Sandra Organ
Houston Ballet: Soloist
Sandra Organ was Houston Ballet’s first African American ballerina, dancing there for 15 years (1982-97), including as a soloist under Ben Stevenson, and acting as a rehearsal director for Christopher Bruce. She then founded her own contemporary ballet ensemble, Earthen Vessels, The Sandra Organ Dance Company (EVSODC), for which she created over 100 ballets and employed more than 120 dancers over 16 seasons of programming in theaters and sacred spaces. She served on the Boards of Dance Source Houston and Dance/USA, where she has been a dancer representative and artistic director and has held company and individual memberships with D/USA and IABD. Her liturgical or sacred dances offer the last vestiges of performing life for her, while she continues to choreograph nationally. She completed all levels of the RAD Syllabus under Valerie Roche, training at Omaha Academy of Ballet, Creighton University, and Houston Ballet Academy on scholarship. Organ taught in the Adult Division and in Dance for Parkinson’s programs at Houston Ballet Academy for 18 years and was a master teacher, guest artist choreographer, and panelist at numerous dance academies, universities, and regional ballet schools in Houston and beyond. She presently teaches in the after-school ballet program for San Antonio’s St. Mary’s Hall as well as adults’ intermediate/advanced ballet at Ballet Austin. Organ also teaches yoga and water aerobics for the YMCA in Dripping Springs and in Wimberley, where she now resides.
See also:
Houston Ballet’s first African-American ballerina reflects on diversity, Houston Chronicle
Sandra Organ’s new dance show is a real Thriller, Culture Map Houston
Sandra Organ Company Delivers Vibrant Black History Program, Houston Press
Dance: An Interview with Sandra Organ, Speed of Light
Video link: