Lorin Sookool- ‘Woza Wenties!’

For the opening weekend of Liverpool Biennial 2023, join us for Lorin Sookool’s new commission, ‘Woza Wenties!’ (2023) – a site-specific, autobiographical movement and dance piece at St Luke’s Bombed Out Church. Sookool is one of a number of artists responding to Liverpool Biennial 2023’s theme of ‘uMoya’ by using their bodies as vessels and vehicles for change- bodies that have historically been and often continue to be viewed as objects of desire or servitude.

‘Woza Wenties!’ (2023) uses dance movement to trace and unpack the violent erasure of her Black identity during her schooling in South Africa. During this live offering, Sookool will use dance to examine the complex and nuanced condition of her ‘Colouredness’, a specific experience of Blackness within the South African socio-historical, political and cultural context. Interpreting the dancing body as a previously colonised state, Sookool references colonial and modernist systems of dance techniques and uses improvisation as a means to decolonise the body.

Please note that this offering takes place outdoors and warm, weatherproof clothes are advised. The event will go ahead in the event of light rain, but please do check our social media channels for updates in the events of adverse weather. Contains amplified sound.

• Seats will be available upon request, a member of our Front of House team will be happy to help if you require assistance on the day.
• A transcript of spoken word elements will be available for anyone who requires it
• Touch tours and audio description are available

If you require any of the above access provisions, please inform Liverpool Biennial prior to the event by emailing access@biennial.com.

About the Artist

Lorin Sookool is a South African dance artist with an interdisciplinary practice encompassing performance, text, sound, photography and film. Improvisation as a decolonial practice has become the foundation of her movement practice and informs the direction of her academic pursuits and facilitation work. Sookool’s work explores complex South African socio-political themes, with a focus on situations of systemic and institutionalized violence through personal trajectories.