the CHRYSALIS project
CHRYSALIS is a series of six videos exploring the idea that a particular kind of metamorphosis, transformation, and hope is only possible in a place of darkness. Each piece is a fusion of the media of dance, film, and classical music, featuring a piece of new choreography set to new compositions recorded by the Oxford Alternative Orchestra (OAO).
The project features the musicians of OAO in the UK, and six award-winning choreographers in different locations around the world: Burkina Faso, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, and New Zealand. Each choreographer explores unique interpretations of hope that have been illuminated, and even enhanced, by the darkness of the global pandemic we are all still experiencing.
CHRYSALIS also features five new compositions from award-winning composers, commissioned for this project, as well a new arrangement of Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’.
The films will be edited together with footage of the orchestra to create a cohesive piece of visual art designed for the screen which offers an insight into how orchestral and dance performance can be adapted in a time of social distancing.
The CHRYSALIS project was featured in the Guardian in April 2021 as ‘one of the best dance films to watch online’
COMPOSER: Antonio Vivaldi / Aguibou Bougobali Sanou
MUSICIANS: Violetta Suvini (Solo violini); Hannah Leighton-Jones, Jenny Wang, Marcus Spiegel, Elizabeth Nurse (violins); Adi Jacobson, Alex Gunasekera, Will Emery (viola); Sebastian Riedl, Lizi Vineall, Giulia Da Cruz Sher (cello); Sam Hopkins (bass)
COMPOSER: Aiyana Braun
COMPOSER: Erika Vega
COMPOSER: Kristina Arakelyan