Sarah Lisette Chiesa is an interdisciplinary performance artist originally from New York and 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 for High School, received a BFA from SUNY Purchase College in 2004, a Postgraduate in Choreography from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance SEAD in 2014, and received her MFA from University of Washington in 2020. She studied body casting and sculpture at the Canossa Scuola di Scultura in Reggio Emilia Italy in 2016. Sarah was a full-time company member with Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York for six years and continues to perform as a guest artist with this group. As a freelance dancer, she has worked with artists such as Sidra Bell, Noemie LaFrance, Tania Perez-Salas, Stefan Dreher, Hubert Lepka, Yang Jiang, Franca Ferarri, and Brian Brooks.
As an interdisciplinary artist, Chiesa has collaborated with filmmakers, designers, photographers, and musicians such as Dom Bouffard, John Mattuizzi, Jacopo Foggini, Yuval Avital, Pier Giorgio Casotti, Mario Vighi, Luciano Bosi, and Fabrizio Orsi. She has presented her artwork in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Montreal, Italy, Austria, Venezuela, Chile, and India. As an educator, she has taught in institutions such as Aterballetto, Balletto Toscano, and CIMD Milano (Italy), Shen Wei Dance Arts (NYC), Shoonya Center for Somatic Arts and School of Performing Arts (Bangalore, India), University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Washington and Velocity Dance Center (WA), and Roco Dance (CA). Currently, Sarah is a rehearsal assistant for Sidra Bell on a new production called BABA that will premiere in February as well as a company member of Deborah Slater Dance Theater.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA at Dominican
Photography | © Julia Chiesa