Dance

Sarah Lisette Chiesa

United States

Sarah Lisette Chiesa is an interdisciplinary artist originally from New York, who has lived and worked in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Venezuela. She graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts in high school with Modern Dance Concentration, received a BFA from SUNY Purchase College in 2004, a Post Graduate Certificate in Choreography from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2014.

Currently, she is a Predoctoral Lecturer at University Washington and will receive an MFA in June of 2020. She has performed works by Kazuko Hirabayashi, Sidra Bell, Noemie LaFrance, Tania Perez-Salas, Sidra Bell, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Stefan Dreher, Hubert Lepka, Yang Jiang, Franca Ferarri, Brian Brooks, Susan Marshall, Mark Morris, and Daniel Charon.  She was a company member of Shen Wei Dance Arts for six years and continues to work as a guest artist. She has collaborated with artists such as John Mattuizzi, Jacopo Foggini, Yuval Avital, Piergiorgio Casotti, Mario Vighi, Luciano Bosi, Fabrizio Orsi, Chanhee Choi, Abbey Blackwell, and Abigail Jara.

She has presented her own creations since 2005 in places such as Springboard Danse Festival Montreal, Duo Emergence Gallery Manhattan, Dumbo Dance Festival Brooklyn, The Widow Jane Mine Rosendale, Centro Cultural de la Florida Santiago Chile, Republic Theater Salzburg, Spazio Gerra and Teatro San Prospero Reggio Emilia, Rimini Live Festival, Mutty Gallery Montova, Centro Studio Archivio Museo Parma CSAC, 1Shanthiroad Gallery Bangalore, Meany Studio Theater , Oxbow Gallery, and ASUW Shell house. As an educator she has guest taught at Aterballetto, Balletto Toscano, Nuovo Balletto Classico, CIMD Milano, Shen Wei Dance Arts Intensive, Shoonya Center for Somatic Arts, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Washington, and Velocity Center in Seattle.

<< Fear divides people and sets them apart from each other.  Love, on the other hand, strengthens our interconnectedness and brings people closer.  I have welcomed this period as a time to slow down, to even stop doing, and be. I was hoping the patriarchy that controls us would fall apart, and we would create a global bond no matter what race, gender, or class we identify with. We would reconsider a new more effective power construct that could be shaped by the health and well-being of the population via healthcare systems and infrastructures.   And maybe that can happen… or maybe habits are so strong and comfortable that we will all fall right back into the hands of the system?>>

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