ABSTRACT
A blind young woman disappears from a small town in Michigan. There is something more radical still about using the feminized milieu of modern dance as a battle tactic. Powerfully, the choreography is an act of protest within the narrative—imprisoned characters use it against the physical and emotional violence inflicted upon them by their captor. The OA’s choreography was created by Ryan Heffington, music video choreographer for Arcade Fire’s “We Exist” and Sia’s “Chandelier”. For The OA characters, there is a violent rupture, a sense of alienation, forcing them to seek out and build other worlds; and so they do, just like “The OA Flashmob” participants, who are seeking shelter from “darker forces.” The OA suggests that the transcendent exists in the people around the reader, not necessarily in some ethereal realm, and that bodies can guide them through movement.
