Celebrating 41 Years!

Spring 2026
To You Reading:

Sarah by Faneuil Hall, BostonDancing. It makes our bodies smart. And dancing downstream? That’s what some do here in the mountains, from the Western Slope of the Continental Divide on Turtle Island - the name native tribes say. North America to many. But what’s in a name? Plenty.

“Downstream?” a fellow dancer / actor asked. Yes, those artists creating with wild Nature move with the flow. I was born in Boston to socially responsible parents, from the tribe that “threw the tea in the harbor and moved the British back home.” Then I danced in the Miami Ballet at 14 but fifty years ago, this coming summer of 2026, I moved here from the East coast.

At 24 I loaded up my compact station wagon – with $450. saved for the trip. A high school friend operated a wilderness guide business here in the Roaring Fork Valley. I-70 had yet to be four-laned “consciously” by Governor Lamm and John Denver so wildlife could pass under safely and continue to drink from the mighty Colorado River. Sitting Bull, Lakota SiouxIf you want to know why I stayed, please note the projects below we created in an independent mindset. And skiers come from around the world so we also must think internationally. One hears Japanese and Thai on the lifts.

An ancient lineage of indigenous spirits watched the autos pass according to a 1000’s-year-old Navajo prophecy which predicted bugs moving on ribbons. Our cars on highways? So, these indescribable mountains, where water for the western side of this continent is stored, are now home to more humans. How do we act as stewards for life below us? Do we want to?     

The Rocky Mountains taught me to stop dominating Nature and live co-operatively with the forces that sustain life. As Co-founder of the Sarah Pletts Dance Theatre with my mother Janet Garwood, I am baffled by man’s fascination with damaging technology. We’ve spent 45 years here making Eco theatre, film and news editorials for the Sopris Sun and Aspen Times. And took these works to places across the U.S. and Europe. Yet, what will it take for we humans to collectively WANT to keep our home, our nest clean?

Do you know? We understand now that we live in an eco-system. The earth worm, the sparrow, hawks, dogs, humans, rocks, creeks, clouds, weeds – it takes EVERYONE to keep our lives going. Up to 50% of our corn and wheat contain a chemical which damages our digestive system. Do we want to be healthy? What will it take to WANT to protect ourselves, the other animals and this unimaginably gorgeous place which took eons to make?

The SPDT utilizes feelings in dance / theatre to transform human consciousness. Remember how good you felt the last time you watched a great play or film? We make new stories for this century, for this time. We want future generations to know they can live a creative, healthy life when we are willing to change.

Sarah dancing Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Life” on Italian TV Choreographed by Laura Teague in the Roaring Fork Valley, CO

The SPDT is assembling 40+ years of videos, photographs, newspaper clippings, reviews and more to make our next film “Dancing Downstream.” Our previous film “The Phoenix Rises” screened on U.S. public TV, in Monte Carlo, South Africa & Rome. Please help us make our next one-of-a-kind film with the musicians, dancers, writers, actors and audience members who helped start the “green movement.” At left, observe that trees & humans are protected at night by the Lighting Ordinance we initiated.

As we produced decades of workshops (guiding stewardship) and arts events, we also protected public lands by preventing city planners from building condos and concrete parking garages on our river. The John Denver Sanstuary was established, the Denver Post calling it the “most peaceful place in Colorado.” Along with the Thoreau Society & Nature activist Don Henley, we preserved Thoreau’s legacy by forming the Walden Pond State Reservation in my birth state of Massachusetts.