Sarah Cullen Fuller began her formal training at the Academy of Movement and Music in Oak Park, Illinois, under the direction of Stephanie Clemens. She continued her studies at the Boston and Joffrey Ballet schools before graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BFA in Dance Performance. The recipient of the Lisa Carducci award for excellence in dance performance and the U of I Women's Club scholarship for academic excellence, Fuller continued her post- graduate work as a Ford Foundation Fellow in Madrid, Spain. Upon graduation, Ms. Fuller studied with the Paul Taylor dance company before returning to dance with the Chicago-based company, the 58 Group, under Ginger Farley. In 2001, Sarah joined Hubbard Street 2 under Julie Nakagawa, and was promoted to HSDC's main company soon after. Ms. Fuller has originated roles and performed the works of such leading choreographers as Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Aszure Barton, Robert Battle, Lar Lubovitch, Susan Marshall, Marguerite Donlon, and Alex Ketley, among others. After her retirement from HSDC in 2008, Ms. Fuller returned to teaching at the Academy of Movement and Music, the Lou Conte Dance Studio, and Loyola University Chicago.
Sarah is the founding teaching artist of the "Parkinson's Project,” part of the Adaptive Dance Program at HSDC, where she teaches contemporary and modern dance techniques to those living with Parkinson's disease. Ms. Fuller has served on the ad hoc committee for the Adaptive Dance Program at HSDC, was a co-teacher of EveryBody Can Dance, and was a speaker at the National Dance Education Foundation seminar in 2014. In addition to her work with alternative dance populations, Sarah has had the great pleasure of teaching and choreographing for many professional dance companies including Visceral Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Momenta, Cerqua Rivera Dance Company, DanceWorks Chicago, and Of Moving Colors Baton Rouge.
Sarah continues to work with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in their youth, secondary, scholarship, and summer programs re-staging HSDC repertoire and teaching ballet and contemporary dance techniques. Ms. Fuller has choreographed and danced in numerous works for both the Momenta Repertory Ensemble and for the Momenta dance company since her retirement from HSDC. She is the recipient of the Orrin Kayan award for excellence in teaching, and is currently a full-time instructor at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches classical ballet, pointe, jazz, and contemporary techniques.
B.F.A., The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign