Stefanie Batten Bland

2026 Two time NYSCA Awardee, Stefanie Batten Bland | Artistic Director 

is a global maker, 2024 Creative Capital artist, 2023 Dance Magazine Cover Artist, 2022 BAM Next Wave Commissioned artist, straddles the artistic scenes of NYC and France. Born to a jazz composer father and a writer mother, she was raised in SoHo when it was led by artists. Batten Bland’s work profoundly explores contemporary and historical cultural symbolism, the body as a political statement, cultural identifiers, and their influence on our global human relationships. 

SBB creates proscenium, cinematic and  immersive worlds that answer the quest for belonging. As the Artistic Director for Company SBB, Creative Casting & Movement Director for Life & Trust, she pioneered the principles and created the role of Performance-Identity liaison for Sleep No More. She is our Artistic Director leading the first immersive theatre summer intensive in the United States and constantly pushes the boundaries of what mixed reality art can do.

Her performance career includes Tanztheater Wüppertal Pina Bausch, PunchDrunk's Sleep No More, Luna Luna at The Shed, Hungarian choreographer Pal Frenák, Jérome Savary at the Paris Opéra Comique, creator Georges Mombôye of Côte d’Ivoire, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

SBB’s work has been recently presented at Danse Lille (France), Spoleto Festival (Italy), Lincoln Center, and Bates Dance Festival... SBB has recently received Creative Capital, Harkness Foundation, Dance Advancement Fund, and NEFA grants—she is an assistant professor at Montclair State University. IG: @sbb_land

Batten Bland received her MFA in interdisciplinary arts from Goddard College and is currently an Associate Professor at Montclair State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

IG: @sbb_land & @sbb_roll