Sita Frederick is a choreographer, performer, and teacher based in New York City. After graduating from Swarthmore College, Frederick performed with Bessie-winning choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women and Merian Soto. Frederick toured nationally with the first musical production of Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer Live! in which she understudied the lead, Dora, and performed in the ensemble as Isa the Iguana. In 2003, Frederick and visual artist Jose Miguel Ortiz co-founded Areytos, a multimedia performance company based in Uptown Manhattan. Presenters of Frederick’s performance works include: Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center, Pepatian@Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Aaron Davis Hall, Rutger’s University, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Congress on Research in Dance, and the American Dance Legacy Institute, among others. Her work has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Bronx Action Lab, The Puffin Foundation, Pepatian, The Harlem Dance Foundation, Swarthmore College and Aaron Davis Hall. Frederick works as a Teaching Artist for Jacob's Pillow Curriculum In Motion, Lincoln Center Institute, Contra-Tiempo Urban Latin Dance Theater, American Dance Legacy Institute, and the DreamYard Project.

Extra Information

My purpose is not merely to entertain, but to inform, challenge, inspire, and stir. I usually begin with an idea or issue that I want to explore with and through the body, creating multi-disciplinary, social-political work that humors and/or provokes. Movement is my home while text, multi-media set design, and sound are other modes I use to contextualize and layer the body in performance. With each project, I listen for the appropriate tension and integration among these elements. I embrace crosspollination, rhythm, improvisation, partnering and my dancers’ genres to re-interpret and re-envision traditional and contemporary dance forms. I am drawn to the African and popular dances and music of Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico but I also employ minimalist gesture developed from individual experience and modern dance movement. I design performance for the stage as well as alternative venues such as storefronts, streets and galleries.

Through art-making I seek transformation for myself and for my community. I am committed to collaboration and the constant negotiation required in creating participatory work guided by strong leadership. Just as learning is fundamental to my creative process, teaching dance and composition literally and figuratively feeds my art. I learn from and with the communities in which I teach. Through arts and education in local settings and beyond, I cultivate appreciation for Caribbean traditions, critical consciousness, imagination, and progressive dialogue.