“Continuing, we soon encounter a ghostly body hanging from a tree in a net. Further along, we see a line of white clad figures standing above a row of crypts set in the hillside. Looking up, we observe them standing upright, facing us, then falling back, then standing up, then falling back, over and over, to beautiful and disturbing electronic music backing opera singing. It’s a subtle reminder that we’re all going the way of the people buried here.” -Franklin Mount, Sensitive Skin (2014)
Review: “Impressions of The BEAT Festival’s ‘Crossing Over'”
“Everyone snaps to attention; Thresholds created by Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya of LEIMAY, reminds us that the pall of death hangs over this place. A few paces later, we congregate in a circular pit as an opera singer intones an eerie, dire melody. Spotlights flash on, five of them, illuminating men and women standing on mausoleums. They are like paper doll cutouts, arms pasted to their sides, expressions stony. One pitches backwards, and then another and another as the lights blink off and on. Under the cover of darkness, these dancers scramble into standing positions to repeat their death … Continued
Review: “A Burial Ground Doubling as a Stage”
“And occasionally, around one bend or another, a poignant surprise awaited, foreshadowed by a distant noise or beckoning pool of light. In the first 15 minutes of the almost two-hour tour, after we had stopped at a mass grave of victims from the 1876 Brooklyn Theater fire, a shrill voice sounded, directing our attention to six bodies perched on a row of mausoleums, each lit from below. In seemingly random order, they began to fall backward and stand back up, to disappear and reappear, thanks to the simple but effective lighting. This was “Thresholds” by Leimay (directed by Ximena Garnica … Continued
Review: “Leimay’s ‘Becoming-Corpus’ at BAM Fisher”
“A flash of light on a darkened stage reveals a group of almost-naked people standing stock still, in silence. Then wiry lines of light slice through the darkness: one, another; soon a bunch of bright ribbons of light illuminate various slices of seven dancers. Are the dancers moving, and even growing and shrinking before our eyes? No, this is only an illusion produced by Shige Moriya’s deft hand with the projector. “ -Henry Baumgartner, New York Theatre Wire (2013)