AMY SEIWERT enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career dancing with the Smuin, LA Chamber, and Sacramento Ballets.

As a dancer with Smuin Ballet, she became involved with the “Protégé Program,” where her choreography was mentored by the late Michael Smuin, and she became Choreographer in Residence there upon her retirement from dancing in 2008. Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, her first full evening of choreography was named one of the “Top 10” dance events of 2007 by the SF Chronicle.

Twice, she has worked with dancers from the New York City Ballet, participating in the NY Choreography Institute. Collaborations include works with visual designers Marc Morozumi and Matthew Antaky, composers Daniel Bernard Roumain and Mason Bates, media designer Frieder Weiss, and spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph.

She is honored to have been an Artist in Residence at ODC Theater from 2013-15 and the first National Artist in Residence with the Joyce Theater in 2017. She has worked in the repertory of Ballet Austin, BalletMet, BalletX, Smuin, Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Sacramento, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Carolina, Oklahoma City, Dayton, Milwaukee, and American Repertory Ballets, as well as Robert Moses KIN.

From July 2018 to July 2020, Seiwert was the Artistic Director of Sacramento Ballet.

In 2023, Seiwert was appointed Associate Artistic Director of Smuin Ballet, and she will assume the role of Artistic Director at the beginning of the 2024/2025 Season.

Photo of Amy Seiwert taken by Keith Sutter

Photo of Amy Seiwert taken by David DeSilva

Press & Awards

Photo: Smuin dancers in Amy Seiwert’s "French Kiss" (2023), Lighting by Jim French, Costumes by Susan Roemer, S-Curve Apparel & Design, Photo by Chris Hardy

  • “...quite possibly is the Bay Area’s most original dance thinker, taking what some consider a dead language and using it as a 21st-century lingo to tell us something about who we are.”

    — Rita Felciano, San Francisco Bay Guardian

  • "'A Long Night' is another world premiere by choreographer Amy Seiwert... The sheer energy and imaginative invention caused a few audience members to recall the early genius of Paul Taylor. Inventive choreography dovetails into yet another invention, with its cumulative effect being beautiful, absorbing, and altogether a joy."

    — Ralph Malachowski, PhillyGayCalendar

  • "At Smuin Contemporary Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s ‘French Kiss’ tops a full meal with sweet, chic dessert"

    ⎯ Rachel Howard, Datebook SF

  • "And just like the ocean, the movement never stopped, entrances and exits happened with such purpose, mirroring the urgency of the musical score."

    — Heather Desaulniers

  • “'Witness' is ardent, elegant and assured in its craft."

    — Rachel Howard, Datebook SF

  • “Seiwert’s masterful grouping and ungrouping of dancers created pleasing patterns in space; her women, on pointe, gorgeously arched their backs in sensual lifts and waved willowy arms as if strands of sea flora underwater.”

    — Karen Hildebrand, Fjord

  • "Seiwert’s 'Renaissance' projects the look and feel of a classic."

    — Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

  • “Amy Seiwert’s ‘No Alibi’ is why ODC works deserve to be seen for decades to come”

    — Rachel Howard, Datebook SF

  • "The highlight of the program, ‘A Long Night,’ sees Amy Seiwert playful choreography inspired by the couples’ sleep in Midsummer Night’s Dream... Filled with humor as well as impressive holds and light en pointe dancing, to a varied playlist of dream-related pop across the decades, it’s a welcome dose of joy."

    — Christopher Munden, Phindie

  • “Seiwert's ‘Instructions’ is too clever to disappear after a single weekend."

    — Allen Ulrich, SF Gate

  • "Every section of ‘Dear Miss Cline’ has a distinct and clever compositional idea at its center, carried out to near perfection."

    — Rachel Howard, SF Datebook

  • 1999 Winner, Le Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur Choreography Competition

  • 2000 Choreographer in Residence, Le Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur

  • 2005 Dance Magazine: "25 to Watch"

  • 2006, 2009 Invited to New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute

  • 2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, San Francisco Chronicle: "Top 10 Dance Events"

  • 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian: "Goldie"

  • 2011 Nominee, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for White Noise

  • 2012 Nominee, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for Requiem

  • 2012 Nominee, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for When It Frays

  • 2014 Nominee, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for Devil Ties My Tongue

  • 2015 Second Place, McCallum Theater Choreography Festival

  • 2015 Winner, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for Back To

  • 2020 Nominee, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for Renaissance

  • 2021 "Office Hours" Artist Residency at the Kennedy Center's The REACH

  • 2023 Winner, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Revival, Dear Miss Cline, Smuin Ballet

  • 2024 Nominee, Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography for Witness

 

Amy Seiwert was the founder and Artistic Director of the San Francisco-based contemporary ballet company Amy Seiwert’s Imagery from 2011-2024. The company made the decision to sunset following the announcement of Seiwert’s appointment as Smuin Ballet’s Associate Artistic Director.

To learn more about Imagery and to read the company’s archived blog posts, click here.

 

Imagery dancers Grace-Anne Powers, Austin Powers, and Anthony Cannarella in “How it Feels” by Amy Seiwert, Courtesy Amy Seiwert's Imagery. Photo by David DeSilva. Costumes by Susan Roemer, S-Curve Apparel & Design, Lighting by Thomas Bowersox.