Mersiha Mesihovic

Valencia, California, United States

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contemporary dance

I was exposed to different kinds of Art very early in my life. My mother who had a background in Theater and Opera placed me in music school at the age of 6 where I gained my music education and started playing Piano. I showed talent immediately and soon I was asked to perform in Music school concerts as a soloist. I wrote my first composition on piano in my childhood bedroom together with my sister.   But my musical sensibilities were quickly curtailed at the age of 9. War broke out in Bosnia/Herzegovina. My family was forced to sell all of our possessions in exchange for bus tickets, and flee as refugees to Sweden. Sweden became my new home and here I took my first Ballet classes. When I discovered dance I felt that from being homeless I had found a home. I found a place where I could feel safe for the first time after since I had lost my home and that was in the dance studio. I was excited. I knew I was about to enter a journey. It was so exciting to see what I could become and what journey my passion for dance would take me on. Through daily technique classes I started believing in life again.   After my preparatory year at Ballet Academy in Stockholm and a 3 year dance education at Iwanson Contemporary School of Dance in Munich, Germany, (where I also got my teaching certificate and was able to design and teach classes for youth) I decided to moved to Los Angeles to peruse A BFA in fine Arts at CalArts( California Institute of the Arts and continue to grow as artist).   At Iwanson I discovered my passion for choreography and created my first choreographic work. I had the opportunity to present it at Kranhalle , avenue for young Choreographers in Munich.   At CalArtsI I continued to create. My work has been presented at school venues and and small theaters in the Los Angeles are. Most recently my work was selected to be performed in the 5: th annual “Arts in the One World” conference. The conference is the local anchor of an ongoing artisticexchange CalArts conducts with the Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies Center (<a href="http://www.igscrwanda.org/" target="_blank">IGSC</a>) in Rwanda, where each summer a group of <a href="http://theatercalarts.com/home/programs/artsintheoneworld/journals" target="_blank">students, faculty, and professionals travel to Rwanda and Uganda</a>, to study genocide and acts of mass violence, exploring the ways in which art participates in processes of renewal.   The fact that I early on in life was faced with big existential questions, due to becoming a refugee at such an early age I developed an affinity to create conceptual dance or rather say perceptual dance. I want my audience to experience the work viscerally and create their own story even though my work is based on my own experience.  And even though my movement language may be abstract there is an emotion or story behind it. I wants my  art to move people, get them in touch with their inner being and awoke a question of who they are, what they are putting out in the world, how accepting they are of themselves but also of others.     By usage of different art forms together I can tell my story and address universal questions of life itself. I am constantly engaged in collaboration across departments at California Institute of Arts: music , video, writing, visual arts. I love the possibilities that using several art forms at once give me. I feel unlimited and I am able to create a 3 dimensional world. I am happiest when I work together with other artist.  For me dance and being creative is a powerful tool that brings people together no matter how different backgrounds the maybe from.    My Balkan origin is evident in my work. The underlying tone of nostalgia that is similar to one in Balkan Gypsy music is clearly expressed in my choreographic work and also my sense of poly- and uneven rhythms plays an important role in my dance making. As evident is my Swedish heritage.  Growing up in Sweden I learned patience and calmness that to me is an essential characteristic in Swedish people which is opposite to the wild and impatience Balkan in me. I think these two very opposite emotions are often in juxtaposition in my work.

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