Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Performed by and developed with Nefeli Asteriou, Liza Baliasnaja, Amanda Barrio Charmelo, Luisa Heilbron, Louis Nam Le Van Ho, Dimitri Mytilinaios, and Jaeger Wilkinson.
The Birds, 2025, a new dance work by choreographer and artist, Lenio Kaklea (b. Athens, Greece), explores how humanity can relate to living creatures through the prism of dance. The work builds on Kaklea’s earlier project, Agrimi (Fauve), 2023, and continues her examination of the complex relationships between predator and prey, between the watcher and the watched – drawing attention to how birds structure their behavior via a spectacular repertoire of dance and song.
Referencing mating rituals and territorial defense, Kaklea reflects on the innate desire to be seen and heard which is at the heart of our individual and collective identities – both human and non-human. She considers these ideas through a choreography featuring seven hybrid beings who are thrown into a dance that highlights their vibrant individuality, even as they move in unison. Through a subtle play with space, the dancers' gestures resemble planetary movements or flocks of migratory birds, each their own character but part of a larger whole.
Yet, this apparent utopia of individual and collective freedom is shattered by the omnipresent figure of control, here taking the form of a bird of prey, watching overhead. With The Birds, Kaklea questions the contemporary construction of societal control where theatricality is exacerbated, a society in which freedom and subjugation are more than ever in precarious equilibrium.
For more information on upcoming performances at MOCA, please visit moca.org/warehouse
Performed by and developed with Nefeli Asteriou, Liza Baliasnaja, Amanda Barrio Charmelo, Luisa Heilbron, Louis Nam Le Van Ho, Dimitri Mytilinaios, and Jaeger Wilkinson.
The Birds, 2025, a new dance work by choreographer and artist, Lenio Kaklea (b. Athens, Greece), explores how humanity can relate to living creatures through the prism of dance. The work builds on Kaklea’s earlier project, Agrimi (Fauve), 2023, and continues her examination of the complex relationships between predator and prey, between the watcher and the watched – drawing attention to how birds structure their behavior via a spectacular repertoire of dance and song.
Referencing mating rituals and territorial defense, Kaklea reflects on the innate desire to be seen and heard which is at the heart of our individual and collective identities – both human and non-human. She considers these ideas through a choreography featuring seven hybrid beings who are thrown into a dance that highlights their vibrant individuality, even as they move in unison. Through a subtle play with space, the dancers' gestures resemble planetary movements or flocks of migratory birds, each their own character but part of a larger whole.
Yet, this apparent utopia of individual and collective freedom is shattered by the omnipresent figure of control, here taking the form of a bird of prey, watching overhead. With The Birds, Kaklea questions the contemporary construction of societal control where theatricality is exacerbated, a society in which freedom and subjugation are more than ever in precarious equilibrium.
For more information on upcoming performances at MOCA, please visit moca.org/warehouse
