"We Might Appear As Forest Fires" Performance

“We Might Appear as Forest Fires” is an ecstatic performance that combines opera, electronic sound, and dance that took place at the Beverly Estate in Los Angeles, California. The dancers used the environment—the pool, the forest, and even the audience—to invigorate and inform their movements under a violet twilight and tangled, lush canopy.

“We Might Appear as Forest Fires” was the culmination of the project Vaster than Empires, a science and speculative fiction Writer’s Workshop, that explored the concept of collective intelligence. The performers embodied this theme.

Read Alice Scope’s Curator’s Statement on the making of the piece here.

Credits

Curator: Alice Scope is a Ukrainian art curator and researcher based in Los Angeles.

Director: George R. Miller is a director, designer, and producer of operatic performance.

Composer, Vocalist, Performer: Sharon Chohi Kim is a classical vocalist who specializes in contemporary opera and experimental voice.

Composer, Performer: ARSWAIN (Freddy Avis) is a composer and musical artist who got his start working with Emmy-nominated composer James S. Levine at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions and has numerous credits.

Composer: Anna Tskhovrebov is an AV artist, audio software engineer, and XR infrastructure inventor drawn to the blurry boundaries between real and imagined.

Dancer-Choreographer: Layne Paradis Willis is a queer-identifying artist who has been performing as a resident in the award-winning off-Broadway show Sleep No More

Dancer: Mike Tyus is a dancer, choreographer, and founding member of Jacob Jonas The Company.

Costume Designer: Julio Cesar Delgato is a freelance stylist, creative consultant, and market editor.