https://ligialewis.com/performance daily 0.75 2026-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1770289586192-QF8F6B74AGQV71FX8TPQ/image-asset.jpeg archive Wayward Chant (2025) @ Gropius Bau as part of IM NOT HERE FORRRRR… https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/performing-arts-season/programm/2025/spielplan/wayward-chant https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1770289586192-QF8F6B74AGQV71FX8TPQ/image-asset.jpeg archive Wayward Chant (2025) @ Gropius Bau as part of IM NOT HERE FORRRRR… https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/performing-arts-season/programm/2025/spielplan/wayward-chant https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498368352-MTQ3VVZ4IKJSEDOI3NB3/2025-11-25_Gropius-Bau_0141-bea_Frank_Sperling_HQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764134358-BVQ87QI3DNAWMJCCNHJZ/Copy+of+2025-11-25_Gropius-Bau_0194-bea_Frank_Sperling_HQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1710767368137-O33FDVHBAFL2IPU0PRRO/image-asset.jpg archive Lewis filmed A Plot, A Scandal in the historic quarters of Rimini, Italy, a site the artist sees upholding “Eurocentric ideals of (white) Man’s dominion over the land.” One recurring aspect of the landscape, the towering cypress trees in ordered rows, stands as an example. The film opens with the sonic resonance of the church bell imaged later as a towering monument, pointing to the Christian ideals that served as both a precursor to the Enlightenment and bedfellow in maintaining this hierarchical order. Weaving together multiple historical epics, and political and mythical narratives, the work uses ideas of spectacle and scandal to point toward the scandal of the continued dispossession of “Europe’s Others,” as Lewis describes them. “Utopian or mundane, how might scandal reveal what lies unwittingly close to our fantasies? Is it the demand for repair? Or the otherwise brutish desire for revenge?” Lewis explores these questions by way of the stories of philosopher and slave trade beneficiary John Locke who coined the relationship between “life, liberty, and property,” the Cuban artist and revolutionary José Aponte, and her great-grandmother Lolón Zapata. This film was commissioned by the Center for Arts, Research and Alliances (CARA) as part of Lewis’s solo exhibition study now steady. study now steady is curated by Manuela Moscoso, Executive Director and Chief Curator, with production and exhibition design by Agustin Schang, and curatorial assistance by Marian Chudnovsky. Images by Liz Ligon A Plot A Scandal film by Ligia Lewis Featuring Corey Scott-Gilbert and Ligia Lewis Scored by George Lewis Jr (AKA Twin Shadow) and Wynne Bennett Commissioned by Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) Concept, writing, and directing: Ligia Lewis Director of Photography: Moritz Freudenberg Production Design: Ligia Lewis and Moritz Freudenberg. Dramaturgy for Film: Dragana Jovanovic. Composer: George Lewis Jr (AKA Twin Shadow) and Wynne Bennett. Drums: Guillermo E. Brown. Costume Design: Sadak. Research/Dramaturgy: Sarah Lewis-Cappellari. Voice over: George Lewis Jr and Ligia Lewis. Gaffer: Robert Samplawski. Light Assistants: Elisabeth Rooth and Manuel Rossi. Camera Assistant: Ferdinand Klotzky. Editor: Dragana Jovanovic. Sound Design: George Lewis Jr. Colorist: Moritz Freudenberg. Title Design: Govoi/ a23 Studio House. Produced by Céline Rodrigues Monteiro. Special thanks: Justin Franics Kennedy, Sarah Lewis-Cappellari, Joseph Wegmann, Anton Kats, Dragana Bulut, Giacomo Benni, Santarcangelo Festival, Town of Santarcangelo, Teatro Amintore Galli, Uferstudios Berlin, Dino.Berlin, FILMGERÄTEVERLEIH, See You rent GmbH, Combo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726488731316-ZSNVC4NOYT63D5Z3JKXN/image-asset.jpg archive - study now steady (2023) https://www.cara-nyc.org/program/exhibitions/ligia-lewis-study-now-steady https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1770289918957-XLSY35JBJW47JRP3N8WK/image-asset.jpeg archive Wayward Chant (2025) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498794516-V30VC0AF06VCM6UU9HIQ/tag9_still_not_still_07-10-22_politik_im_freien_theater_foto%C2%A9n%C3%B3i+crew_014.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773763533065-RPPGF75ERWRVP09N15XD/M050_ARC_20241023_spectacle_danse_ligia_lewis_still_not_herve_veronese_001+%2851%29.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498183824-M1HGI1D5QPGRTJ2U22J4/2025-12-19_GropiusBau_2378_Frank_Sperling_LQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764287204-4PSAXB9BOHMS55JR9A1W/A+Plot+-+A+Scandal_c_Moritz+Freudenberg-8.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726506694254-XPOQ725NV81T398Q49B6/LigiaLewis_deaderthandead_cordova+copy.jpg archive - deader than dead live @ Cordova (Barcelona) 2022 https://www.contemporaryartlibrary.org/project/ligia-lewis-at-cordova-barcelona-27243 Live work presented at: MUDAM Luxembourg (LU), La Casa Encendida (SP), Cordova (SP), Tono Festival (MX), upcoming Donau Festival (AT) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764972321-B361WCNUDL0SHIU6GRW2/SOMETHINGFOLK_250819_CT0367.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773765616434-DDK7J32DCL1YPJGK7MJ4/WWC3.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606077602645-DB7JPQ4E7GWK2RODB4KJ/image-asset.jpeg archive - deader than dead (2020) live Live work presented at: MUDAM Luxembourg (LU), La Casa Encendida (SP), Cordova (SP), Tono Festival(MX), upcoming Donau Festival (AT) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726502479395-QNYKWVJK4NWVS7NT6YDH/image.jpg archive - study now steady (2023), live commission on view @ Center for Arts, Research and Alliances (CARA) "study now steady" is part of Ligia Lewis' first solo exhibition curated by Manuela Moscoso, Executive Director and Chief Curator, with production and exhibition design by Agustin Schang, and curatorial assistance by Marian Chudnovsky. https://www.cara-nyc.org/program/exhibitions/ligia-lewis-study-now-steady Images by Liz Ligon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774019695482-CPMZCIDQ3RGYA93KAA3M/Water+Will_c_Maria+Baranova-1190.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774159644193-E6W89LRHBCHFAQMTU9LN/07_Lewis_WaterWill.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1706554154753-N21Z38RIR9P2H11P14QW/image.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773763352486-JW5KQG853XSVKB37SMI6/SOMETHINGFOLK_250820_CT2608.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774160766123-EMAHA7AFAMICNGD1AOOX/image-asset.jpeg archive - Still Not Still (scenes for camera) by Ligia Lewis & Moritz Freudenberg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764301695-DEBZB3RBJODACH7AI9QV/A+Plot+-+A+Scandal_c_Moritz+Freudenberg-7+copy.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1706554580407-FYBERB3K838K020HZ199/image.jpg archive - A Plot, A Scandal film on view @ CARA https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774160146654-LE4UWD1ZF503MVJQSBZ5/A+Plot+-+A+Scandal_c_Moritz+Freudenberg-4+copy.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773763279988-RY7C0PV64VZED63H2DGF/HDK_250524_LigiaLewis_Photo_FranzKimmel+%2874%29.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726507027172-PCVVFN86DX720PRUDGNP/image-asset.jpeg archive - deader than dead @ Cordova https://www.contemporaryartlibrary.org/project/ligia-lewis-at-cordova-barcelona-27243 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774160474962-C5CJUZORODYONBM45LKM/OITF_11_Ligia-Lewis_WebRes_06.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1749218131006-S4MXVJNMNV51YBHP9BY0/image-asset.jpeg archive - Ligia Lewis / Water Will (in Melody) Teaser #2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726507818884-DCTIMKD7M6WXQ356Q0MZ/image-asset.jpeg archive - minor matter @ TATE / BMW Tate Live 2017 https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/bmw-tate-live-exhibition-ten-days-six-nights-2 curated by Catherine Wood, Isabella Maidment, and Andrea Lissoni https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1585275690179-XB3WGYNR84WKFJZF3JCB/image-asset.jpeg archive - Sensation 1 / This Interior (High Line Performance) 2019 For the High Line, Lewis expands her solo work Sensation 1 into an hour-long performance for six dancers, scored and performed live by Twin Shadow. The figure of a vocalist who holds her concluding note forms the basis for Sensation 1/This Interior. Lewis stretches this climactic moment into a sustained articulation of feeling and affect across multiple bodies. An ecstatic choreographed form emerges into a collective experience. Concept / Choreography / Light: Ligia Lewis Live Musical Score & Accompaniment: Twin Shadow performed by: Trinity Bobo, Jumatatu Poe, Miguel Guzman, Rebecca Gaul, Emma Cohen, Stephanie Peña Ligia Lewis, Sensation 1/This Interior. A High Line Performance. curator: Melanie Kress https://www.thehighline.org/art/projects/ligia-lewis/ Press: https://hyperallergic.com/519241/navigating-the-portals-between-works-by-ligia-lewis-and-firelei-baez/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726507694687-91ETQOMW9ICBU0H4MW81/image-asset.jpeg archive - minor matter @ OGR Torino 2018 https://ogrtorino.it/en/events/dancing-is-what-we-make-of-falling https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1676121055117-JWWU3ORF6SZQQF4XC94E/image-asset.jpg archive - A Plot / A Scandal (2022) stage work A plot exposed, a foul deed enacted invites scandal. In the spirit of revolution or romantic musings, scandals provoke an imagining of the impossible. Utopian or mundane, how might scandal reveal what lies unwittingly close to our fantasies? And how does it expose where society places its limits? If life is a scandal waiting to be plotted, how do we position ourselves within its matrix? Immoral and lacking propriety, scandals are incidents where fantasy and pleasure take center stage. Guided by the questions of whom this pleasure is for and at what expense, Lewis's new plot explores the stage where scandals abound. Weaving together historical, anecdotal, political, and mythical narratives − ranging from an interest in the Enlightenment thinker John Locke, Maria Olofa (Wolofa) in the slave revolt of Santo Domingo in 1521, Cuban artist and revolutionary Jose Aponte, and Lewis’s great grandmother, a figure Lewis turns to within her plot as a guide of resistance − the choreographer constructs the poetics of refusal at the edges of representation. A dance between affect and embodiment, seeing and being seen, A Plot/A Scandal is a scene in the making where the excitement for that which does not fit might find its place. Concept, Choreography, Direction, Text: Ligia Lewis / Performance: Ligia Lewis / Assistance choreography, Performance: Corey Scott-Gilbert, Justin Kennedy / Research, Dramaturgy: Sarah Lewis-Cappellari / Research: Michael Tsouloukidse / Lighting Design, Technical Direction: Joseph Wegmann / Music Composition, Sound Design: George Lewis Jr AKA Twin Shadow, Wynne Bennett / Sound: Manuel Pessoa de Lima / Set Design: Ligia Lewis / Costume Design: SADAK / Stage Technician: Şenol Şentürk / Production, Administration: Sina Kießling / Production, Distribution: Nicole Schuchardt / Production assistance: Julia Leonhardt https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566760616729-KKU6HTVRQKQY23VAN506/_MG_4759.JPG archive - minor matter @ Converso (Milan) 2017 https://converso.online/en/archive/minor-matter https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498882985-NL2E59T8ESU8EX3JWKME/sns_c_moritz+freudenberg_1.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726508394480-5688D4AYXF54101IKX8H/image-asset.jpeg archive - minor matter @ TATE live https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/bmw-tate-live-exhibition-ten-days-six-nights-2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726503246004-NHLSBLLGDNVKHDRMGMWR/image-asset.jpeg archive - Senstion 1 / This Interior (2019) https://www.thehighline.org/art/projects/ligia-lewis/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566694758056-YN30THZRWWKTP9I7IDG0/3C2E812E-E2EF-47A3-BA44-4DD2622D7DEA.jpeg archive - Sorrow Swag ( among other monsters) @ Jessica Silverman Gallery 2019 As part of Empathy Lab , Lewis reimagines her former stage work- Sorrow Swag, to further illuminate the politics of bearing witness to a body in flux and in a constant state of transformation. Relationally at play with the other objects in the room, Lewis uses monsters, understood culturally and racially, as a point of departure for this iteration. Concept/Choreography : Ligia Lewis sound: Twin Shadow light: Joseph Wegmann photo: Jennifer Bindman, on view at Jessica Silverman Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498224204-DEWE8M7YI4QWH4FS9PO5/2025-12-19_GropiusBau_2196_Frank_Sperling_LQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1635521978975-W7EEWTJ5OEHLH4QNEWRF/image-asset.jpg archive - Still Not Still (scenes for camera) by Ligia Lewis & Moritz Freudenberg Lewis develops a choreography for seven performers, a composition that emerges out of the dark space that is history for black and non-Western subjects. In response to this exclusion from the past, Lewis leverages darkness as a site for critical imaging and imagining. She makes use of the Early musical form of a “complainte” - a prolonged lament or musical poem. Through the confluence of comedy and tragedy, Lewis evokes with poetic and comedic force a unique theatrical language full of dark humor and surrealist imagery, disrupting any fantasy of historical progress. Thus, Lewis imagines a world out of time, a world at a standstill. Can a history full of bad faith, gaps, and holes, particularly for those that fall outs- ide its purview, be left to the past? Can history then, or a particular form of it, be deadened, exposed as a corpse, and stripped of reason? Given history is fallible and insufficient, and overdetermined by its victors, what might emerge once it is laid to rest? "Still Not Still" emerges from these conceptual questions, and, in response, makes an attempt to step to the side of the past. Concept, choreography & artistic direction: Ligia Lewis Performance: Boglárka Börcsök, Darius Dolatyari, Corey-Scott Gilbert, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Justin Kennedy, Jolie Ngemi, Damian Rebgetz Dramaturgy: Maja Zimmermann Outside Eye: Dragana Bulut Lighting design & technical direction: Joseph Wegmann Set design: Claudia Besuch (Gali) Costume: Marta Martino Sound design & composition: S. McKenna Acoustic & electric guitar: Joey Gavin Assistance: Lissa-Johanna Volquartz Production management: Hannes Frey (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) Production assistance: Vera Laube (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) Touring & distribution: Nicole Schuchardt (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) Production: Ligia Lewis / HAU Hebbel am Ufer Co-production: tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Arsenic - Centre d'art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), Black Box teater (Oslo), Arts Centre Vooruit (Ghent), Gessneral- lee (Zürich), Dance International Glasgow / Tramway Funded by: Capital Cultural Fund (Berlin) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726505007425-Z55HOFXUXNJZ7PL0NDLT/image-asset.jpeg archive - Melancholy: A White Mellow Drama at Palais de Tokyo (2015) Concept / Choreography / Direction / Light: Ligia Lewis performed by: Boglarka Borcsok sound design: Wynn https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774019701050-G7CNZ1LTPUK39UGF2ISB/Water+Will_c_Maria+Baranova-1190.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764766669-C77YG3W1ZBT60W9D9SRS/MOCA_LL_5.5.23_aplotascandal_c.ElonSchoenholz.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774160273221-XSZ22SU07IE177VCV9MR/StillNotStill_d.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498337033-FHJSF9HU5UKNCDMR3ERV/2025-12-19_GropiusBau_1713_Frank_Sperling_LQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1707601998581-ZEEWFTAQZGP24P190FLI/image-asset.jpg archive - Still Not Still (2021) produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theater Lewis develops a choreography for seven performers, a composition that emerges out of the dark space that is history for black and non-Western subjects. In response to this exclusion from the past, Lewis leverages darkness as a site for critical imaging and imagining. She makes use of the Early musical form of a “complainte” - a prolonged lament or musical poem. Through the confluence of comedy and tragedy, Lewis evokes with poetic and comedic force a unique theatrical language full of dark humor and surrealist imagery, disrupting any fantasy of historical progress. Thus, Lewis imagines a world out of time, a world at a standstill. Can a history full of bad faith, gaps, and holes, particularly for those that fall outside its purview, be left to the past? Can history then, or a particular form, be deadened, exposed as a corpse, and stripped of reason? Given that history is fallible, insufficient, and overdetermined by its victors, what might emerge once it is laid to rest? "Still Not Still" emerges from these conceptual questions, and, in response, attempts to step to the side of the past. Concept, choreography & artistic direction: Ligia Lewis Text: Ligia Lewis, in collaboration with performers Performance: Boglárka Börcsök, Darius Dolatyari, Corey-Scott Gilbert, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Justin Kennedy, Jolie Ngemi, Damian Rebgetz Dramaturgy: Maja Zimmermann Outside Eye: Dragana Bulut Lighting design & technical direction: Joseph Wegmann Set design: Claudia Besuch (Gali) Costume: Marta Martino Sound design & composition: S. McKenna Acoustic & electric guitar: Joey Gavin Assistance: Lissa-Johanna Volquartz Production management: Hannes Frey (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) Production assistance: Vera Laube (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) Touring & distribution: Nicole Schuchardt (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) Production: Ligia Lewis / HAU Hebbel am Ufer Co-production: tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Arsenic - Centre d'art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), Black Box teater (Oslo), Arts Centre Vooruit (Ghent), Gessneral- lee (Zürich), Dance International Glasgow / Tramway Funded by: Capital Cultural Fund (Berlin) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498335295-F0SEHN3AJTXV8KIMYT97/2025-12-19_GropiusBau_1298_Frank_Sperling_LQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764040787-5RA17E7AOVK7BPK7K2O7/Copy+of+2025-11-25_Gropius-Bau_0061-bea_Frank_Sperling_HQ+copy.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606075641219-95Q0H6OIOF0JP0CIODZ2/image.jpg archive - deader than dead For Made in L.A. 2020, Lewis has conceived and directed deader than dead, which began with an intrigue-based inquiry into deadpan, an impassive mannerism deployed in comedic fashion in order to illustrate emotional distance. Utilizing this expression as a type of stasis, Lewis initially developed a choreography for ten dancers that remained expressively flat or dead, resisting any narrative or representational hold tied to a climactic build or progression. Lewis had relegated deader than dead to this corner of the gallery (a kind of “dead” space) where the dance would ostensibly emerge, although deadened in its repetition, limited in its fate, as it ricocheted from wall to wall. She abandoned this recursive ensemble of death due to COVID-19, reducing the cast to four performers and pivoting to a more traditionally theatrical presentation. In this new work the dancers use Macbeth’s culminating soliloquy (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” a reflection on repetition and meaninglessness) as the beginning of a work that unfolds in modular parts, each one an illustration or parody of death, stasis, and the void, each one tied to its own carefully selected soundtrack or sample. The work is full of play but is also a meditation on “playing,” or acting, as well as on tragedy’s recurring cycles and familiarity within Black and brown experience; on time, as it loops; on performance; on touch, as an act of both care and violence. The work is built in the form of a musical lament, a protracted complaint on loop performed ad infinitum, decomposing itself along the way. Yet Lewis presents her grim subject—the farce of progress—with a healthy dose of humor and comedic tropes, riffing on the concept of “corpsing”—a theater term for unintentional laughter at a noncomedic moment, “playing straight” during a humorous scene, or simply breaking character. Corpsing, in the words of the philosopher David Marriott, is associated with “moments in which an actor exceeds the limits of theater and no longer is in command of a role.” But in those slippages in character, he states: “if black life matters, it cannot be as . . . the poetical grasp of a historical meaning, nor as the breathless emergence of a politics of ascent. For such roles are not meant for the living; they depend on the idea that blacks can only perform and perfect the role of their deaths, and that they should do so forever.” Lewis’s performance was postponed because of limitations placed on the gallery’s capacity in response to COVID-19. Thus it will be presented at the exhibition’s end on an expanded version of this floor, which serves as a set for the work. The floor you stand on now acts as an index—a trace, a mark—of the performance that happened behind closed doors solely for documentation purposes. But perhaps more importantly, it represents the potential of the performance to come. The artist invites you to stand here and watch a film documenting the live-work using the QR code to your right below. https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2020-version/ligia-lewis Ligia Lewis (American Dominican, b. 1983) deader than dead, 2020 Mixed-media performance documented on HD video, color, sound 19:39 min. Courtesy of the artist deader than dead by Ligia Lewis (concept, artistic direction, choreography, set design) in creation with: Performers: Ligia Lewis, Jasper Marsalis, Jasmine Orpilla, and Austyn Rich Sound dramaturgy, design, and film score: Slauson Malone, with excerpts by S McKenna Costume design: Marta Martino Texts: Ligia Lewis, Ian Randolph, Shakespeare, and Ian McKellen on Shakespeare Song: Guillaume de Machaut, “Complainte: Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure (Le remède de Fortune),” ca. 1340s Wigs: Gabrielle Curebal Film Credits Conceived and directed by Ligia Lewis Produced by Reza Monahan Studio and Jim Fetterley Production Director of photography / A-camera operator: Sean Morris Gaffer: Eric S. Foster B-camera operator: Steven Wetrich C-camera operator: Alex Zarth Key grip: Gilbert Charles Butler Production sound recorder: Christopher Trueman Digital imaging technician: Dillon Novak Production assistant: Yusuke Ito COVID compliance officer: Jennifer Doyle Postproduction Postproduction supervisor: Reza Monahan Studio Postproduction coordinator: Sean Morris Editors: Ligia Lewis and Steven Wetrich Sound designer / sound mixer: Christina Nguyen Additional support for this project was provided by Human Resources, Los Angeles. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498967828-KDH56V5WI4HZH5EZY3BL/IMG_0802.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764501420-I4NFRRCSY3WOPADNPY2O/2025-12-19_GropiusBau_0221-Verbessert-RR_Frank_Sperling_HQ+%281%29+copy.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764730517-KX0FV7C6XPT61JA3GH4P/B.Sorrow+Swag_LigiaLewis_c_Dieter+Hartwig_1+2.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606076902787-5CRUT9AKNZ2NN4RE8Q8L/image-asset.jpeg archive For Made in L.A. 2020, Lewis has conceived and directed deader than dead, which began with an intrigue-based inquiry into deadpan, an impassive mannerism deployed in comedic fashion in order to illustrate emotional distance. Utilizing this expression as a type of stasis, Lewis initially developed a choreography for ten dancers that remained expressively flat or dead, resisting any narrative or representational hold tied to a climactic build or progression. Lewis had relegated deader than dead to this corner of the gallery (a kind of “dead” space) where the dance would ostensibly emerge, although deadened in its repetition, limited in its fate, as it ricocheted from wall to wall. She abandoned this recursive ensemble of death due to COVID-19, reducing the cast to four performers and pivoting to a more traditionally theatrical presentation. In this new work the dancers use Macbeth’s culminating soliloquy (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” a reflection on repetition and meaninglessness) as the beginning of a work that unfolds in modular parts, each one an illustration or parody of death, stasis, and the void, each one tied to its own carefully selected soundtrack or sample. The work is full of play but is also a meditation on “playing,” or acting, as well as on tragedy’s recurring cycles and familiarity within Black and brown experience; on time, as it loops; on performance; on touch, as an act of both care and violence. The work is built in the form of a musical lament, a protracted complaint on loop performed ad infinitum, decomposing itself along the way. Yet Lewis presents her grim subject—the farce of progress—with a healthy dose of humor and comedic tropes, riffing on the concept of “corpsing”—a theater term for unintentional laughter at a noncomedic moment, “playing straight” during a humorous scene, or simply breaking character. Corpsing, in the words of the philosopher David Marriott, is associated with “moments in which an actor exceeds the limits of theater and no longer is in command of a role.”1 But in those slippages in character, he states: “if black life matters, it cannot be as . . . the poetical grasp of a historical meaning, nor as the breathless emergence of a politics of ascent. For such roles are not meant for the living; they depend on the idea that blacks can only perform and perfect the role of their deaths, and that they should do so forever.”2 deader than dead by Ligia Lewis (concept, artistic direction, choreography, set design) in creation with: Performers: Ligia Lewis, Jasper Marsalis, Jasmine Orpilla, and Austyn Rich Sound dramaturgy, design, and film score: Slauson Malone, with excerpts by S McKenna Costume design: Marta Martino Texts: Ligia Lewis, Ian Randolph, Shakespeare, and Ian McKellen on Shakespeare Song: Guillaume de Machaut, “Complainte: Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure (Le remède de Fortune),” ca. 1340s Wigs: Gabrielle Curebal Film Credits Conceived and directed by Ligia Lewis Produced by Reza Monahan Studio and Jim Fetterley Edited by Steven Wetrich and Ligia Lewis https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2020-version/ligia-lewis https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773765664699-649O3UZL3JK5CSN7FRTD/0039_quick_selects_LigiaLewis.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773763291573-8RLJVPU8RTC040MXDEF3/HDK_250524_LigiaLewis_Photo_FranzKimmel+%2898%29.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606075683520-4WA7C8HMTNO8KVV8QVVN/image-asset.jpeg archive For Made in L.A. 2020, Lewis has produced and directed deader than dead, which began with an intrigue-based inquiry into deadpan, an impassive mannerism deployed in comedic fashion in order to illustrate emotional distance. Utilizing this expression as a type of stasis, Lewis initially developed a choreography for ten dancers that remained expressively flat or dead, resisting any narrative or representational hold tied to a climactic build or progression. Lewis had relegated deader than dead to this corner of the gallery (a kind of “dead” space) where the dance would ostensibly emerge, although deadened in its repetition, limited in its fate, as it ricocheted from wall to wall. She abandoned this recursive ensemble of death due to COVID-19, reducing the cast to four performers and pivoting to a more traditionally theatrical presentation. In this new work the dancers use Macbeth’s culminating soliloquy (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” a reflection on repetition and meaninglessness) as the beginning of a work that unfolds in modular parts, each one an illustration or parody of death, stasis, and the void, each one tied to its own carefully selected soundtrack or sample. The work is full of play but is also a meditation on “playing,” or acting, as well as on tragedy’s recurring cycles and familiarity within Black and brown experience; on time, as it loops; on performance; on touch, as an act of both care and violence. The work is built in the form of a musical lament, a protracted complaint on loop performed ad infinitum, decomposing itself along the way. Yet Lewis presents her grim subject—the farce of progress—with a healthy dose of humor and comedic tropes, riffing on the concept of “corpsing”—a theater term for unintentional laughter at a noncomedic moment, “playing straight” during a humorous scene, or simply breaking character. Corpsing, in the words of the philosopher David Marriott, is associated with “moments in which an actor exceeds the limits of theater and no longer is in command of a role.” But in those slippages in character, he states: “if black life matters, it cannot be as . . . the poetical grasp of a historical meaning, nor as the breathless emergence of a politics of ascent. For such roles are not meant for the living; they depend on the idea that blacks can only perform and perfect the role of their deaths, and that they should do so forever.” Lewis’s performance was postponed because of limitations placed on the gallery’s capacity in response to COVID-19. Thus it will be presented at the exhibition’s end on an expanded version of this floor, which serves as a set for the work. The floor you stand on now acts as an index—a trace, a mark—of the performance that happened behind closed doors solely for documentation purposes. But perhaps more importantly, it represents the potential of the performance to come. The artist invites you to stand here and watch a film documenting the live-work using the QR code to your right below. https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2020-version/ligia-lewis Ligia Lewis (American Dominican, b. 1983) deader than dead, 2020 Mixed-media performance documented on HD video, color, sound 19:39 min. Courtesy of the artist deader than dead by Ligia Lewis (concept, artistic direction, choreography, set design) in creation with: Performers: Ligia Lewis, Jasper Marsalis, Jasmine Orpilla, and Austyn Rich Sound dramaturgy, design, and film score: Slauson Malone, with excerpts by S McKenna Costume design: Marta Martino Texts: Ligia Lewis, Ian Randolph, Shakespeare, and Ian McKellen on Shakespeare Song: Guillaume de Machaut, “Complainte: Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure (Le remède de Fortune),” ca. 1340s Wigs: Gabrielle Curebal Film Credits Conceived and directed by Ligia Lewis Produced by Reza Monahan Studio and Jim Fetterley Production Director of photography / A-camera operator: Sean Morris Gaffer: Eric S. Foster B-camera operator: Steven Wetrich C-camera operator: Alex Zarth Key grip: Gilbert Charles Butler Production sound recorder: Christopher Trueman Digital imaging technician: Dillon Novak Production assistant: Yusuke Ito COVID compliance officer: Jennifer Doyle Postproduction Postproduction supervisor: Reza Monahan Studio Postproduction coordinator: Sean Morris Editors: Ligia Lewis and Steven Wetrich Sound designer / sound mixer: Christina Nguyen Additional support for this project was provided by Human Resources, Los Angeles. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566792620913-7S9WWVNYDTB6HCZPB7CL/LigiaLewisMM_2+%282%29.jpeg archive - Minor Matter @ Human Resources Los Angeles 2015 by Ligia Lewis, with performer Kenneth Nicholson, musical arrangement WYNN https://www.artforum.com/columns/catherine-damman-on-ligia-lewiss-minor-matter-at-human-resources-la-223032/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764054935-TUOS7GSA8URL86ASQ6GS/minormatter_c.mariabaranova.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566778143918-B90J1M1QBQI64NDM2YBF/LigiaLewisMM_3.jpg archive - Minor Matter @ Human Resources Los Angeles 2015 https://www.artforum.com/performance/catherine-damman-on-ligia-lewis-s-minor-matter-at-human-resources-la-50144 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774019296870-YJURQUOHFEGMYQRIJ8DZ/image-asset.jpeg archive - melodrama- study for water will in melody https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606074429385-EWTO0E2HG03O713I86V3/LigiaLewis_videostill22.jpg archive - deader than dead https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2020-version/ligia-lewis https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773499005616-OG8D9LR8C6BGS9CW2KE0/IMG_0799.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774159725157-R3WOJX67IRXU886KA9TD/MM_RepertoireHAU17_013.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566789917702-COHXPDKMRC7UNHHO0J3H/%24%24%24_1.jpg archive - $$$ @ X-Choreografin / Tanz im August 2012 https://www.academia.edu/18145173/Movement_Sensation_Texture_Ligia_Lewis https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566758939294-1V138WC113CHVCX6MY5C/c_Julien+Barbe%CC%80s_ligia_waterwill.jpg archive - Water Will (in Melody) (2018) Water Will (in Melody) is a devised choreographic work for four performers, using melodrama as a point of departure. Wrestling with language and notions of “the will”, this dystopian fantasy becomes a space for negotiating desire, imagination, and feelings of an encroaching end. Unfolding with playful inventiveness, a wet and cavernous landscape becomes host to a fiction that invites instability, recreation, and catastrophe. Lewis creates a world with four performers, 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-like materiality translucent to its metaphoric and symbolic weight. Surrendering to the possibilities of the haptic, sense gets un-done to get re-done, paving 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. Concept & Choreography/Direction: Ligia Lewis in creation with perfomers: Susanne Sachsse, Dani Brown, Titilayo Adebayo replacement: Jolie Ngemi Dramaturgy: Maja Zimmermann Sound design: S. McKenna Light design: Ariel Efraim Ashbel Technical director & light technician: Catalina Fernandez Stage design: Eike Böttcher Costume design: sowrong studio Assistant: Gilad Bendavid, Carina Zox Production management: HAU Artist Office / Sabine Seifert Touring & distribution: HAU Artist Office / Nicole Schuchardt Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe Supported by: Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC) Thanks to: Jarrett Gregory for residency support and Ahmad Larnes for production support photo by Julien Barbes film by Moritz Freudenberg Production: Ligia Lewis / HAU Hebbel am Ufer Co-production: Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018 / Centre D’Art Contemporain (Genève), tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Arsenic Centre d'art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), donaufestival (Krems), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566692450188-09DTXV73MPKE659SNZYI/54A23420-D6BC-476B-9B6C-02DE3F629005.jpeg archive - so something happened, get over it; no nothing happened, get with it 2018 Water Pressure curated by Myriam Ben Salah for Jaou Tunis 2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498332967-CDH9HSLOJFZBEI0536MF/mm_pressimage3_c_marthaglenn.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773498330838-SBCTO0VSJYVO412Y6X05/2025-12-19_GropiusBau_2178_Frank_Sperling_LQ.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566683650497-5J1SW6AZ3W6GIG7RZ2AC/LigiaLewis-PSNY_JuliettaCervantes.jpg archive - minor matter minor matter (2016) minor matter is the second part of Lewis’s trilogy, which began with Sorrow Swag in blue, constructed for three performers. Two discursive apparatuses are at play—blackness and the black box. In this work, Lewis turns to the color red to materialize thoughts between love and rage. The work unfolds multi-directionally creating a poetics of dissonance from which questions of re-presentation, presentation, abstraction, and the limits of signification emerge. Throughout the choreography the performers push their bodies against the boundaries of the stage simultaneously illustrating a humble relationship between their bodies and the space that encapsulates them. In minor matter, sound travels across musical epochs to arrive at the poetics of the intimate present. Built on the logic of interdependence, the theater’s parts—light, sound, image, and architecture—become entangled with the three performers, giving life to a vibrant social and poetic space. Ligia Lewis was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Production for minor matter (2017) opening lines of minor matter are excerpts taken from Remi Raji’s “Dreamtalk” Concept & Choreography: Ligia Lewis in creation with performers: Jonathan Gonzalez, Hector Thami Manekehla replacement: Tiran Willemse, Corey-Scott Gilbert, Keyon Gaskin Musical Dramaturgy: Michal Libera Sound Design: Jassem Hindi, Styling: Alona Rodeh, Lights: Andreas Harder & Joseph Wegmann Dramaturgy: Ariel Efraim Ashbel, Assistance: Martha Glenn, Press & Production/Distribution: Nicole Schuchardt - HAU Hebbel am Ufer minor matter is a production by Ligia Lewis in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by the Governing Mayor of Berlin - Senate Chancellery - Cultural Affairs and Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. Additional support provided by residencies at FD-13, PACT Zollverein, and collective address. Other presentations include: BMW Tate Live Exhibition: Ten Days Six Nights, Stedelijk Museum with Julidans, WoWmen Festival/Kaaitheater, CONVERSO photo: Martha Glenn, Julia Cervantes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566775986335-DUONR6Y207R6T7MXOI14/sensaiion1_ngbk.jpg archive - Sensation 1 @ NGBK gallery Berlin 2015 “This single gesture of singing extended through time explodes its references to singing as such and creates a different kind of affect altogether. A sculptural choreography takes form, what is left is an abstractly sensing body articulating a particular sensation of the sensational”- Timothy Murray The amplification and extension of a moment in time, the utterance and suspension of a final spellbinding note made mute, the gesture of a singing body in rapture is illuminated in total silence. Sensation 1 is a social study of the cult of the pop “Diva.” Over time the singular gesture potentiates the richness and expressivity of the body at work in sustained climax. The choreography is reduced to its essentials, as we witness the effort of a body wailing silence. Concept/Direction: Ligia Lewis Performance: Martin Hansen (NGBK gallery, Art Basel Liste Program 2014 Music: Whitney Houston “I will always love you” (Divas Live, 1999 live performance) produced with support from sommer.bar/TanzimAugust/Basel Liste 2014 photo : Alex Coggin https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726505545452-2Q7V34Y9GS118U2E7ZCP/image-asset.jpeg archive - Sensation 1 @ sommer.bar / Tanz im August 2011 This single gesture of singing extended through time explodes its references to singing as such and creates a different kind of affect altogether. A sculptural choreography takes form, what is left is an abstractly sensing body articulating a particular sensation of the sensational- Timothy Murray Concept/Direction: Ligia Lewis Performance: Ligia Lewis (Tanz im August), Martin Hansen (NGBK gallery, Art Basel Liste Program ) Music: Whitney Houston “I will always love you” (Divas Live, 1999 live performance) produced with support from sommer.bar/TanzimAugust/Basel Liste 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773764634524-TTCJB040OX1NUIX0129R/A+Plot+-+A+Scandal-6_c_Moritz+Freudenberg+.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606072239537-02122MBQH5QW0A2EXOT3/image.jpg archive - deader than dead For Made in L.A. 2020, Lewis has produced and directed deader than dead, which began with an intrigue-based inquiry into deadpan, an impassive mannerism deployed in comedic fashion in order to illustrate emotional distance. Utilizing this expression as a type of stasis, Lewis initially developed a choreography for ten dancers that remained expressively flat or dead, resisting any narrative or representational hold tied to a climactic build or progression. Lewis had relegated deader than dead to this corner of the gallery (a kind of “dead” space) where the dance would ostensibly emerge, although deadened in its repetition, limited in its fate, as it ricocheted from wall to wall. She abandoned this recursive ensemble of death due to COVID-19, reducing the cast to four performers and pivoting to a more traditionally theatrical presentation. In this new work the dancers use Macbeth’s culminating soliloquy (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” a reflection on repetition and meaninglessness) as the beginning of a work that unfolds in modular parts, each one an illustration or parody of death, stasis, and the void, each one tied to its own carefully selected soundtrack or sample. The work is full of play but is also a meditation on “playing,” or acting, as well as on tragedy’s recurring cycles and familiarity within Black and brown experience; on time, as it loops; on performance; on touch, as an act of both care and violence. The work is built in the form of a musical lament, a protracted complaint on loop performed ad infinitum, decomposing itself along the way. Yet Lewis presents her grim subject—the farce of progress—with a healthy dose of humor and comedic tropes, riffing on the concept of “corpsing”—a theater term for unintentional laughter at a noncomedic moment, “playing straight” during a humorous scene, or simply breaking character. Corpsing, in the words of the philosopher David Marriott, is associated with “moments in which an actor exceeds the limits of theater and no longer is in command of a role.” But in those slippages in character, he states: “if black life matters, it cannot be as . . . the poetical grasp of a historical meaning, nor as the breathless emergence of a politics of ascent. For such roles are not meant for the living; they depend on the idea that blacks can only perform and perfect the role of their deaths, and that they should do so forever.” Lewis’s performance was postponed because of limitations placed on the gallery’s capacity in response to COVID-19. Thus it will be presented at the exhibition’s end on an expanded version of this floor, which serves as a set for the work. The floor you stand on now acts as an index—a trace, a mark—of the performance that happened behind closed doors solely for documentation purposes. But perhaps more importantly, it represents the potential of the performance to come. The artist invites you to stand here and watch a film documenting the live-work using the QR code to your right below. https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2020-version/ligia-lewis Ligia Lewis (American Dominican, b. 1983) deader than dead, 2020 Mixed-media performance documented on HD video, color, sound 19:39 min. Courtesy of the artist deader than dead by Ligia Lewis (concept, artistic direction, choreography, set design) in creation with: Performers: Ligia Lewis, Jasper Marsalis, Jasmine Orpilla, and Austyn Rich Sound dramaturgy, design, and film score: Slauson Malone, with excerpts by S McKenna Costume design: Marta Martino Texts: Ligia Lewis, Ian Randolph, Shakespeare, and Ian McKellen on Shakespeare Song: Guillaume de Machaut, “Complainte: Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure (Le remède de Fortune),” ca. 1340s Wigs: Gabrielle Curebal Film Credits Produced by Reza Monahan Studio and Jim Fetterley Production Director of photography / A-camera operator: Sean Morris Gaffer: Eric S. Foster B-camera operator: Steven Wetrich C-camera operator: Alex Zarth Key grip: Gilbert Charles Butler Production sound recorder: Christopher Trueman Digital imaging technician: Dillon Novak Production assistant: Yusuke Ito COVID compliance officer: Jennifer Doyle Postproduction Postproduction supervisor: Reza Monahan Studio Postproduction coordinator: Sean Morris Editors: Ligia Lewis and Steven Wetrich Sound designer / sound mixer: Christina Nguyen Additional support for this project was provided by Human Resources, Los Angeles. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566890325291-8VZJMH7PF9NP3HO8RXO7/ligialewis_rietveld+talk.jpg archive - talk with Rizvana Bradley and Erin Manning / Touch After Finitude, Stedelijk Museum (Hold Me Now- Studium Generale Rietveld Academie) 2018 http://holdmenow.rietveldacademie.nl/conference/theres-a-tear-in-the-world-touch-after-finitude/ligia-lewis-in-conversation-with-rizvana-bradley-about-minor-matter https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774159638947-Z4814R6CDIEGDLMUDZ98/07_Lewis_WaterWill.jpg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1606072445603-DTVWDTFNOMRPWZADH3ZS/image-asset.jpeg archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774159973236-159VVJYU8X5I8T494T4G/Lewis+68.jpg archive https://ligialewis.com/stage daily 0.75 2026-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773762700433-WWU8LO5AA5MY2HRPGZXD/image-asset.jpeg stage - Some Thing Folk (2025) / CULLBERG “to steal a folk is to kill a folk, this is the end of some thing folk” Concept, Choreography and Artistic Direction: Ligia Lewis Light Design: Joseph Wegmann Costume: Sadak Sound Design: George Lewis Jr aka Twin Shadow Musical Composition: Anton Kats Scenography: Ligia Lewis, Pia Gyll Choreographic Assistant: Corey Scott Gilbert Created in collaboration with the dancers: Anand Bolder, Andrea Muelas Blanco, Arika Yamada, Camille Prieux, Girish Kumar Rachappa, Harrison Elliott, Ida ”Inxi” Holmlund, Johanna Tengan, Johanna Willig-Rosenstein, Lilian Steiner, Mohamed “Shika” Saleh, Noam Segal, Panos Paraschou, Thamiris Carvalho, Vincent Van der Plas and the apprentices Ida Hebsgaard Mogensen och Ida Osten https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/66e7e2544d696171f0cd93d2/69ad889f9c7ba5147484a578/1773762434609/SOMETHINGFOLK_250819_CT0673.jpg stage - Some Thing Folk (CULLBERG/Ligia Lewis) (2025) “to steal a folk, is to kill a folk, this is the end of some thing folk” Concept, Choreography, Artistic Direction Ligia Lewis Performance: Cullberg Dancers Lighting design Joseph Wegmann Costumes Sadak Sound design George Lewis Jr aka Twin Shadow Musical Composition Anton Kats Scenography Ligia Lewis,Pia Gyll Choreographic Assistance Corey Scott Gilbert Prodcuction Cullberg Coproduction Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, PACT Zollverein https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1773762700433-WWU8LO5AA5MY2HRPGZXD/image-asset.jpeg stage - Some Thing Folk (2025) / CULLBERG “to steal a folk is to kill a folk, this is the end of some thing folk” Concept, Choreography and Artistic Direction: Ligia Lewis Light Design: Joseph Wegmann Costume: Sadak Sound Design: George Lewis Jr aka Twin Shadow Musical Composition: Anton Kats Scenography: Ligia Lewis, Pia Gyll Choreographic Assistant: Corey Scott Gilbert Created in collaboration with the dancers: Anand Bolder, Andrea Muelas Blanco, Arika Yamada, Camille Prieux, Girish Kumar Rachappa, Harrison Elliott, Ida ”Inxi” Holmlund, Johanna Tengan, Johanna Willig-Rosenstein, Lilian Steiner, Mohamed “Shika” Saleh, Noam Segal, Panos Paraschou, Thamiris Carvalho, Vincent Van der Plas and the apprentices Ida Hebsgaard Mogensen och Ida Osten https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1772983490112-GMZOCCGCT1OKD9T3LP2A/image-asset.jpeg stage - Still Not Still (2021) “facts are simply perceptions and surfaces, you go round and round fall on the ground” Interview Concept, Choreography, Artistic Direction Ligia Lewis. in process with and performed by Boglárka Börcsök, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, Corey Scott-Gilbert, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Justin F. Kennedy, Nasheeka Nedsreal, (Jolie Ngemi), Damian Rebgetz. Text Ligia Lewis, in collaboration with performers Dramaturgy Maja Zimmermann Outside Eye Dragana Bulut Lighting design & technical direction Joseph Wegmann Set design Claudia Besuch (Gali) Costume Marta Martino Sound design & composition S. McKenna Management, production & distribution Nicole Schuchardt, Godlive Lawani–Stane Performing Arts Management trailer Ligia Lewis and Moritz Freudenberg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1752649390870-M5I15IZUXHNFN4TDQB4Q/image-asset.jpg stage - A Plot / A Scandal (2022) “some stories are hard to tell, lucky for us ghosts don’t die so easily” Interview Concept, Choreography, Artistic Direction, Scenography, Text: Ligia Lewis. Co-performers/Assistance: Corey Scott-Gilbert, Justin F. Kennedy Dramaturgy, Research assistant: Sarah Lewis-Cappellari. Original musical composition: George Lewis Jr. and Wynne Bennett. Light Design: Joseph Wegman. Press quote: “Lewis’s working method offers a compelling counterpoint to genealogy. Instead of tracing history’s fissures, she tugs at its contours, distorting them.” —Artforum https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1772980069082-08WZWWOC7MR5ARF1QYA9/image-asset.jpg stage - Some Thing Folk (CULLBERG/Ligia Lewis) Concept, Choreography, Artistic Direction Ligia Lewis Performance Cullberg Dancers Lighting design Joseph Wegmann Costumes Sadak ‍ ‍ Musical Composition Anton Kats Sound design George Lewis Jr aka Twin Shadow Scenography Ligia Lewis,Pia Gyll Choreographic Assistance Corey Scott Gilbert Production Cullberg Coproduction Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, PACT Zollverein https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726500807667-3819OCJSZHAHPMKEKDJB/image-asset.jpeg stage - Water Will (In Melody) (2018) Concept, Choreography & Artistic Direction: Ligia Lewis in creation with and performed by: Dani Brown, Ligia Lewis, Jolie Ngemi, Susanne Sachsse Light design: Ariel Efraim Ashbel Scenic concept: Ligia Lewis Technical direction: Catalina Fernandez Costume design: sowrong Production: Ligia Lewis / HAU Hebbel am Ufer Coproduction: 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. Press:Karen Archey, Frieze Magazine issue 206, October 2019 more info: https://www.stanepam.com/artists/ligialewis/waterwill/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726501455276-SZSPQ7R2L4XYKQYJWE9M/image-asset.jpeg stage - minor matter (2016) “I would like to tell you something you know but never know.”— Remi Raji’s “dreamtalk” Concept & Choreography & Artistic Direction: Ligia Lewis in creation with and performed by: Jonathan Gonzalez, Ligia Lewis, Thami Manekehla alternating performers: Corey Scott-Gilbert, Tiran Willemse, keyon gaskin Musical concept: Ligia Lewis Musical Dramaturgy: Michal Libera & Ligia Lewis Light Design: Andrew Harder Press quote: It turns out utopia is going to have to coexist with apocalypse and that both have been with us all along. Lewis’s work offers a kind of oblique blueprint for how joy, hope, anger, and despair are all always the case, using the paradigma6c fact of blackness- Hannah Black, 4Columns, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/arts/dance/best-dance.html more info: https://www.stane-pam.com/artists/ligialewis/minormatter/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726586639636-7O34P4ZQDT78BE6H32SC/image-asset.jpeg stage - Sorrow Swag (2014) Concept, Choreography, Direction: Ligia Lewis in creation with and Performed by: Brian Getnick Alternating Performers: Andrew Hardwidge, Martin Hansen Musical Arrangement: George Lewis Jr. (aka Twin Shadow) Light design: Ligia Lewis Production: Ligia Lewis Supported by: Human Resources Los Angeles, ADA Studio Berlin, and Pieter Space (Los Angeles) Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe Press quote: In Sorrow Swag, the path from the political to the primal is direct, if only we are brave enough to face its undeniable pain- Sara Lyons, Contemporary performance https://brooklynrail.org/2016/02/dance/out-of-the-blue-ligia-lewis/ more info: https://www.stanepam.com/artists/ligialewis/sorrowswag/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726487301967-8K07DVP4HGMVEN582ZGW/image-asset.jpeg stage - A Plot, A Scandal (2023) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726485067463-LPFMWBR3EEKOIS89BU1P/image-asset.jpg stage - A Plot, A Scandal (2023) https://ligialewis.com/film daily 0.75 2026-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726491588317-61VM0F4JED24WW4LU456/image-asset.jpeg dance films - A Plot, A Scandal (2023) A Plot, A Scandal, a film by Ligia Lewis Featuring Corey Scott-Gilbert and Ligia Lewis. Scored by George Lewis Jr (AKA Twin Shadow) and Wynne Bennett Concept, Screenplay, and Directing: Ligia Lewis Director of Photography: Moritz Freudenberg Editing: Dragana Jovanović Commissioned by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) Full film 20 min Press: NY Times, Frieze Presented at: Center for Arts Research and Alliances, NYC (US), Whitney Biennial 2024, Spazio Griot/ Mattatoio (IT), Arika (GB-SCT), Actoral Marseille (FR), MUBI US, UK, CANADA upcoming Haus der Kunst (DE) The Stench of the Cry: Listening to A Plot A Scandal: Mlondi Zondi https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726491588317-61VM0F4JED24WW4LU456/image-asset.jpeg dance films - A Plot, A Scandal (2023) A Plot, A Scandal, a film by Ligia Lewis Featuring Corey Scott-Gilbert and Ligia Lewis. Scored by George Lewis Jr (AKA Twin Shadow) and Wynne Bennett Concept, Screenplay, and Directing: Ligia Lewis Director of Photography: Moritz Freudenberg Editing: Dragana Jovanović Commissioned by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) Full film 20 min Press: NY Times, Frieze Presented at: Center for Arts Research and Alliances, NYC (US), Whitney Biennial 2024, Spazio Griot/ Mattatoio (IT), Arika (GB-SCT), Actoral Marseille (FR), MUBI US, UK, CANADA upcoming Haus der Kunst (DE) The Stench of the Cry: Listening to A Plot A Scandal: Mlondi Zondi https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726487649819-H2RGPHA6F0VLQ7HVRPSN/image-asset.octet-stream dance films https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1726502059811-1VBFVULPD5DFBTHA1RLW/0083_quick_selects_LigiaLewis+copy.jpeg dance films - deader than dead (2020) (Concept, Artistic Direction, Choreography, Scenic/light design) Ligia Lewis. in creation with Performers: Ligia Lewis, Jasper Marsalis, Jasmine Orpilla, and Austyn Rich Sound dramaturgy, and design: Slauson Malone, with excerpts by S McKenna Costume design: Marta Martino Texts: Ligia Lewis, Ian Randolph, Shakespeare, and Ian McKellen on Shakespeare. Film Credits Conceived and directed by Ligia Lewis Produced by Reza Monahan Studio and Jim Fetterley. full film 19 min 39 sec. Press: FlashArt, Performa Presented at: Made in L.A. /Hammer Museum (US), Center for Arts Research and Alliances (NY), Walker Arts Center (US), Short Theater (IT), Shedhalle Zürich (CH), upcoming Haus der Kunst (DE). more info:https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2020-version/ligia-lewis https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1774162617648-NBBQSZC3JCE1YQDWD1CN/image-asset.jpeg dance films - Still Not Still (scenes for camera) by Ligia Lewis & Moritz Freudenberg 2021 Interview Concept, choreography, artistic direction and text: Ligia Lewis Performance: Boglárka Börcsök, Darius Dolatyari, Corey-Scott Gilbert, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Justin Kennedy, Jolie Ngemi, Damian Rebgetz Dramaturgy: Maja Zimmermann Outside Eye: Dragana Bulut Lighting design & technical direction: Joseph Wegmann Set design: Claudia Besuch (Gali) Costume: Marta Martino Sound design & composition: S. McKenna https://ligialewis.com/press daily 0.75 2026-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566347938904-VUWFX37A6AIFNKT73NEV/mm_pressimage5_c_MarthaGlenn.jpg press https://ligialewis.com/dates daily 0.75 2026-03-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566764235469-DVZ6V8CAN7R56O4F01UH/Ligia+Lewis_minor+matter_2__c_Martha+Glenn+copy.jpg dates https://ligialewis.com/contact daily 0.75 2025-03-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1566775678970-EW6IS7C43P1LNXB5PHUN/Ligia_Lewis_Baranvoa-1490+copy+2.jpg CONTACT https://ligialewis.com/about daily 0.75 2026-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5c6d9cfd05ea0001484e12/1620395046612-RU6PKUBI4JGTC9AX9EVB/ligia_portrait_01.21_c.LuisRodriguez.jpg about https://ligialewis.com/aplotascandal daily 1.0 2026-03-09 https://ligialewis.com/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2026-03-09