Sarah Kleinke,
GENERAL MANAGER
Sarah Kleinke is originally from Hickory, North Carolina where she attended St. Stephens High School and trained in dance at the Ann Freeman Dance Academy. She attended East Carolina University to pursue a higher education in Dance Performance. In 2014, prior to her Senior year, she accepted a summer internship at Elisa Monte Dance (EMD) in New York City under the supervision of Tiffany Rea-Fisher as an Operations Office intern. With an interest in roles of leadership and administration she took on the position of Vice President for the East Carolina Dance Association and the dance program’s chapter of National Honors Society for Dance Arts. Through these programs Sarah worked with fellow officers to coordinate a long list of charitable activities increasing student engagement while providing important outreach to the local community. In May 2015, she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance at East Carolina, graduated magna cum laude, and received the Outstanding Senior Award in Dance Performance.
After moving to New York, Sarah held the role of Director of Administration for four years at Inception To Exhibition (ITE); an arts non-profit co-founded by Tiffany Rea-Fisher that serves the New York City community and provides grants to emerging artists in dance, theater, and music. Through working at ITE, Sarah coordinated various events and assisted in the curation and management of the Bryant Park Contemporary Dance Summer Series for five summers. While continuing to expand her work in arts administration, Sarah became the Company Manager for Elisa Monte Dance under the Artistic Direction of Tiffany Rea-Fisher in 2019. Her administrative work continued throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and her responsibilities were integral to the daily function of the organization. She joined EMD as a Company Dancer in 2020 and was a founding Company Dancer with EMERGE125 (E125) for four seasons. Sarah has held the role of E125’s Staff Administrator from 2022-2024, Digital Marketing Coordinator from 2024-2025, and is now the organization’s General Manager. She has served on E125’s 2023 and 2024 Gala Committees and assisted the organization in securing transformative capacity-building support from The Bay and Paul Foundations and The Mellon Foundation which will serve the organization for years to come.