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First Watch: Liza Anne, 'Lost'

Singer-songwriter Liza Anne conceived of her latest album, Two, as a marriage between audio and visual storytelling. So when it came time for her bring to life "Lost," a deeply introspective track about self-caused and self-contained misery, she turned to the equally self-contained medium of dance. Choreographer Kendall Walker, the sole onscreen performer in the video, created an expressive, inventive piece to layer over Liza Anne's searing reflections.

This is a video about owning one's creations, inhabiting one's body and its abilities and limitations. Walker's physical intuition is palpable, such that even motion that brings her off balance seems planned. She knows what she has the muscle memory and flexibility for, and incorporates boundaries into her dance. It's a message the narrator of the song could use, blaming herself as she does for "ripping out the seams" of a healing heart.

Muscles have to be torn to grow, and limits have to be reached before they can be learned from. Nobody understands those connections more than a dancer, whose disasters and divinity are written in purely physical expression. Where in the body does mourning live, or self-loathing? Which nerve endings are connected to healing and self-love? It's Walker's job, as it is the job of every dancer, to find out. It's Liza Anne's job, as it is the job of anyone who thinks she is her own worst enemy, to listen.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Katie Presley