Roya Sachs

Roya Sachs. Photo: Francesco Lagnese

Roya Sachs is becoming well-regarded for her cross-disciplinary productions—usually one-off happenings—that leave audiences giddy. These experiential performances might involve a classically trained opera singer, a contemporary visual artist, and a bit of Google technology. In November, she staged Infoxication, a melee of minimal sounds and repetitive vigorous dance movements, at Spring Place, where she was the art director at the time.

Now Sachs is the curator of the Lever House Art Collection, for which she has staged a number of boundary-pushing shows by artists Katherine Bernhardt and Reginald Sylvester II, among others. Her breakout moment occurred in 2016, when she and Mafalda Millies cocreated Virtually There, a digital-age remake of a 1922 ballet by Oskar Schlemmer. It featured choreography by “punk ballerina” Karole Armitage, costumes by the Campana brothers, and staging by the Whitney Biennial artists Kate Gilmore and Heather Rowe.

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“You always have to be out of your comfort zone,” says Sachs, who is launching a company with Millies and E:Six Strategy managing partner Lizzie Edelman to create cultural moments with more impact. “The only way we can evolve and shape ourselves is by taking risks.”

An installation view of “Virtually There” a digital-age remake of a 1922 ballet by Oskar Schlemmer curated by Roya Sachs.  Photo: Courtesy of Roya Sachs

VOID a one-night-only performance with dancers from the New York City Ballet and an interactive sensory art installation by Jordan Backhus. Photo: Courtesy of Roya Sachs

Peter Halley’s exhibition at Lever House. Photo: Peter Halley

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2019 Spring Issue under the headline Creative Minds. Subscribe to the magazine.