Lavior was created in 2010 by contemporary choreographer Isaac Blake. Described as a dark and menacing piece, the performance explored the oppression of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers over the ages through contemporary dance and haunting melody. Lavior brought together three performers to explore the twin concepts of communal anonymity and loss of language within the Romani culture.

‘Romanës’, or ‘Rromani-chib’, the language spoken by Romani people all over the world. They are speaking a dialect of Rromani-chib that is called ‘Vlachi’, that is spoken by many Roma of south-eastern and eastern Europe (Rumania, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Bulgaria). Rromani-chib is originally an Indian language, part of the Indo-Aryan family of languages. Most European languages are also part of this same language family (except Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish, which are all part of the Central Asian family of languages).