minor matter

Can the black box theatre become an experiential space for blackness beyond identity politics? And how can a black position become a matter of thought within a white-dominated canon? Choreographer Ligia Lewis and her two co-dancers tackle iconic Western European choreographies in “minor matter”, inscribing their bodies into this language and transforming the basic material in the process. Accompanied by baroque music, wrestling encounters elegant court poses, and Maurice Béjart’s bolero ballet, a classic in dance history, transforms into an African-American tap dance piece.  Yet, Ligia Lewis is not concerned with opposites. She rather achieves a new form of abstraction via infinite layering. Her aesthetics are not minimal, they are maximal. The leitmotif of death images permeate the piece, such as when the dancers appear with black-teared eyes bathed in a blood-red light, or when they quote the Death Drop in voguing, or heavy metal’s head banging. Mobilising all of theatre’s mechanisms, she creates a pulsating social and poetic space which lets us think of society in a new manner. In times of resurging racism, Ligia Lewis makes a strong case for minority politics.  Following her solo “Sorrow Swag”, awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe at the ImPulse Dance festival in 2015, “minor matter” forms the second part of her “BLUE, RED, WHITE” trilogy. She presents her works in theatres as well as in museums, very recently at London’s Tate Modern. Ligia Lewis, along with Claire Cunningham and Choy Ka Fai, is a current tanzhaus nrw Factory Artist. Just now, “minor matter” won the renowned Bessie Award.

Duration: 60 min. / talk with the artist Isaiah Lopaz from Berlin afterwards