ABOUT A GODDESSEY
LAVA presents A Goddessey, our feminist survival story that journeys through landscapes emotional and geologic carrying a transmuting traveler from a bleak and blurry patriarchal present into a rainbow colored feminist future with the help of ancestors geologic and otherwise. A Goddessey is the synthesis, culmination, and explosion of 15 years of earth moving performance by LAVA.
LAVA brings feminist acrobatics to new heights in A Goddessey, interweaving human pyramids, hoop diving, aerial feats, wrestling, and contact improvisation to invoke a physical expression that embodies empowerment, connection, and the complex inter-weaving of the individual and her community of ancestors, guides, goddesses, and families of all kinds.
The company’s long-awaited and much-anticipated epic new work, which will have its World Premiere at the (new) Flea Theater in the Fall of 2017, begins in the big bad city with obstacles and aggressions at every turn and a visit to Oppression Dance Class where competition, conformity, objectification, and body shame are the lessons of the day. On the way home from class, the Traveler falls down an open “manhole” cover. With references to traditional folk tales, Dorothy’s trip to Oz, Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Odysseus’ travels to faraway lands, the Traveler goes to nine landscapes, each of which offers her a guide to accompany her, and a valuable lesson to carry home. At the end of the journey, our Traveler returns to the city sidewalks and a world that is transformed by lessons and connections that deliver us all to a vision of transformation that could be just within reach and just in the nick of time. LAVA’s re-telling of the traditional “hero’s journey” subverts the lone hero’s quest of fights, feats, and loss, and instead offers the tale of a string of connected women seeking pre-patriarchal knowledge, unearthing a shared legacy of lost lessons, and enjoying a return home to a vision of future feminist balance and equality.
Please note that this production contains naked humans and swear words.
CREDITS
Created and performed by Efe Alibo, Molly Chanoff, Hilary Melcher Chapman, Mieke D, Lex Garnett, Sarah Dey Hirshan, Sarah East Johnson, and Lollo Romanski, with special guest, Ana Carolina. Conceived and directed by Sarah East Johnson. Music by DJ Tikka Masala. Additional music by Lee Free and Toshi Reagon. Lighting design by Alison May. Costume design by Claudia Brown. Costume construction by Claudia Brown and Asa B. Thornton. Video projections by Sarah East Johnson. Inflatable by Pat Oleszko. Dramaturgy by Mimi McGurl. Promo videos by Boom. Productions. Graphic design by Stephanie Sidjakov. Directorial support by Anni Davey and Neigel Smith. Production management by Sabina Ibarrola. Stage management by Annie Jenkins. Text by Starhawk, Kay Turner, bell hooks, Sarah East Johnson, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
