A Plot / A Scandal.
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.
* Production: Ligia Lewis
* Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Ruhrtriennale, Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), Tanzquartier Wien, Kunstencentrum VIELNULVIER (Gent), Kaserne Basel, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis MN)
* With the residency support of: Callie’s, O Espaço do Tempo
* Supported by: the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ Coproduction Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
* Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe
Concept, choreography, artistic direction, text
Ligia Lewis
Performance
Vânia Doutel Vaz
Choreographic assistance, alternating performer
Corey Scott-Gilbert, Justin Kennedy
Research/Dramaturgy
Sarah Lewis-Cappellari
Research
Michael Tsouloukidse
Lighting design & technical direction
Joseph Wegmann
Lighting technician
Claes Schwennen
Music composition & Sound design
George Lewis Jr AKA Twin Shadow & Wynne Bennett
Voice over
George Lewis Jr AKA Twin Shadow
Sound technician
Max Eilbacher, Neda Sanai
Set design
Ligia Lewis
Costume
SADAK
Stage technician
Jachya Freeth, Şenol Şentürk
Production & administration
Sina Kießling
Management, production & distribution
Godlive Lawani–Stane Performing Arts Management
Production assistance
Julia Leonhardt
Photos
Photos 1, 2 and 3 by Moritz Freudenberg. Photo 4 by Elon Schoenholz