Watch & Talk
A creative capsule of passionate exchange and effervescence, the Watch & Talk residency is an opportunity for emerging artists from the Swiss and international scene to come together around La Bâtie's programme. The artists are invited to compare their artistic views and visions, with the intention of creating a reflective community. It's an opportunity to forge links between artists from here and abroad. The residency is accompanied by dancer and performing arts specialist Prisca Harsch.
Watch & Talk is being developed in collaboration with the following four Swiss festivals: La Bâtie-Festival de Genève, Belluard Bollwerk Fribourg, Theaterfestival Basel and Zürcher Theater Spektakel.
Watch & Talk is supported by Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council.
Nyandra Fernandes
Nyandra Fernandes conceived, directed and performed the show Elegbará, 2022 (awarded by Prêmio Funarj de Dança). She is currently working on the creation of the piece Viveiro, 2023 (awarded by the Firjan/SESI cultural contest). She was artistic consultant for the dance residencies of the LABDICRÓ programme at the invitation of the Observatório de Favelas. She is director and dancer of the medium-length film Elegbará, 2021 (co-production of the Festival Panorama Jangada). Performed as an interpreter-creator in the shows Cria and Suave, both directed by Alice Ripoll (2014 - 2022). Performer in Batucada by director and choreographer Marcelo Evelin, 2016. Performer-creator of the children's show Prima Volta, 2022. Performer in the videoinstallation Superaquecidas by Sofia Caesar, 2021.
Nivine Kallas
Nivine Kallas is a multi-disciplinary artist, actrice and choreographer experienced in performing arts, holding a degree in drama from the Lebanese University of Fine Arts. A certified practitioner of Paris Summer Academy from Oriantheatre and a Wushu gun martial artist. Nivine has trained in a variety of techniques with multiple choreographers since 2009. She has also collaborated with local and international artists. Her most recent creation is Tarantism a movement performance. Nivine's work is centered on researching the connections between Arabic language and movement, and how they are shaped by the context in which they are expressed.
Synda Jebali
Synda is a choreographer, dancer, performer, and videographer. She graduated from the Ecole d'Arts et de decorations in Tunis in 2013 and trained in dance at the Goethe-Institut in Tunis and with Malek Sebai at Palucca University of Dance Dresden. She has worked with choreographers Nejib Ben Khalfallah (Fausse couche, 2017) and Marwen Errouine (Dortoir, 2016). With a passion for visual arts, she assists directors and creates music videos for artists with the collective Debo Tunis (Massi , Tigna Black’Na et Vipa), which she co-founded, and which is engaged in promoting art in public spaces. Combining her passions in video and dance, Synda has collaborated with artists Sondos Belhasen and Saif Rais on the video dance project RU-TEN. After a long international tour with the choreographic creation AKZAK by Hela Fattoumi / Eric Lamoureux, she is now touring with Radouan Mriziga's latest project, Libya. Synda Jebali recently collaborated with DJ Sara Jaziri on the Uncontrolled Gestures project at the Goethe-Institut and HAU Hebbel am Ufer.
Ikenna Nwaogu
Iky is a non-binary trans feminine artist with their main focus in dance. They completed her bachelor's degree in contemporary and urban stage dance at Tanzwerk 101 in Zurich and the University of West London in 2021. Since then they has been working as a freelance artist in various projects and is part of the Ballroom Kiki community where they also belongs to a voguing house. Some important artistic collaborations have been with Ivy Monteiro, Nikima Jagudajev, Anna Fries & Malu Peters, Tamara Alegre, Rafal Pierzynsiki and Muhammed Kaltuk. They was selected for the Impulse Dance "danceWEB" programme 2023. The decolonisation of "dance" as a produced end product with the approach of bringing it back into community practice is what Iky engages with in their own work.
Norwin Tharayil
Norwin Tharayil (*1989 in Switzerland) works at the intersections of poetry, sound and performance. Norwin's audio essay Im Halbschlaf träumte ich vom Ende der Nacht (in collaboration with Ralph Tharayil) was released on SRF2 Kultur in 2020. In co-production with Kaserne Basel, Norwin and Ralph, together with dancers Anjali and Sumitra Keshava, created the piece Keshava/Tharayil, which premiered in June 2021. As part of Pro Helvetia New Delhi's funded project The Observatory: Second Site by Legion Seven and Rohini Devasher, Norwin created an audio piece titled to drag a carcass through the night sky, which was exhibited as an audio-visual work at Khoj Studios New Delhi in April 2023. In June 2023, Norwin presented a performative research piece entitled also known as MATA HARI (together with Ralph Tharayil) at Kaserne Basel. Norwin also makes music as Elfrid The Third and released the debut album A CASE OF PARANOIA (together with Ivan Eyes) in May 2023. Norwin lives in Berlin.
Marie Popall (*1990, Berlin, she/her) is an actress and performer. In her work she explores the relationship between power, violence and tenderness in a performative way. She studied BA and MA Expanded Theatre at the Bern University of the Arts and collaborates with various artists at venues such as the Dampfzentrale Bern, the ROXY Theater Birsfelden, the Südpol Luzern and the Fabriktheater Rote Fabrik Zürich. With Natascha Moschini, the plays Soft Tissue and When Mama was moth, I took bulb form, among others, were created as Moschini/Popall. Together with the author Saskia Winkelmann, Marie's project Hundsköpfige (in process) was invited to the semi-finals of the Premio Nachwuchspreis and for a residency at the Tanzhaus Zürich. Marie also performs, reads, speaks and shouts for various other theatre and dance makers in German-speaking countries, and sometimes plays bass for them.
