TBA:19 FESTIVAL

Lewis initiates this world in which voice, gesture, touch and movement, flow like waves—both gentle and turbulent. Through the language of mimesis, four performers engage with the porousness of the theater by producing a fantastical materiality translucent to its metaphoric and symbolic weight. Surrendering to the possibilities of the haptic, sense gets un-done to get re-done, paving the way for an 'othered' organization of sight and touch. Through this process of alienation, exteriorization, and materialization, this melodrama touches the borders of its own making, giving life to both the emotional landscape of its protagonists as well as to the theater itself. Water Will (in Melody) completes Lewis’s trilogy, preceded by minor matter in red and Sorrow Swag in blue. Ligia Lewis is a dancer and choreographer. She has worked in multiple contexts, including those of the theatre and museum. Engaging with affect, empathy, and the sensate, her choreography considers the social inscriptions of the body while evokingits potentiality. Her work can be described as experientially rich and complex. Within her practice, Lewis continues to provoke the nuances of embodiment. In 2017, Lewis was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Production for her latest stage work, minor matter and was awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe for her work Sorrow Swag. In 2018 she was granted a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award in the field of dance. Both her stage works minor matter (2016) preceded by Sorrow Swag (2014) continue to tour internationally.

Her work has been shown at various venues and festivals including the following - Abrons Art Center/American Realness (NYC), Flax/Fahrenheit (LA), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), TATE Modern (London), Stedelijk Museum/Julidans Festival (Amsterdam), REDCAT/Pacific Standard Time (LA), and Tanz im August presented by HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). As a dancer, Lewis has performed and toured extensively for artists including Ariel Efraim Ashbel, Mette Ingvartsen, and Eszter Salamon. She has ollaborated with visual artist Wu Tsang, musical artist Twin Shadow, and with the DJ collective NON Worldwide. Ligia Lewis is currently managed and produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and she is a factory artist at tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf.

This project received support from Oregon Arts Commission, WESTAF (the Western States Arts Federation), and the National Endowment for the Arts. Supported by Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC). Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Thanks to Jarrett Gregory. This project is a NPN/VAN Partner of the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN/VAN Artist Engagement Fund. Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information visit www.npnweb.org.

Production: Ligia Lewis / HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Co-production: Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018 / Centre D’Art Contemporain (Geneva), tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Arsenic Centre d'art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), donaufestival (Krems), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Münchner Kammerspiele. Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. This project received support from Oregon Arts Commission, WESTAF (the Western States Arts Federation), and the National Endowment for the Arts. Supported by Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC). Thanks to Jarrett Gregory. 

Concept, choreography/direction: Ligia Lewis In creation with: Titilayo Adebayo, Dani Brown, Susanne Sachsse Replacement: Jolie Ngemi Dramaturgy: Maja Zimmermann

Light design: Ariel Efraim Ashbel

Sound design: S. McKennaStage design: Eike Böttcher

Technical director & light technician: Catalina Fernandez

Costume design: sowrong studio Assistant: Gilad Bendavid, Carina Zox

Production management: HAU Artist Office / Sabine Seifert

Touring & distribution: HAU Artist Office / Nicole Schuchardt