Wide Open

A young dancer enters frame, and walks into an empty industrial warehouse…
No, this is not the opening line for one of those jokes, rather it’s the opening frames of Wide Open, a beautiful new video and dance short by The Chemical Brothers featuring Beck.  As the dancer enters we take in the raw space, looking as if it was recently inhabited by an auto-mechanic – with ladders, pallets, and planks of wood leaning against walls lined with dirt and grease. Barelegged and dressed only in dance shorts and a tee shirt, the camera begins following the dancer wide from behind, then circles alongside and around, and finally tightens into a close up to meet her intensely troubled gaze head on. As the camera widens out again she begins to move, and looking down, we see as she herself realizes, that one leg is suddenly completely transparent, devoid of muscle or bone, outlined in a white ribbon that looks like a technological pre-visualization drawing. She begins to dance in a kind of muted anguish.

Sonoya Mizuno dances in WIDE OPEN
Sonoya Mizuno dances in WIDE OPEN

Choreographed by the brilliant British choreographer Wayne McGregor with stunning dance by the Japanese and British model/ballerina Sonoya Mizuno, Wide Open is shot entirely on steady cam in a single take. Directed by the duo Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley, aka Dom & Nic, Wide Open features camera work that is beautifully and seamlessly choreographed to compliment the dance at every juncture. Gradually, as Mizuno dances, we watch as each of her limbs and finally her entire body becomes nothing more than an empty outline, ribboned in white, with a red beating heart – the last vestige of her humanity – visible inside.
Sonoya Mizuno grapples with her physical transformation in the dance
Sonoya Mizuno grapples with her physical transformation in the dance

Wide Open reads like a kind of futuristic, Kafka-esque, metaphorical plea… An allegorical warning against the potential dehumanization of technology, or perhaps of a time in the not too distant future when we might have chips implanted for convenience to replace external computers or smart phones.  The Chemical Brothers always take bold stances and seem to regularly feature edgy and confrontational dance in their music videos, and Wide Open is no exception.  Watch and be warned…
And enjoy.

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