Chrysalis: New Zealand

Direction and Choreography: Sarah Foster-Sproull

Composition: Aiyana Braun

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Hannah von Wiehler (nee Schneider)

MUSIC performed and recorded by: 

Orchestra VOX (formerly known as Oxford Alternative Orchestra)  under the direction of Hannah von Wiehler

If Sanou in Burkina Faso focused on opening outward toward the sky, Foster-Sproull reveals the process of folding inward – the hidden, dark life inside the cocoon. Two female dancers, set outdoors in the native forests of New Zealand, the Waitaki, represent the Chrysalis. The women begin with their bodies folded together, making it impossible to determine whose limbs are whose, and even how many people are there: there is only a mass of flesh. Deliberately, with conviction and mystery, the limbs pulse and unfold in unexpected ways, until the women are unfolded and dancing synchronously in rhythm. Composer Aiyana Braun has created a piece that samples classical instruments, but uses electronics to loop them back across each other, just as the women’s bodies mimic each other but free themselves. This video evokes evolution and growth, even within darkness, and before an escape from it is possible.

First Unit credits:

CHOREOGRAPHY

COMPOSITION

Aiyana Braun

PERFORMERS

Celia Hext

Cecilia Wilcox

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Andrew Foster-Sproull

EDITOR

Rebecca Orton 

Second unit (Oxford)

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Alex van Leeuwen

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN

Calum Bradshaw

MUSIC performed and recorded by: 

Orchestra VOX (formerly known as Oxford Alternative Orchestra)