Still not Still (2021)
by Ligia Lewis
image credit: Sophie Block
Ligia 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. 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 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 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.
https://ligialewis.com/
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 / Costume assistance: Marcus Barros Cardoso / Production management: Hannes Frey (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) / Production assistance: Vera Laube (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) / Touring & distribution: Nicole Schuchardt (HAU Hebbel am Ufer)