Sarah “Tangent” Lee

Dancer and designer Tangent has been performing and teaching dance since the nineties. She got hooked on the underground sounds of house and breaks in the first wave of rave culture and never looked back. As a founding member of the all-woman B-Girl Crew DECYPHER CRU (2000 - 2010), co-director of the house dance collective Capital Sessions (2008 - present) and resident instructor at the Flava Factory Dance Studio (2011 - 2023), she has been choreographing, performing, organizing events, teaching and studying dance for more than 20 years.

She has studied from dance masters and pioneers in NYC, Paris, London and Tokyo such as Ken Swift, Ynot, Whichway Shannon, Tone McGregor, Ejoe Wilson, Caleaf Sellers, Bravo, Archie Burnett, Marjory Smarth, Brian “Footwork” Green, Buddha Stretch, Sekou Heru, Dazl, Yugson, Mamson, as well as Mr. Wiggles, Tyrone Proctor, Jazzy Jay, Poppin Pete, Benny, Future and Aus Ninja, and Melissa Aguirre.

She has been actively involved in building up her urban arts community with her work with House of PainT Urban Arts Festival, Capital Sessions at the NAC and Flava Factory Dance Studio.

Throughout the years, she has received numerous grants from Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council to support her creative, performative and teaching work.

She has been involved as artistic director, choreographer and dancer in several video projects, including for the Juno Award nominated musical group Silla + Rise, Rise Records, Canada Council Digital Initiatives and for the NAC Canada Performs, Revive and Dancing for Joy projects.

Having a trained visual eye and a meticulous attention to detail, her approach to dance is conceptual and she bears the name Tangent well, constantly surprising audiences and drawing on art-forms such as Martial Arts, Parkour and Yoga to inform her art.