Showcasing the in-house choreographic talent at Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT), Thin h/as h/air is a solo work from the Company’s member Pauline Torzuoli which marks its world premiere on 29 April, International Dance Day. The piece was originally developed in December 2019 as part of SPUTNIK, a creative platform showcasing new work from emerging voices nurtured within the Company.
Thin h/as h/air has been adapted for film as part of Rep Studios, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre’s new digital platform presenting a season of theatre, dance and music, celebrating Dundee’s distinctive cultural voice within a wider world facing change and evolution driven by these unique times.
The piece features Yosuke Kusano, who has previously performed and toured with Scottish Dance Theatre as part of his international career and now returns to the company as a Guest Dancer. Edinburgh-based video artist Tao-Anas Le Thanh has captured the work for the screen.
“Aren’t trees the hair of the Earth?” This question was the seed from which the piece grew.
While researching the resemblance between human hair and trees, Pauline discovered two beautiful natural phenomena: Itla Okla (a south American air plant), and Hair Ice (ephemeral strands of ice that grow on fallen trees in Northern countries). Examining these two curiosities turned the studio into a laboratory, bringing a scientific lens to the creative space. Slowly, as the piece took root, a journey of a man evolved: from scientist to a tree.
Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joan Clevillé said:
Scottish Dance Theatre has a long history of nurturing the development of choreographic voices, and I am delighted to introduce Pauline’s work to our audiences. Our new digital platform, Rep Studios, will allow us not only to share our work more widely with communities in Scotland and across the world but also to create new and exciting ways of experiencing dance. For me, watching Pauline’s new work feels like discovering a delicate gem, diving into a poetic world that invites us to look around us with awe and curiosity.
Choreographer and dancer Pauline Torzuoli said:
If, as a biologist, I would study the same plant for many hours of my life, I wonder how my understanding of it would deepen? Would it be the scientific information I gather? Or the fact that by looking so closely, for so long I begin to recognise my self in it?
The world premiere of the film adaptation of Thin h/as h/air at 7.30pm on Thursday, 29 April will be followed by a live Q&A session with the creative team streamed onto Dundee Rep website.
A version of the work with Audio Description by dance specialist Emma-Jane McHenry will be available for audiences who are blind and visually impaired.
The dance offer of Rep Studios continues with The Life and Times (17-18 June), a new full-length work by Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joan Clevillé, which will see the whole ensemble returning to Dundee Rep’s stage for the first time after the lockdown. Broadcast live in a single, continuous shot, The Life and Times will be a cinematic, surreal dance journey, set to a sumptuous soundtrack of Baroque music. The work is a visual meditation on human fragility and explores how our relationship with time has changed over the last year. Further details to be announced in due course.