“When I first made dance material for Here Lies Love in 2012, I began with the theatrical notion of disco as my choreographic starting point, as the theatrical ground of Imelda Marcos’ world. And as disco has always felt to me to hover on the edge of despair, it was a perfect precipice to dance from for this Filipino story. Here was a woman who danced her dark diplomacy; the dance floor was the office from which she enacted the Marcos’ increasingly diabolical agenda.

As the fine dramaturgy deepened over the many years in the face of our world changing, the verticality, the perspective and tonalities of the dances deepened as well. The nuances of the choreographic world grew to be at times more somber, intense, and complex; its colors darker, richer, and more saturated.

One of the things I believe in about Here Lies Love aesthetically is the rare combination of lightness of form coupled with seriousness of subject matter. Musically, the way David Byrne tells a story through song is entirely unique in the Broadway arena, and this inspired me to create dance material that is based in a pop-post-modern aesthetic, rather than a musical theater tradition. Theatrically, the total synthesis of the design elements in the hands of director Alex Timbers allowed me to animate both the music and the architecture of the world of Here Lies Love. My charge was to choreograph the entirety of the event, the audience, the cast, and the building, to electrify every corner of the theater, to engage the audience through dance, so that they become embodied participants in the narrative themselves. This show was an honor to work on.”

— Annie-B Parson