"There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie." - Franz Kafka

A whirling array of narcoleptics, pyromaniacs, and paper dolls weave video art, ballet and modern dance into a magic-realism performance that explores the lies we tell each other, the lies we tell ourselves, and the lies we love to be told.

Inspired by Franz Kafka's writings, motifs from classical ballets, and stories of geographical displacement, this new work combines the choreography of Amanda Miller and experimental media of Tobin Rothlein with Antony Rizzi's unique bend of theater, video and dance, shaped in part by his twenty years working in Germany with choreographer William Forsythe.

Highlights from the Philadelphia Inquirer review of Lie To Me:

...this up-to-the-minute rendering of contemporary lives moves through a large, empty space, alternating an offhand "ordinariness" with snippets of spectacular dancing and mind-expanding visuals.

Tobin Rothlein, Amanda Miller and collaborator Antony Rizzi (a former Forsythe dancer) use Miro's enormous collective physical chops and video expertise with restraint, making Lie to Me a study in understatement pointing to the profound.

Credits:

• Created by Amanda Miller and Tobin Rothlein with special collaborator Antony Rizzi
• Choreography: Amanda Miller and Antony Rizzi
• Video: Antony Rizzi and Tobin Rothlein
• Lighting Design: James Clotfelter
• Set and Costume Design: Amanda Miller, Antony Rizzi, and Tobin Rothlein
• Text: Antony Rizzi and Tobin Rothlein
• "Sleep Fell" Text: William Cody Maher
• Music: Chris Clark, Planet Jazz, Panasonic and Shooby Taylor
• "Sleep Fell" Music: Frank Pyne / David Moufang from The Suitcase

Original Cast: Rick Callender, Amanda Miller, Kristin Osler, Melissa Toogood, and Andre Zachary

Premiered: September 7, 2006, Live Arts Festival, The Cinema at Penn, Philadelphia, PA

Lie to Me... and shorter stories was funded in part by Dance Advance, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, administered by the University of the Arts; the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival; and Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany