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.

The work unfolds through the following parts:
- Prelude
- Plot 1 John Locke
- Plot 2 Rebellion
- Intermezzo: John Locke cleans up his mess
- Plot 3: Story of Lolon / fuck up the plot
- Outro: Repair ?

bibliography_a_plot_a_scandal.pdf

80 minutes
in English

+ artist talk on Friday 21.04 with Cherish Menzo, in English

Ligia Lewis works as a choreographer and dancer. In her work, sonic and visual metaphors meet the body, materializing the enigmatic, the poetic, and the dissonant. Lewis’s work continues to evoke the nuances of embodiment. Her work was presented in multiple venues across Europe and the US. She was managed and produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theater from 2017 until 2021 and was a tanzhaus nrw factory artist from 2017 until 2019. She is the recipient of the Tabori Award in the category of Distinction, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants Award, and a Bessie Award for Outstanding Production.
https://ligialewis.com

Cherish Menzo is a choreographer and dancer, who lives in Brussels and Amsterdam. In 2013 she graduated from The Urban Contemporary (JMD) at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Amsterdam. After her graduation, Cherish has appeared in the work of Lisbeth Gruwez, Jan Martens, Nicole Beutler, Eszter Salamon, Benjamin Kahn, Akram Khan and others. Her powerful movement language also comes into its own in her own work, which tours internationally. Cherish seeks out forms of movement and being, while placing beauty and the grotesque on an equal footing. She consciously seeks out an alienating effect to guide both the viewer and herself away from the known, and floats between the nostalgia of 90s and 00s hip-hop and the realms of industrial hip-hop, rap lyrics, manga and speculative fiction. In 2019 Cherish worked at Frascati Producties on JEZEBEL, a dance performance inspired by the phenomenon Video Vixen from the hip-hop clips of the 90s earlier 00’s. In 2022, during Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, her latest performance DARKMATTER premiered at Beursschouwburg, a duet in which she and Camilo Mejía Cortés search for ways to detach their bodies and the daily reality in which they move from a forced perception. Cherish is one of the four artistic leaders of the dance organization GRIP, together with Femke Gyselinck, Jan Martens and Steven Michel.

Concept, choreography, artistic direction, text: Ligia Lewis
Performance: Ligia Lewis
Choreographic assistance, alternating performer: 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
Voice over: George Lewis Jr AKA Twin Shadow
Sound technician: Manuel Pessoa de Lima
Set design: Ligia Lewis
Costume: SADAK
Stage technician: Şenol Şentürk, Jachya Freeth
Production & administration: Sina Kießling
Production & distribution: Nicole Schuchardt
Production assistance: Julia Leonhardt
Productie: Ligia Lewis
Production: Ligia Lewis
Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Ruhrtriennale, Arsenic - Centre d'art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), Tanzquartier Wien, Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER (Gent), Kaserne Basel, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), 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.

part of Danses en Fête