Search

Toggle dark mode:

Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Browse articles

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

Opia

 
Stephanie Green Review by Stephanie Green 5 Published: 17 Aug 2021 Dance Base at ZOOTV Show Dates: 6 Aug 2021-6 Aug 2021

How do we interpret the world through our senses, particularly through sight? A mesmerically beautiful triptych of two solos and one duet, choreographed by Finnish Johanna Nuutinen, Opia explores the sense of sight primarily through the polarities of white and black, whether costume, stage or lighting design. Like the white nights of Finnish summer or the long dark nights of the winter, the lighting designed by Joonas Tikkanen plays with stark contrasts. This sensitive piece is at times elusive and minimalist, at other times suggesting more literal and realistic detail.

Like the white nights of Finnish summer or the long dark nights of the winter...

Lying on a white floor against a white background, the dancer Mia Jaatinen is all in white, a white singlet and baggy trousers, tight at the ankle reminiscent of Indian or Arabian costume. Slow stretches develop until she stands, her moves also reminiscent of Tai Chi, but more fluid. These are my associations, other members of the audience will bring their own interpretation. The lighting creates shadows, or she is silhouetted against the background, leading to an imaginative sequence when her face is spotlit in the dark and shadows play over it like the phases of the moon.

The second part is largely in the dark and we only get glimpses of the dancer in a black, hooded costume as both light changes and moves become more and more frenetic. Different coloured lights flash at times: our perception is unclear, and our sense of perspective is distorted.

In the third section where the two dancers meet – the black costumed one takes off the hood and is revealed as Jenna Broas, a woman, somewhat of a surprise as her movements in the previous section were quite masculine. As the two women explore each other, tracing lines along each other's arms and bodies this could be a love duet and the movements are the most realistic in the piece.

Another issue explored is how the environment affects our perception and for me this was suggested here as the lighting divides the stage into two, one half lit with green light to sounds of birds and jungle noises; blue to hisses (the ocean?), yellow to the sound of rain and lastly pale blue to I don’t know what. It’s up to the audience to interpret this emotional journey for themselves. It requires total involvement and will not be for everyone. A warning: there are also laser lights.

I am looking forward to the two other pieces Nuutinen is working on as part of her three-year project on the senses of hearing and touch.

Amir Nisi

Stephanie Green

Stephanie Green has reviewed Theatre and Dance in Edinburgh since 2011 but previously travelled widely, mainly in Eastern Europe and Russia, writing about puppetry. She also studied shadow puppetry and sacred dance in Bali. In the 1970s, she trained as a puppeteer at the Little Angel, London and later worked at the alternative In the Heart of the Beast Mask and Puppet Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. After training at the Place, the London School of Contemporary Dance, in her 20s she then gave up dancing until starting again in her 60s just for fun. She has recently danced in a community group with Barrowland Ballet (at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2013), Oceanallover and at the South Bank, London as part of the Festival of the Silver Age. She is also a novelist, playwright and poet. www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/

Related to this article:

Location:

Performances

The Blurb:

How does environmental stimuli guide our gaze and spatial orientation? How do we construct images in our visual cortex out of stimuli generated by sensory organs other than the eyes? Why do we build meanings through our gaze where there previously were none? Choreographer Johanna Nuutinen’s new creation Opia dives eyes first in the middle of these ever-present questions relating to looking, being looked at, and how do we form meaning between things we see. OPIA explores its topic through movement language spiralling into the world behind the gaze, perspective-questioning visual design and captivating soundscape.
The Producers
Titanique
Matilda
Popular now
Lion King
Wicked
Phantom of the Opera