Photo by @arnaudbeelenphoto at @tictacartcentre


Yara Li Mennel is a Swiss artist based between Locarno and Lausanne. A choreographer, sound artist, performer, and improviser, she creates live experiences that move between dance and sound poetry, exploring the expressive possibilities of the body, voice, and scenography. She has a particular interest in the relationship with clowning, investigating encounter, play, and vulnerability as means of expression.

She trained in contemporary dance at SPID (Italy) and NSCD (UK) and lived several years in Berlin, where she deepened her practice in instant composition, experiential anatomy, the use of voice as an instrument, and free improvisation with the violin. In 2017, she was selected for the LEM in Buenos Aires, a research program for performers focused on the use of the body in performance. She is currently pursuing a Master in Performing Arts at La Manufacture, Haute école des arts de la scène in Lausanne.

In Locarno, she is a co-creator of Ca’ Stanata, an atelier haus and meeting space that regularly hosts musical salons and artistic events; a co-founder of Imprevisti, a platform dedicated to instant composition in Ticino; and collaborates with Carovana 091.

Fascinated by the intelligence of the body, Yara explores multiple forms of language and their transmission through performance and the sharing of practice, sharpening listening and expanding imagination. She believes deeply in art as a tool for personal and social transformation and in the importance of sharing bodily knowledge. She has worked as a dance teacher with the MOPS_DanceSyndrome company and regularly leads workshops dedicated to movement, voice, and creative expression.


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