Suna no Onna (Woman in the Dunes) - interactive dance performance from Dans Sans Joux :: March 14, 2008; 7:45 pm :: Watermans Theatre, 40 High Street, Brentford, London.

Suna no Onna, adapted from Hiroshi Teshigahara’s mysterious 1960s cult movie, is a dance installation that merges virtual and real images of a life of existential entrapment in an inhospitable habitat. The ominous sand dunes of Teshigahara’s desert are transformed into virtual realities that shape the unconscious ground where the Woman (Katsura Isobe) meets a scientist-foreigner who stumbles into her life to become a captive.

The work combines dance, interactive video and animation, fashion design, electronic music and specially developed sensorial and interfacial garments (built with intelligent materials), which respond to movement qualities, energies and emotional gesture. Work originally was commissioned for the INTIMACY festival (LabanCentre / Goldsmiths) .

Conceived and directed by Johannes Birringer and Michele Danjoux, the stage production features new fashion concepts by Danjoux and digital designs by a group of collaborating artists including Paul Verity Smith, Doros Polydorou, Maria Wiener, and Jonathan Hamilton. Original music composed by Oded Ben-Tal, scenography by Hsueh-Pei Wang, and lighting design by Miguel Alonso.

Suna no Onna is performed by an international cast - Japanese dancer Katsura Isobe, British dancer Olugbenga Taiwo, and Chinese dancer Helenna Ren.