The Brooklyn Rail

Jodi Melnick and Sara Mearns return to 92nd Street Y in March to present the world premiere of Superbloom (Dancing Into Choreographic Forms). The performance is part of Women Move the World, 92NY’s 2025/26 Harkness Mainstage Series devoted entirely to works curated and created by women. The new evening-length piece for five dancers is inspired by female choreographers who have shaped the American modern and postmodern dance scene, as well as 92NY’s own storied history.

Melnick and Mearns come from very different worlds. Melnick’s choreography is rooted in postmodern dance, drawing from over thirty years performing with downtown luminaries like Twyla Tharp, Sara Rudner, and Trisha Brown. Mearns has been a principal dancer with New York City Ballet since 2008, performing George Balanchine’s neoclassical repertory and originating roles for contemporary ballet superstars like Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon. But since meeting a decade ago, the two women have formed a strong artistic bond and created many innovative works together.

Melnick and Mearns spoke with the Brooklyn Rail about their newest collaboration, their unexpected partnership, and the body as an archive.

Caedra Scott-Flaherty (Rail): How did you two find each other?

Sara Mearns: We first worked together at Danspace Project. We were in a group for Platform 2015, with Rashaun Mitchell and Sterling Hyltin. She was paired with Sterling, and I was paired with Rashaun. But when we got to St. Mark’s Church, we were all working as one. And that’s how the universe put us together. How we “found each other.”

Jodi Melnick: It was, like, a Judson postmodern person and a Merce Cunningham person and two Balanchine New York City Ballet dancers. And we were all matched.

Rail: So fun!

Mearns: Jodi did not think it was fun, at first.

Melnick: I did not think it was fun. I was like “No, no, no, no, no.” I really didn’t know ballet. I was not interested in it. And then we all met, and something happened that week with Sara and me. Rashaun and I had to work really fast; we had these postmodern experimental ideas and I was surprised that Sara was basically cutting her veins open for us, like, “Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me!” So, we kept going. I remember I gave a very leggy dance that I would normally not do for myself, but I gave it to her, and I said, “Sara, you have a three-minute solo, and these are your sixteen counts.” And at first, she was like, “What? Are you kidding me?” And then twenty seconds later, she was like, “Okay.” She connected to that idea. Something opened up, a possibility to insert herself into another way of making work that she maybe did not know existed.

Also, I think she connected to me as a female choreographer. Coming from where she came from, she saw that I had a certain kind of agency, a certain way of working that was more… nice. [Laughter]

Mearns: Yeah. I had worked with only two female choreographers before. One was Susan Stroman, and then Melissa Barak at City Ballet. But it wasn’t extensive like this. So, Jodi’s correct. Working with women is… It’s just a different energy. It’s a different way of speaking to each other. And it’s a different level of respect as well.

After that, I was offered a residency at Jacob’s Pillow by Executive and Artistic Director Ella Baff, and when she asked what choreographer I wanted to work with, I didn’t even flinch. I knew I wanted to work with Jodi.

So that’s how it all started. And here we are, ten years later.

Rail: How many pieces have you two made together since then?

Mearns: Official things? About five. But then we’ve done small things, too. And residencies. It’s ever flowing, never stopping.

Rail: Jodi, how has working with Sara affected your choreography?

Melnick: My choreography depends on what goes through my body. That’s what I’m interested in. But there was a very clear switch about twenty days into our first residency when I was like, “Oh, I could make other stuff that maybe I’m not interested in for my own body.” But with what my body knows how to do, and with Sara’s capability, it could really push me. The information in her body has moved my choreographic process into, not a new direction, but, like, a tangent—which has been really surprising and exciting for me. It makes me consider different things—rhythm, time, space. It makes me reify the things that are important to me, like the spectacular in subtlety and nothingness.

Rail: And Sara, how has working with Jodi affected your dancing?

Mearns: For me, it was some of the things that she said in that first residency. As ballet dancers, we’re always very presentational. We go out on stage and automatically, probably without even thinking about it, dance bigger than we are. Like there’s something on top of what we’re doing. And I remember her stripping that away and saying, “You don’t have to comment on your movement. Respond to it, but don’t comment on top of it.” And, “When you walk out on stage, you don’t have to be bigger than who you are. Just walk out and that’s enough.” And, “When you lift your arm, don’t make it a big thing. Just lift your arm.” It was the simplicity of understanding that our bodies are enough.

In ballet, you’re told that you always have to be better, you have to be more. You have to always strive for perfection and push your body to where you didn’t think it could go. Which, in some cases, is great. That’s a lot of my work. And there are so many benefits to doing that. But also, you don’t have to do that. A lot of the time it’s okay to be within the scope of your own skin, your own body, and you don’t have to put anything extra on top or push it to the extreme. And like Jodi said, the simple things can be extraordinary.

Melnick: It’s a different kind of attention, maybe.

Mearns: Yeah. A different kind of presence within your body when you’re dancing. That you’re not just outside of it. And the way that she corrects me when we’re doing movement, it’s always, “What is your body doing internally?” It’s not an external thing.

I’ve been able to take that and put it back into my ballet, in my performing at City Ballet. It was a very different experience going back and doing “Diamonds” from Balanchine’s Jewels and just walking on and taking a pose, instead of forming the pose. I was like, “Oh, I don’t have to do any more than this.” That feels amazing and strange.

So that’s how it’s affected me over the years. Being more connected, esthetically, to my actual body and realizing what it’s doing when I’m dancing. Not always coming from an external place. It really does change how you perform.

Melnick: I’m not trying to change her. She’s Sara Mearns! I’m just trying to give more options. She really wants to embody, and know, what the step is. That’s why we continue to work with each other. That’s what I love about being a choreographer. I don’t want to just make a piece for someone like, “Here, this is a step.” I’m interested in what is happening and why it is happening. It’s very special to work with someone like her.

Rail: How did Superbloom come about?

Melnick: 92NY approached me about creating a solo night for Sara, but I knew that wouldn’t interest her. She wants to work with other people. So, Sara and I decided to look in the archives for dances associated with the organization’s history.

I started going to the library and digging and digging. And then I landed on Anna Sokolow and two very eccentric solos of hers. One is an excerpt from Steps of Silence (1968), and one is from Lyric Suite (1953). The solos are different—one is very dramatic and of its time, and one has a contemporary, anti-war feel—and I could see Sara really biting into them.

So, we’re starting with those works, and we’re working with Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble’s Artistic Director Samantha Geracht, who’s been like a treasure trove. Just the most amazing information. And both Sara and I are dance junkies. We love all the stories. We love the history. Samantha worked with Anna, so she’s been in the studio with us, transferring these ideas the way she learned them.

Mearns: I’m definitely connecting to the drama and the story side of it, and what ultimately drives the movement on stage.

Melnick: So that’s how this came about. We are starting with Sara doing the two Sokolow solos, and then adding in more people, and moving on to the next bloom.

I’ve had very deep relationships with female choreographers like Sara Rudner and Vicky Shick and Susan Rethorst and Liz Roche and Twyla Tharp and Trisha Brown. So I’m sharing all this archival stuff that’s in my body, whether it’s process or actual methodologies of working, ideas that have formed me as a dancer, as a muse, as a choreographer. I’m sharing all that information with Sara.

Rail: What does the title mean?

Melnick: I’m obsessed with growing things and flowers and blooms. We’ve had this running joke between us that as you become more of a person, not just a dancer, you should be able to identify plants. I’m always quizzing her, like, “What is that flower?” Because she’s like a sponge. Me too.

I came across this beautiful idea of a superbloom, a rare occurrence when a huge number of desert wildflowers blossom at the same time. And I thought, “Wow, this happened with me and Sara!” I did not see that coming ten years ago. Like, everything was fine. It was great.

Mearns: [Laughter] That’s funny.

Melnick: I just love that image. It seemed right.

Rail: How does it feel to be part of this amazing season at 92NY?

Melnick: It’s a total honor. I’m so excited to be in this pool of female choreographers.

Mearns: Yeah. It’s an honor to be part of this festival celebrating women. I love that we’re bringing Rudner and Sokolow and Melnick and some Trisha into the work. Putting it all together on the same stage in the same evening, is, I think, pretty freakin’ epic.

It’s a new evening, but in a way it’s not.

Melnick: We’re still putting the piece together at this point, but I’m excited. Sara emboldens me. I’m not shying away from the thing that I have spent my life doing, which is movement. Movement, design, perception, sensations… I’m just unrolling the yarn ball and seeing what’s going to happen.