Sara is a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate whose work spans musical theatre, opera, theatre and dance. She has an MA in Theatre from Victoria University and specialises in Laban Movement Analysis.

She has directed and choreographed over eighty productions, including shows for: New Zealand Opera, Melbourne Arts Festival, Auckland Theatre Company, Capital E - National Theatre for Children, Chamber Music New Zealand, and various New Zealand arts festivals.

She most recently directed and choreographed Mary Poppins (New Plymouth Operatic) and the premieres of two new operas: The Bone Feeder (Auckland Arts Festival & New Zealand Opera) and Iris Dreaming (Grimebourn Festival, UK and Adam Chamber Music Festival, NZ).

Much of her directing work has included the integration of movement, music and theatre, such as Gao Shan Lui Shui (High Mountain Flowing Water) which premiered in New Zealand prior to performances in Beijing, China, and The Kreutzer (STAB, Auckland/Christchurch Arts Festivals).  Diverse projects range from creating Fault Lines, a dance-theatre production about earthquakes with the Leshan Song and Dance Company of Sichuan, China for the Melbourne and Christchurch Arts Festivals (which has toured to Montreal, Fujian province and Australia) to Tracing Hamlet – a community processional deconstruction of Hamlet (Wanaka Festival of Colour, Erupt Festival Taupo). 

Sara grew up performing in musicals with Showbiz Christchurch, which fostered her desire to work in the arts.