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah in 2005, a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) certification from Integrated Movement Studies in 2004, a BFA in Dance from Sam Houston State University in 1999 with Summa Cum Laude and Highest Honors, and a Labanotation Teacher Certification from The Ohio State University in 1998. Barry teaches contemporary/modern technique, choreography and improvisation, dance pedagogy, Laban/Bartenieff Studies, and dance history. Her academic interests encompass choreography and improvisation, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, and dance pedagogy. She holds leadership positions as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the National Dance Education Organization and as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Schools of Dance.

Barry joined the University of Alabama faculty around 2006 and has been recognized with the National Alumni Association Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award, the Druid City Arts Award for Dance Educator of the Year, and designation as a Leadership Board Faculty Fellow. Major grants include a $15,000 National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces grant to restage José Limón’s There is a Time for the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, a $5,000 Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, and additional Alabama State Council on the Arts grants supporting tours by Yonder Contemporary Dance Company, which she directs. Her choreography has been performed across the United States and internationally at venues including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, Italy, and Switzerland. Selected screendances such as “wish you were here” (2020), “there, again,” and “so you want me always to paint flowers” have screened at festivals like Dance Camera Istanbul, the Kalamata International Dance Festival, the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, the Utah Dance Film Festival, and Motion Captured. Barry’s publications appear in the Journal of Dance Education, the Journal of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, and the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters journal, with key works including “Methods of Reflective Practice in a Service-Learning Dance Pedagogy Course” (2017), “Analysis of Pelvic Alignment in University Ballet Majors” (2007), and “A Somatic Approach to Education and the Creative Process” (2005). Her contributions advance dance education, somatic practices, and interdisciplinary collaboration.