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)