Satchie Noro, Origami. Photo © Laurent Philippe

Origami

Compagnie Furinkaï

We head outside for Origami. The black cave of theatre is replaced with thick grey bubbles and a bright orange-red shipping container.
Fold. A triangular slice from the middle of the container hinges open.
Suspend. As the metal rises, Satchie Noro is revealed inside, hanging over a bar like a ragdoll.

Float. Noro has no concern for gravity. With delicate displays of aerial acrobatics she dangles, climbs and drapes herself slowly around the structure.

So continues the graceful duet between corrugated mountain and lonely heroine. The visual spectacle is dramatic. It’s heightened by the vividly contrasting colours of container and costume, and by the continual shape shifting. Noro is a wilting flower, a flying crane, a rock-climbing goat.

Much like the weather, the piece feels cold, making for an emotionally distanced display. Nevertheless, Noro’s immense agility and flawless poise are utterly captivating. The piece exudes the poetic magic of the paper art itself.

Cath Carver

Dancing a duet with a huge 40 foot container is quite a handful. You would imagine a crushing embrace, measuring delicate Satchie Noro against the red steel titan. With a somber roar it opens up, slowly sliding and shifting shape – a raw power version of the Japanese art of paper-folding. However, as Noro moves through Origami in her gutsy green jeans, it is all about the triumph of soft power. She hangs by the feet, folds together and floats in the air, balancing majestically, her black hair waving. Aerial acrobatics that delights us with an acute sense of risk and a soothing feeling of serene mastery.

We are witnessing the age-old battle between man and machine transformed into a dance of two ‘systems’ in motion. Maybe the motion goes on for too long, the girl in jeans has long ago unfolded as the goddess in power. An utterly graceful defiance of gravity.

Monna Dithmer