BodyLanguage Director
Sarah Lisette Chiesa is an interdisciplinary artist who works in Cultural Exchange and Site-Specific Performance around the world. Sarah was born in New York and is currently located in San Francisco, California. She has lived and worked in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Venezuela.  She attended North Carolina School of the Arts in high school in Modern Dance, received a BFA from SUNY Purchase College in 2004, a Postgraduate in Choreography from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2014, and received her MFA from University of Washington in 2020. As a professional dancer, she has worked with artists such as Kazuko Hirabayashi, Sidra Bell, Noemie LaFrance, Tania Perez-Salas, Stefan Dreher, Hubert Lepka, Yang Jiang, Franca Ferarri, Brian Brooks, and Daniel Charon.  Sarah was a full-time company member with Shen Wei Dance Arts for 5.5 years and continues to perform as a guest artist with this group. As an interdisciplinary artist, she has collaborated with filmmakers, designers, and musicians such as Dom Bouffard, John Mattuizzi, Jacopo Foggini, Yuval Avital, Pier Giorgio Casotti, Mario Vighi, Luciano Bosi, Fabrizio Orsi, Chanhee Choi, Abbey Blackwell, and Abigail Jara. She has presented her artwork in places such as Springboard Danse Festival (Montreal), Duo Emergence Gallery (NYC), Dumbo Dance Festival (Brooklyn), The Widow Jane Mine (Rosendale NY), 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 CSAC (Parma), 1Shanthiroad Gallery (Bangalore), Meany Studio Theater, Oxbow Gallery, and ASUW Shell house, Design in Public AIA Festival (WA). As an educator, she has taught in institutions such as Fondazione della Dansa Aterballetto, Balletto Toscano, Nuovo Balletto Classico, CIMD Milano (Italy), Shen Wei Dance Arts Intensive(NYC), Shoonya Center for Somatic Arts, Banglaore School of Performing Arts (India), University of California at (Santa Barbara, CA), University of Washington, and Velocity Center. Currently, Sarah teaches students from all over the USA and Paris online Pilates, Contemporary, and intro to Dance ages 5-40