Making her TMT Debut is LEYYA MONA TAWIL leading the first week of the NEWS OF THE STRANGE LAB, running June 6 – June 23. Leyya’s lab, All we could give, runs from June 6 – 9.
For ALL WE COULD GIVE can you tell us what inspired you to create this piece?
Pyramids and squares have been recurring themes in my performance scores for years. When I began considering certain elements of Alf layla wa layla, the pyramid appeared to me instantly as the architecture that could host themes of power, specifically feminist inversions of power. The title, All we could give, was taken from “Icon”, a poem by Philip Metres. The final line of the poem reads, “All we could give was our watching.” – which, I contend, points to agency and participation, both personally and politically today.
The core of the work however lies in a battle-cry – a battle with self and other – where we come out victorious. Which brings me to poet Marwa Helal – who is contributing original work for this piece; and whose poetry shines with indifference and power inversions. Her book “Invasive species” provides 1000s of sparks for revolutionary artmaking and articulation.
You were very careful with your words—woman with a “y”—when describing your performance. What is your relationship to the performance and to Alf layla a layla (The One Thousand and One Nights) text?
I use womyn as a common way to invoke my feminist reading of and response to Alf layla wa layla. Language is clearly at the forefront here – and a simple re-assignment of letters can iterate a whole alternative narrative. The game is on!
How has the creative and collaborative process been for the team thus far? What’s something compelling that you discovered? What has surprised you?
Well, my process is quite isolated at first. I have to sit with my sound, dance and spatial ideas for quite some time before the score starts to reveal itself. Right now, things are moving quickly – and each of the performers’ roles are taking shape through specific one-on-one conversations. We, as an ensemble, will then enter the building process, where the score is “read” over and over again until it lands. What is most surprising is the information we already know before entering the build, how we are already connecting to the work and the placement of our selves within the work.
You stated that you were incorporating “sonic and corporeal architecture”, as well as different sources from jinnia mythology and diasporic fantasy into this performance. What can audiences expect to see?
All we could give features a killer artistic team; each person very deep in their articulation of identity and artistry. As an ensemble, we have far-reaching inter/national reference points. This plays out in our body/bodies of work. The dancers (Mersiha Messiha and Tara Sheena) will take a highly physical journey that is placed on the outer perimeter of the pyramid– anchoring and defining the space, they are both defenders and aggressors. The inner pyramid holds sound and voice– that is where Ava Mendoza (guitar), Mehdya Fassi (voice/actor) and myself (voice/microphones) hang out and do things. There are specific sound-related actions that all 5 of us take to demand/command the room at certain times – therein playing out a power exchange with the audience and one another. But really, we are acting in solidarity, as a septet of icons (7 includes poet Marwa Helal and light designer Ashley Kok). The djinnia each had a specific “super power” – and so do we. Obviously.
What are you most excited to share with audiences?
This new score! In this fabulous theater! With the support of TMT, I can really let my ideas fly knowing that they support the risk and the unknown of it all. In a space like The Doxsee, I can use the grand architecture of the room to construct particular relationships that would read quite differently in a more compact space. I think the audience will feel active in the work as they experience it …
How would you say that this piece fits into your larger body of work? How is it similar? How is it different?
Similar, in that I’m thinking sonically and choreographically in languages that I am deeply articulate with… the score building techniques that I’ve been into for years are at play here. However, this is extremely and totally new – because my role on the inside of the work is primarily to play music, sing and do live sound design – versus dance. So I’ve laid a path that demands a mega leap for me. I mean, in some part, I’ve been performing my music as Lime Rickey International for years – but this is the first time I’ll be appearing as “Leyya” in the role of a musician. Very different spirits conjured… I think. We’ll see!
What’s next for you? What’s your news to the strange?
All the work folds together somehow… all in the realm Arab experimentalism. I’m composing new material for Lime Rickey International, and Tawil& Khoury (my duo with musician Mike Khoury) premieres new work in Detroit in 2020. Arab.AMP, the platform I direct, launches its next season soon, after having a smashing first year. News of the strange everywhere I look!
All we could give created by Leyya Mona Tawil
June 6 – 8 @ 8:00pm, June 8 @ 4pm, June 9 @ 5pm
All we could give offers a womyn-driven response to the resistance strategies and power manipulations of Scheherazade in the legendary Alf layla wa layla. Tawil composes this performance score with choreography, music compositions and conceptual directives. Through sonic and corporeal architecture, she and her collaborators interrogate their own behavior and choice in relation to attention and agency. Tawil draws information from pyramid structures, jinnia mythology and diasporic fantasy to build a poetic and sonic land within The Doxsee Theater. This work is situated in the field of Arab Experimentalism which narrates and speculates on culture through transgressive art.
Leyya Mona Tawil, also known as Lime Rickey International, is an artist working with dance, sound, and performance art practices. Leyya is a Syrian, Palestinian, American engaged in the world as such. Her 23-year record of compositions and performance scores have toured throughout the US, Europe and the Arab world; highlights include Irtijal18 (Beirut), After the Last Sky Festival (Berlin), TransDance Festival (Cairo), New York Live Arts/Live Ideas 2016 (NYC), Saari Fellowship 2018 (Finland) and the commissioned premiere of Lime Rickey International’s Future Faith for Abrons Arts Center. Tawil is the director of DANCE ELIXIR and Arab.AMP.
Alef shukran to all the habibti powers that contributed to this work, Philip Metres for “Icon”, Saari Residence skies, Ian Douglas-Moore, Sharon Mansur, Leila Awadallah, Moe Yousuf, the entirely supportive humans of TMT and extra, extra for the everflowing enthusiasm and vision of David Herskovits.
Photo credit: Sydney Swanson