Sarah was born in London and first started at a dancing school there, aged 6. At 11 her family relocated to Hastings, where she continued her dance training. She quickly realised that while she was not really cut out for classical ballet, a natural aptitude and enjoyment for tap had emerged. With both her parents in the theatre (a father who was an actor and a mother who was a director), it was always evident that she was a natural performer and was destined to be on stage in some capacity!

Sarah spent her teenage years competing with success at Hastings Music Festival and performing in numerous Hastleons and Blods productions, along with yearly Christmas pantomimes with the professional Penguin Players company. Although she attended dance auditions in London, memorably getting through to the final 20 dancers for the West End show 42nd Street, she decided that what she really wanted to do was to see the world and soon set about attending auditions for contracts abroad.

In 1983 she landed her first job as a professional dancer, in of all places, Baghdad! She described it as ‘an interesting adventure’! However, from contacts made on that first contract she joined a long-running dance company, going on to work throughout the 1980s in Portugal, Finland, Japan, Thailand, Italy, France, Hungary and Egypt. She also auditioned for, and won, a coveted contract for an American cruise line, getting her first taste of dancing on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean for 10 months. There began a life-long love of being at sea.

In the 1990s Sarah managed her own dance company, choreographing numbers, making costumes and flying groups of dancers out to hotel contracts in Japan and Dubai. Sarah then applied to P&O Cruises and was fortunate to be picked to join them as an Entertainment Officer. For the next few years, she enjoyed travelling the globe as part of the onboard team in charge of keeping passengers engaged and entertained. Not always an easy task when people are on for a three-month long world cruise!

Sarah feels extremely blessed to have been paid to see the world while combining her loves of dance, being on stage and travel.

She is delighted to have been asked to be a mentor for the Amicus Festival and is looking forward to encouraging young dancers to have fun and follow their dreams.