$25 Adv/$29 Door
Naughty Bits is a dance-play set inside Juli’s memories that examines trauma while finding levity within the tragic. Through movement, text, song, projections and humor, Naughty Bits finds the forgotten bits, funny bits (and wobbly bits) of putting one's mind and body back together.
Her mission is to explore her own personal struggles through the medium of performance. In sharing her work, she creates space for audiences to access their own challenges or traumas. Her provocative, introspective autobiographical solo performance fuses movement, text, song, audience interaction and comedy to both acknowledge the gravity of her burdens as well as simultaneously laugh at their reality. Sara Juli has been described as a "skilled comedian, actress and dancer" and "a light of the downtown dance and theatre scene."
Digital projections and illustrations by Devon Kelley-Yurdin, original lighting by Justin Moriarty, dramaturgy for Naughty Bits by Michelle Mola and costumes by Carol Farrell.
Please note: This piece explores one person's experience around trauma.
Runtime: 50 minutes with no intermission
Funding Credits: Naughty Bits was commissioned by the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine, through their New Century Series. Additional support came from the Maine Arts Commission, and the American Rescue Plan Maine Project Grants, a subgranting program administered by SPACE for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.
About Sara Juli (she/her):
Acclaimed Performance Artist, Sara Juli has been creating and performing innovative comedic dance-theater for 24 years. She has been fortunate to tour around the world including American Dance Festival, Performance Space New York, New York Live Arts, Bates Dance Festival, Bowdoin College, Dixon Place, SPACE Gallery, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Noorderzon Festival (The Netherlands), Chelsea Theatre (London), Aotea Centre (New Zealand) and many more. Her work has been commissioned by Performance Space 122, American Dance Festival, SPACE Gallery, Portland Ovations, and The Strand Theatre (ME). Sara’s work has received funding from Maine Arts Commission, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts Expeditions, New England Dance Fund, NEST Touring Grants, and the prestigious National Dance Project in 2019-2022. Sara was the 2017 Maine Fellow for the Performing Arts awarded by the Maine Arts Commission. Sara is the Founder/Director of Surala Consulting, a fundraising consultancy helping non-profits and artists build and execute fundraising strategies. She was awarded the Arts Management Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange in 2013, and is an ongoing project advisor to The Boston Foundation’s Next Steps and LAB Programs. Sara is an Affiliated Artist of Bates College and is teaching “Business of the Arts” at Williams College in January 2024. She lives in Falmouth, Maine, on the traditional lands of the Wabanaki people, with her husband and two children. www.sarajuli.com and www.suralaconsulting.com @sarajulimoves
Select Press Quotes from Sara Juli’s Repertoire:
" An imaginative and brave show performed with fearless vulnerability by the warm, wild and untamed Sara Juli." - Broadway Baby
"A truly generous performance" -The New York Times
"...a light of the downtown dance and theatre scene" - The New Yorker
"Clearly a multifaceted performer, Juli infuses her comedy with dance and her dance with comedy." - Dance Informa
"Sara Juli...flows with absorbing comic ease that segues into moments of pathos" -The Stage
"Sara Juli has been creating and performing comedic dance-theater for two decades. Her ability to hold an audience’s attention with abrupt changes in style reflects that experience."- Theaterreviewsfrommyseat