Suddenly Dance Theatre’s outdoor dance-video installation used the vertical garden on the west side of Victoria's CRD Building as a projection surface. Created by David Ferguson, OPHELIA features dancer Jung ah Chung in reference to Shakespeare’s misunderstood character. However, she is not succumbing in calm rapture to the watery elements of mental illness and abandonment as she is usually portrayed. With a costume designed by Miles Lowry, Ferguson’s OPHELIA is a woman made of flowers, camouflaged by stillness yet made visible through a suspended dance. The repeated cycle of her emergence and vanishment becomes a silent beacon for those missing, outcast, unnoticed, and disappeared.

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OPHELIA has an original soundtrack by Miles Lowry available for streaming (click above) during the installation.  

If you are on-site watching the film, you can listen on your own portable device. The collective loopings played by the gathering audience creates a cacophony, an experience of sharing, and underlines the ever-changing power of sound.

Presented by Suddenly Dance Theatre, co-sponsored by the 17th ANTIMATTER. This project was made possible with support from the BC Arts Council and the City of Victoria; and from Dance Victoria’s residency program. With thanks to: Deborah De Boer, Nichola Reddington, George Scott, and Rob Storie. Special thanks to atomique productions for their generous production support.