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Odyssey of the Circle

audio-visual solo dance performance

Credit: Julian Kessler

An interdisciplinary performance blending boundaries between aerial hoop, digital art projections, live music and live painting. 

An imaginative and immersive Zen experience, taking the viewer on a journey through circular forms (including aerial hoop and the moon) culminating with a live painting of an Enso circle (known as Zen Circle in the art of Japanese calligraphy).

The work explores the states of altered consciousness awakened by the connection to something bigger than ourselves. 

The piece draws inspiration from Enso, the iconic circular symbol, considered to be the pinnacle of Zen Buddhism and a mirror of the moon. Empty yet full, infinite yet complete. It symbolises unity, enlightenment, strength and elegance in all its purity and simplicity. 

It reflects Japanese aesthetics and Zen-philosophy of an energy expression in the moment; the artist paints the circle in one breath, with no corrections permitted afterwards. 

The best Ensos are brushed in a higher state of consciousness where the circle brushes itself in a synchronistic way, with very little effort and control by the artist. “The true creative spirit takes over and the work creates itself beyond anyone’s expectations.” Glassman, Infinite Circle – Teachings in Zen.

The live drawing projected on the hoop animates performer’s body movements. The digital visuals combined with the choreography framed into a circle immerses the audience into an aerial world. The distant mountain landscape visions, the curls of mist, and the moonlight shine create another reality, mysterious, symbolic, and inspiring. 

The audience is surrounded by four loudspeakers where the loops move around and immerse the audience into a circular, rotating universe of layered cello harmonies and angelic choir of voices.

A collaboration between Kamila CK (performance art) and Lola and Yukao Meet (live audiovisual)

Photo credit: Julian Kessler