Artist in Residence 2019: Sarah Vella & Lisa Colette Bysheim
Sarah Vella (MT) and Lisa Colette Bysheim (DE)
Artists in Residence, July 2019
About the Project
ME(et)TEEN
ME(et)TEEN is a 3-week residency project for Maltese youths. It creates a space for teens to meet, collaborate and explore how they connect outside of social-media frames.
It is an extension project of Bysheim & Vella’s project ME(et)YOU, an interdisciplinary dance performance focused on the multi-faceted aspect of meeting; across borders, cultures and genders. Bysheim & Vella have been researching this notion of meeting since 2015 and are grateful for the new opportunity to adapt the project and engage with a new younger audience.
ME(et)TEEN is a creative dance residency offering a series of workshops with 8-10 young Maltese teens, ages 13-14. The residency will encourage co-creation, collaboration and experimentation. The teens will be motivated to go beyond their limits, push their own boundaries and explore an approach that might be new to them: art, creation, risk, performance.
The youths will be actively involved in a creative process exploring the effects of social media on feelings and self- worth. Through this process, they are being exposed to offscreen time, having the opportunity to meet, collaborate, exchange and create with individuals their own age and gain insight into a creative process with professional artists. A musician will also be a collaborator in the process, creating a sound score that will be performed live on the last day of the residency. The final outcome of this project is a performance that the teens will perform and share with an audience.
More info on ME(et)YOU: https://vimeo.com/264957008
About the Artists
Sarah Vella and Lisa Colette Bysheim
Bysheim & Vella met during their studies at Trinity Laban in London. As freelancers, they create and perform their own work in collaboration with other artists in various disciplines. To date, they have been individually involved in several dance projects for film, stage and site specific works. Their movement language is formed by their experience in contemporary and improvisation techniques.
Sarah Vella
Sarah Vella is a dancer/choreographer and therapist from Malta, based in Berlin. After graduating with a Bsc. (Hons.) in Speech and Language Therapy, she moved to London to study at Trinity Laban’ and then to Berlin to work as a freelance dance artist. She has been part of various dance, site-specific, film and opera projects as a dancer and as choreographer and she has continued further training through workshops with many influential artists.
Sarah has presented her work nationally and internationally. Namely in Malta (Notte Bianca Festival, Spazju Kreattiv), England, Italy, Norway and Germany (100Grad Berlin Festival, Nah Dran series, Theaterforum Kreuzberg). As an artist, she is interested in exploring authenticity on stage and genuinity in improvisation and throughout the creative process.
Sarah has also done various community work through choreographing and teaching dance. She recently finished her ‘Dance/ Movement Therapy’ studies and continues to work as a freelance dance artist, teacher and therapist in Berlin, Malta and abroad.
More info: www.sarah-vella.com
Lisa Colette Bysheim
Lisa Colette Bysheim works within the field of dance and performing arts. She is based in Bergen, Norway presenting her work nationally and internationally. Her artistic practice spans from creating her own work, performing for others to collaborative creations. To date she’s been involved in several dance projects for film, gallery, stage and site specific works.
She has performed works by Yaniv Cohen, Roskva Yasmin Andersen, TGO//4332, directors Helena Wik and Lene Therese Teigen. She has also developed improvisational works in collaboration with dancers, visual artists and musicians. In 2018, Lisa Colette co-conceptualised Performativity Beyond the Body with curator Kristina Melbø Valvik, a photo series and cross disciplinary exhibition exploring the relationship between architectural structures and the body.
In her artistic work she is concerned with the body, exploring how sensations, emotions and energy have the potential to open up a deeper understanding of the physical potential in movement. She is inspired by the body, working with what is intimate, raw and honest in a physical form. To create movement that pushes boundaries of physicality and explores contrasting shifts in energy.
More info: www.lisacolettebysheim.com
