A moment, the crossroads, the act of coming together. A glance, a look, a smile, a simple gesture can make you feel like you made a connection with another person you have never met before. Reflecting this and more, ME(et) YOU is the new production by dancer and choreographer Sarah Vella in collaboration with Lisa Colette Bysheim (Norway).
Vella is a dance artist and speech and language pathologist, currently living in Berlin. She started dancing at the age of four, training in classical ballet, modern jazz, flamenco and contemporary dance. After graduating, Vella moved to London where she obtained a Diploma in Dance Studies from Laban Conservatoire of Dance.
During 2010 and 2011, Sarah performed with Red Tape Dance Company around Malta. In 2011, Sarah moved to Berlin, where she has worked on various dance projects, including a film documentary titled Dancing the Crisis by Caroline Schaper and You Gyoung.
Lisa Colette Bysheim and Sarah Vella.Over the years, Vella has carried out community work focusing on dialogue, dance and choreographic workshops. She has worked with Rehabilitation Centres and youth groups in Malta and Berlin through the medium of dance, movement and communication. She has also worked/ choreographed with/for Teatru Zazz Malta on a project with youths that was presented as part of the Marinando festival in Italy.
In December 2014, Sarah was part of a month-long dance residency programme (Play Practice Apprenticeship Programme) in Bangalore, India, where her main focus was to work on authenticity on stage when creating and improvising and the re-lationship between the dancer/performer and the public audience.
Her new project, ME(et) YOU, is a cross-cultural initiation between her-self and Bysheim, a dance artist. It is inspired by the notion of meeting – the act of coming together.
An intimate dance performance that explores the individual experiences occurring during the first moments of an encounter
What happens in the moment of an encounter? We meet people every day. The world is experienced as smaller, our everyday lives and cultures interweave within each other. Different cultures meet and cross paths daily and greetings occur all the time.
ME(et) YOU aims to create a new awareness about the inevitable moment of interaction which results from such encounters. It is an intimate dance performance that explores the individual experiences occurring during the first moments of an encounter. How do we greet others? How can body language communicate these experiences? In what way do social and geographical norms play a part? Are we aware of this? The piece plays between a physical and sensory landscape which explores the many impressions that occur during a first meeting.
This interdisciplinary dance performance will appear in Bergen, Malta and Berlin. The artists confess themselves to be curious about what it means to meet each other, how to communicate without words and reading body language. They are interested in exploring how movement is affected by text, language, visual effects and sound.
For this performance they are also collaborating with a Norwegian musician, Mads Svee, who will be playing live music during the performance, French filmographer Melissa Faivre, who was in charge of editing the videos that will be projected during the performance and Norwegian lighting designer Thomas Bruvik.
As part of the performance, Vella and Bysheim will also be teaching an open class and carrying out workshops with students from the dance studies department, ŻfinMalta apprentices and other Maltese dancers who train dancing at an advanced level.
Students will showcase their work during a performance on November 26 for the public in Valletta.
ME(et) YOU is supported by the Malta Arts Council and premiered in Bergen, Norway, on October 14. It will be performed next in Malta as part of the Spazju Kreattiv Programme on November 26 at St James’ Cavalier.