DANCER &
CHOREOGRAPHER
Lisa Janbell is a freelance self-producing choreographer, dancer and educator who works mainly in Stockholm and Havana. With a focus and interest in trance, ritual performance and ceremonial dance, Lisa is educated in Havana, Cuba at the dance school el ISA, el Instituto Superior de Arte, (Bailes Folkloricos de Cuba). She has also studied at DOCH in Stockholm, Afro-Brazilian dance practices at UFBA in Bahia, Brazil and traditional dance practices with local dance companies in Guinea, Ghana and Benin.
Lisa runs, is the choreographer and artistic director of the Swedish-Cuban project-based dance company SOMOS Dance Company since 2012. SOMOS has done commissions for e.g. Dans i Stan, Parkteatern, Scenkonst Sörmland and toured all over Sweden, Berlin and Havana with, among others, Riksteatern and Lisa Janbell's work Trans[e]icíon. In addition to working with SOMOS Dance Company, Lisa does solo assignments, and creates concepts and songs for the performance band duo Dos Oké.
" Influenced by my upbringing in Kista and Rinkeby, my main goal as a dancer and choreographer is to create works that show the positives of a diverse society, in an anti-racist and norm-critical spirit. I am constantly fascinated by older folkloric ceremonial expressions and at the same time inspired by the present. With the Cuban folkloric dance practice as a starting point for my work as well as a post-colonial responsibility, I reflect on the contemporary and environment I live in. A political and artistic strategy for me is to create permissive spaces through ritual performance that make room for deep encounters".
Lisa led her Trans-session live during three hours in a participatory choreographic piece where 8 dancers improvise based on Lisa’s trans practice, including dancers as Ama Kyei, Cecilia Rehde, Dafne Giannikopoulou, Ingrid Mugalu, Lena Bergstedt, Marie Mazer, Sofia Sangregorio and Sigyn Ohlsson
The piece is born and takes place there and then guided by Lisa Janbell and her choreographic methods to the ldeep techno live set of @jessiegranqvist.