In 2019 she graduated from Purchase College, almost straight into the pandemic. She used the time of isolation (and collecting unemployment) to develop her solo practice. For the past two years, she has danced with Urban Bush Women, a job she finds both financially and artistically sustaining. Eventually, though, she wants to strike out on her own.

“The desire is to be fully employed by myself in my choreographic work,” she said.

For Fresh Tracks, Sarai is making “Batty Juice,” a trio for herself and two other dancers “that tries to bring us in proximity to our authentic autonomy,” she said. “In other words, how do I create a work in which three Black girls can do whatever they want?”

Sarai is a daring solo improviser, and her uninhibited spirit infuses this project, too. “I’m trying to offer this space of, like, the furthest you think you can go, you can go further,” she said.

Sarai sees “Batty Juice” as the start of a longer work, and she hopes Fresh Tracks will open doors to expanding it.

“The thing that scares me the most is, like, what is post-emerging?” she said, noting the relative abundance of opportunities for early-career artists. “It feels like you have to start making it up a little bit, after the emerging pot closes.”

Liony Garcia

Garcia, 38 and originally from Cuba, moved to New York last year from Miami, where he had lived for most of his life. Still getting his bearings in a new city, he was surprised to be accepted to Fresh Tracks — an unexpected opportunity, he said, “to introduce myself and my work to the community here.”