Performance
Wayward Chant
Ligia Lewis
World premiere
© Doro Tuch
Artist and choreographer Ligia Lewis’s new work “Wayward Chant” explores the intersections of despair and beauty through the mobilization of the chorus. A pared-down score unfolds, featuring moving, chanting bodies arranged in detailed formations. This choreography is akin to a hummed hymn, performed in delay, creating a sonic and physical play of dissonance and reverberation. Early Western liturgical sounds intertwine with blues-like melodic and harmonic details, serving as an evocative response to a lingering past.
With her expansive interdisciplinary practice, Ligia Lewis is a central figure in redefining performance within the context of the visual arts. As an Artist in Focus of the Berliner Festspiele in 2025, she has been represented with a concert performance at MaerzMusik, an exhibition at the Gropius Bau as well as with her new commissioned work “Wayward Chant”, which will be premiered on 28 and 29 November as part of the Performing Arts Season.