About the Founder
Sarah Panayiotou Leñador
Dance entered my life when a childhood speech disability prevented me from verbally communicating for ten years. Movement allowed me to develop my social and artistic voice and continues to be the most effective way of communicating my emotions, deepest self, and passions. I know the desperation of being unheard and mourn the stories that are being ignored. My experience has led me to share the complexity of these stories through dance. In 2016 I received a BFA in Dance and a minor in Arts for Social Change from Marymount Manhattan College where I was voted “Most Likely to Change the World.”
This passion to transcend barriers in individuals and communities through dance naturally transitioned into forming initiatives. I have managed a variety of projects ranging from education curriculums to dance-films around the topics of immigration, racial inequality, poverty, and more. In addition to evening-length productions, my work was performed at Uptown events such as Senator Jackson’s Anti-Gun Rally, Finding Home Festival, NYC Multicultural Festival, and more.
As a Cypriot-Puerto Rican movement-artist in NYC, I love seeing the transformation dance has had on youth’s mental health, the connection it has built within community, and the empathy that has blossomed through storytelling. I have no doubt that dance will continue to be a unique tool for sharing the intricacies of ourselves that often go unheard. This is how we build a better world– by having a new way to speak.
History
In 2017 Sarah launched her dance company, BABEL, to a sold out evening length performance. What is Found explored the elusiveness of perception and the threat of nostalgia as we work to be present to our circumstances. As a company that is committed to sharing other people’s stories, BABEL found it vital to first tell their own.
BABEL then began to partner with multiple social-justice organizations to translate stories of injustice into dance-films. One partnership produced a dance-film for an anti-sex trafficking organization to amplify their education initiative. BABEL’s dance-film was able to share the stories of survivors into an emotionally resonant experience for the audience rather than solely a cognitive one.
BABEL’s second evening-length work, United States, No Me Conoces (2018), was a raw portrayal of the BIPOC heartbreak when the country they labor for, live in, and love pretends they are not integral to its very identity. One review mentioned how the Performing Hispanic Woman section was “such a reflection of her own raw, emotional experience.”
In 2021, United States, No Me Conoces was later selected to be performed at Judson Memorial Church for immigrant workers on hunger strike, giving them the sigh of relief that comes from knowing their stories are seen and told, even while they protested the pandemic relief they were denied.
In 2019 BABEL temporarily placed its full focus on building embodiment workshops for survivors of trauma, and creating its BABEL Mentorship Program curriculum.
As a creator through art and entrepreneurship, BABEL received recognition, mentorship and financial support from several innovation fellowships and was voted one of Starting Bloc’s Top Entrepreneurs in 2019. Sarah’s latest endeavor is Dance Shows NYC, a website created to simplify finding and marketing dance shows in NYC. Sarah’s work has been featured in ShoutOut LA, ONDA, and Dance Teacher Magazine.
As of late, Sarah’s work was performed at Senator Jackson’s Anti-Gun Rally, Finding Home Festival, NYC Multicultural Festival, and more.