Leyya Mona Tawil
TRANSDISCIPLINARY ARTIST / CULTURAL ACTIVIST / ARAB FUTURIST
ABOUT LEYYA
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 Residence 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 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. Under Tawil’s leadership, ELIXIR has emerged one of few US organizations that specifically presents experimental performance works from an Arab perspective.
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 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. Under Tawil’s leadership, ELIXIR has emerged one of few US organizations that specifically presents experimental performance works from an Arab perspective.
RECENT INTERVIEWS
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Bhavisha Panchia & Leyya Mona Tawil – ‘Noise and Nation’ – A Blue Skies Conversation
Produced by the International Curators Forum - UK (July 2020) |
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A Future Now: In Conversation with Leyya Tawil, interview by Gibney Associate Curator Dani Cole (25 March 2020)
Gibney Dance-in-Process Resident Artist Feature |
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Developing Voices and Platforms within Arab Experimentalism, Interview by Emmaly Wiederholt
Stance on Dance. (12 Dec 2019) |
Images from recent projects
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RECENT PERFORMANCE WORKS
LIME RICKEY INTERNATIONAL'S FUTURE FAITH
Concept/choreography/composition - Leyya mona tawil
Collaborators - Emese Csornai (lights), Scott Tallenger (costume), Tim Clifford (set piece)
[World premiere] 7-9 March 2019 / Abrons Arts Center / NYC
COMMISSIONING SUPPORT: ABRONS ART CENTER & KONE FOUNDATION
Touring: Today is our Tomorrow (Helsinki), ZVRK Festival (Sarajevo), New Performance Turku (Turku)
More about Future faith
Nominated for a Bessie Award 2019 [Music]
Review in Dance Enthusiast
preview in The New YOrker
All we could give
Target Margin Theater - BRooklyn
JUNE 6 – 9 2019
Concept/Composition/Choreography - LEYYA MONA TAWIL
Featuring Mehdya Fassi, Ava Mendoza, Mersiha Messiha, Tara Sheena and Tawil.
Poem - Victorious by Marwa Helal
Lighting Design - Ashley Kok
TURKU FUTURE FOLK DANCE
19 OCTOBER 2019
Concept & CHOREOGRAPHY: Leyya Mona Tawil
Live music: Antti Tolvi
Assistant/Translator: Jenny Kallio
Assistant: Salla Karvonen
VIDEOGRAPHY: Christopher Hewitt / Jussi Virkkumaa
Commissioned by New Performance Turku, Läntinen Tanssin aluekeskus, Stretch 2019, Turun kaupunki
The Turku Future Folk Dance project creates a new folk dance for the future of Turku. Tawil works together with local people and communities creating a choreography that reflects the changing city, its habitants, communities and futures. The dance was created through workshops and interactions with the people of Turku. The folk dance was distributed to be learned via video, and then taught live and performed for, by and with the public audience at the New Performance Turku Festival, 19.10. at 17:00 at Pedestrian Street (Yliopistonkatu).
MTV3 - NATIONAL NEWS CHANNEL: A NEW KIND OF FOLK DANCE IS CURRENTLY BEING WORKED ON IN TURKU
RADIO ROBIN HOOD - TRILINGUAL RADIO: INTERVIEW ABOUT THE PROCESS OF TURKU FUTURE FOLKDANCE
LEARN THE TURKU FUTURE FOLK DANCE (VIDEO) FINNISH / ENGLISH
CURATORIAL PLATFORMS
Arab.AMP IS A NOMADIC PLATFORM FOR EXPERIMENTAL LIVE ART & MUSIC FROM THE SWANA [South West Asian North African] DIASPORA, THE REGION AND ALLIED COMMUNITIES.
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Leyya Mona Tawil is the ISSUE Project Room
SUZANNE FIOL CURATORIAL FELLOW 2020 #NOMADICSIGNALS |