Corporeal Decorum is a new project by Liony Garcia that memorializes important elements of Miami Beach’s Historic Deco Architecture. The performance documents and preserves Miami’s iconic architecture through movement and scenery.
“Corporeal Decorum” is a multidisciplinary performance piece and investigation into the cultural erasure of Miami’s Art Deco District. The piece memorializes important features of the city’s surviving deco architecture; it concretizes elements in both scenography and the body itself. Drawing inspiration from earlier examples of architectural preservation in Miami Beach, the choreography reinterprets Miami’s urban and material past as a contemporary embodied form. The work deals with themes of loss, place, and the ephemeral.
Reconstructing the past, “Corporeal Decorum” invites the viewer into a world where the factual and the imaginary overlap. Architectural remnants are unearthed, their fragments translated and made visible through the expression of the body. In a series of tracing decorative patterns, the space is embroidered by the dancer’s arms, their body curling gracefully through alternately floral and geometric nodes, exemplifying the robust vitality of nature and in turn its geometric abstraction.
The scenery contrasts the built environment with the ephemeral temperament of nature. Architectural facades are deconstructed and redesigned as modular set pieces, which the dancer reconfigures throughout the performance. They serve to recall vanished architectural layouts. Acrylic sculptures by projection artist True Harrigan act as prisms of refracted light that illuminate the stage. The scenery is animated by video projections which visually transpose defining features of Art Deco ornamentation, motifs, and color.
“Corporeal Decorum” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Miami Light Project, The Ringling and NPN. This performance is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
Liony Garcia is a dancer and choreographer based in Miami, FL. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New World School of the Arts. As a performer, he has worked with BodyTraffic (LA) performing choreographic works by Guy Weizman and Roni Haver (NL) and Barack Marshall. Locally he’s worked with Brigid Baker’s WholeProject, Bistoury Physical Theater and is a founding member of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater. He’s worked director Celia Rowlson-Hall on her short film Swamp Lake. He’s performed with filmmaker Claudio Marco Tulli on his film installation, Blasting Pixels. As a solo performer, Liony has performed at Mana Contemporary, International Noise Music Conference, Bas Fisher Invitational, INDEX’21. Most recently, he presented solo titled Up in the Clouds commissioned by Bistoury for 305 HAV INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FEST ’21’. The short film D3C05, a collaboration with Blaze Gonzalez and digital artist Hannah Gaengler was selected to screen at ScreenDance Miami and Miami International Film Festival 2022.
To request materials in accessible format and accommodation to attend an event, please contact Eventz Paul at 305.576.4350 or email us, at least five days in advance to initiate your request.
Made with ♥ in Miami by Fulano
We are accessible and assistive listening devices are available. To request materials in accessible format and accommodation to attend an event, please contact Eventz Paul at 305.576.4350 or email us, at least five days in advance to initiate your request.
Eventz Paul is currently the Technical Director and Productions Manager at Miami Light Project. He has been a part of this organization since 2011. He participated in Miami Light Project’s first class of the Technical Fellowship Program held at The Light Box. He joined this program hoping to improve his existing theater skills. He received training from experts in the industry that mentored and further his theater technical skills. Now, he has successfully used his professional knowledge and has had the opportunity to work with various arts organizations and venues throughout Miami including Miami Theater Center, National Young Arts Foundation, the Colony Theatre and many more. He has become an instructor and conducts audiovisual classes to incoming technical fellows.
Beth Boone has been the Artistic & Executive Director of Miami Light Project since 1998, developing critically acclaimed artistic programs that have asserted the organization as one of the leading cultural institutions in South Florida. These programs include: the establishment of Here & Now, South Florida’s most respected commission and presenting program for community-based artists; premiere presentations of internationally acclaimed; pioneering historic international cultural exchange with Cuba; and the creation of The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, a multi-use performance and visual art space in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District. She previously served as Associate Director of Development for Florida Grand Opera, Deputy Director for the Department of Cultural Affairs at Miami Dade Community College, Wolfson Campus, co-founded an Off Broadway theater company (New York Rep), and served for six years as a Program Associate in the Arts & Culture Program of the AT&T Foundation. She received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and a MFA in Theater Arts from Brandeis University in Boston, MA.
