ensemble pieces
TERRANEA: hakawati of the sea
CANDY BOX FESTIVAL: Body Watani Dance Project as featured artists | Southern Theatre (May 2022)
Choreographed by: Leila Awadallah in collaboration with Noelle Awadallah and artists
Performers: Leila Awadallah, Noelle Awadallah, Nakita Kirchner, Emma Marlar, Sharitah Nalule, and Erica Jo Vibar Sherwood
Guest performers: Erin Drummond, Julia Gay, Marisol Herling, Gayatri Narayanan, and Hui Wilcox
Original music composed by: Renée Copeland with collaborators PJ Roduta and Amal Kawaash
Videography by: Erica Ticknor (rehearsal) and Tamara Ober (performance)
Artist residency and production made possible by the Sage Cowles Land Grant Chair in Dance at the University of Minnesota.
Wadi Nar / Serotiny
Sage Cowles | University Dance Theatre at the University of Minnesota (2020)
Guest Choreographer: Leila Awadallah
Performers: Annika Mikk, Milo Sachse-Hofheimer, Ciara Schweitzer
Cinematography by: V. Paul Virtucio
Music: Rannan (Clarissa Bitar), Receiving (Salar Ansari, Rafael Leafar, Luis Resto), Dashti (Maral).
Artist residency and production made possible by the Sage Cowles Land Grant Chair in Dance at the University of Minnesota.
Kan ya ma kan
Tapestries 4.0 | Threads Dance Company (2019)
Guest choreographer: Leila Awadallah
Performed: Cowles Center in Minneapolis MN
Photos by Bill Cameron
Unravel no travel
unravel no travel is a piece created through collective mapping a partly improvised, partly choreographed score that emerges as a landscape for the performers to explore what impact movement restrictions - particularly related to borders / checkpoints / apartheid walls have on our bodies and questions where do our land memories live within us.
Led by Leila Awadallah // developed by Leila Awadallah, Sara Karimi, Rachel Lieberman, Alys Ayumi Ogura, and Judy Shuǐ Xiān
Live music by: Tarek Abdelqader, Michelle Kinney, Benjamin Ladraa
Performed: Goodnight at the Southern Theatre - Minneapolis MN (2019)
Available for re-setting.
Photo by Bill Cameron
Everything runs (past the train window)
Everything Runs emerges from deep bodily memories living / remaining from ancestors : generations of women whose lives are stored in the creases of our hips. The movement explores the intersection of dabke footwork, baladi torso, and embodied Arabic calligraphy in movement to find a contemporary Arab dance form that embraces certain folk dance roots while manifesting into existence within diaspora. This piece is danced in collaboration with musical group Assa'Aleek, the Syrian folk-fusion band based in Beirut with all set and scenic design created by local Palestinian-American visual artist Lamia Abukhadra.
The piece was born in reflecting on a few different things. One being the poem: At The Train Station that Fell Off The Map by Mahmoud Darwish which speaks nostalgically of a different time when flow between Lebanon, Syria and Palestine (and many places in the region) was more possible. There is a sense of familiarity with land and rhythms of life, paired with a heavy longing to carry our homes within us in some capacity. The piece also captures the joy and breathe of feminine sensuality, mourning, and collective energy that flows from a long history of the social spaces in the Arab world where women dance together.
Performed: Rhythmically Speaking - Southern Theatre in Minneapolis, MN August 2017
Dancers: Leila Awadallah, Renee Copeland, Kendall Edstrom, Nakita Kirchner, Emma Marlar, Amal Rogers, Abby Taylor
Available for resetting.
Almost But Not Yellow
Presented in ACDA at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC
Presented in ACDA in Stevens' Point WI
“a sophisticated, richly-layered work that invites you to discover it. [It] is full of enigmatic imagery that enhances its choreographic body.” - ACDA Adjudicator
Choreography: Leila Awadallah
Dancers: Jessika Akpaka, Abby Johnson, Emma Marlar, Laura Osterhaus
Sound: Djivan Gasparyan & Vachagan Avakyan, Straya, Nitin Sawhney