HAPPY DAYS FINALE New performance work by Leyya Mona Tawil

At the heart of Happy Days Finale is Tawil’s pioneering “choice-based choreography,” where each performance unfolds uniquely.
About this Event
HAPPY DAYS FINALE

New performance work by Leyya Mona Tawil

In collaboration with Zari Lionudakis (dance) and John MacDougall Parker (music).

Friday, Saturday, Sunday August 14-16, 2026

Friday at 7pm Saturday and Sunday at 2pm

ASL Interpretation Saturday, August 15 only.

Haptic Tour and Audio Description Sunday, August 16 only. Haptic Tour begins at 1pm.

EastSide Cultural Center

2277 International Boulevard

Oakland

Tickets- $20 general; $10 students/seniors (NOTAFLOF)

What does happiness mean in a time of genocide and collapse? Entering each day anew, what is our capacity for joy, grief, resistance, chance? In a world of relentless horrors, and borders constructed by violence, we stand at a crossroads, questioning what is ending and what is beginning. Happy Days Finale, a dance and live music performance, is an invitation to explore these urgent questions.

Choreographer and sound artist Leyya Mona Tawil brings a thought-provoking energy to the stage; daring us to rethink what we know about resilience, mourning, and the power of collective action. She is joined onstage by dancer Zari Lionudakis, Tawil’s collaborator of over 20 years; and musician John MacDougall Parker, who performs an original and interactive sound score.

At the heart of Happy Days Finale is Tawil’s pioneering “choice-based choreography,” where each performance unfolds uniquely. The dance composition is driven by decisions that transform the work into an ever-evolving conversation between movement, space, and sound. Tawil calls it “an act of agility and adaptability,” - a dance that contains multiple truths with every iteration. 

Happy Days Finale is an invitation to think critically and collaboratively, to explore how we, as a community, can face the challenges of today’s world. Tawil has created a space for performers and audiences to not only witness but actively participate in the process of worldbuilding —modeling new ways of being in an unpredictable world. Happy Days Finale proposes artists as visionaries and their work as potent tools for liberation, urging us to question, to mourn, and to labor.