ARTIST PORTFOLIO ​

LEYYA MONA TAWIL [Lime Rickey International] is an artist working with dance, sound and performance practices. Tawil is Syrian Palestinian American, engaged in the world as such. She has a 23-year record of performance scores that have been presented in 40+ cities throughout the US, Europe and the Arab world. Tawil was named the ISSUE Project Room Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow for 2020 for her project called “Nomadic Signals”. She also received a 2018 Saari Fellowship in Finland.
 
Her work Lime Rickey Internatonal’s Future Faith, commissioned by Abrons Arts Center and the KONE Foundation, was nominated for a 2019 Bessie Award in Music, and also acclaimed in Artforum International’s Performance Review of 2019. Her performance work has received commissioning and development support from Target Margin Theater's LAB 2019, Pieter Performance Space Residency 2020, Gibney Dance-in-Process Program 2020 and Kenneth Rainin Foundation NEW Commissioning grant.

Tawil is the director of ELIXIR and Arab.AMP – a presenting platform for experimental live art and music from the SWANA diaspora and allied communities. ELIXIR is a 501c3 organization that operates TAC: Temescal Arts Center – a community venue in Oakland. Founded in 2003, DANCE ELIXIR supports live trans-disciplinary performance, in a manner that engages local and international discourse. Under Tawil’s leadership, it has emerged one of few US organizations that specifically presents experimental performance works from an Arab perspective. 
 
At TAC, Tawil initiated and directs multiple community-driven programs including Dabke with Us! - Palestinian Dance & Music Program and TACmusic:: series.  Both these programs offer free monthly workshops and seasonal performances that foster discourse and growth for the communities that they serve.
 
Tawil is on the artistic team of FUSEBOX Festival’s Live-In-America, and advisory board of Dr. Clare Croft's Daring Dances. Her essays have been published by SF MOMA's Open Space, Detroit Research Journal, QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking and Movement Research's Critical Correspondence.

​Reviews and Interviews with Tawil - here.
Project list - here