projects
Unborn (2024)
Theater production
Concept, composition, art direction, performance
In collaboration with Ulrike Quade Company
UNBORN is an intimate theatrical concert blending ambient, neo-soul, R&B, hip-hop and indigenous rhythms. Inspired by the infinite middle of transformation, UNBORN invites you to travel with OTION through his inner universe. Surrounded by emotions of confusion, melancholy and joy, UNBORN creates a moment of reflection and urges you to initiate your personal transformation process. Venture through a world of text, music and projections with the guiding question, “Am I breaking down or unfolding?”.
Credits
Sonic Architecture : dropped.dots
Instrumentation: Nathan Klumperbeek, Tez Thompson
Mixing: Franco Fernandez /Andres
Scenographic: Hendrik Walther
Costume Design: Carly Everaert
Videography: Bouba Dola
Assistant director: Anne van Dorp
Movement / Performance direction: Sarada Sarita
Technical productie: Mark Thewessen
Sound technician: Nina Kraszwska
Head of production: Isa Pug
Campaign Image: David Bodhi van woerden
Flyer/Poster design: Marika Seo
Teaser/trailer/photography: Bowie Verschuuren
Q5 the Quintessentials (2024)
Theater / film production
Composition, co-production soundtrack/theme song, text and performance
In collaboration with Sarada Sarita and Korzo theater
OTION wrote, composed, and co-produced the theme song for the film-series version of the theater production Q5 - The Quintessentials by creator/director/choreographer Sarada Sarita Keilman. The song was used for the trailer/intro of the video. In the production, OTION worked as a dancer, singer, lyricist, and composer. The film premiered at the Cinedans festival in the Eye film museum on March 24, 2024, will be shown this year at Het Korzo Theater (The Hague) and at the Manifest Dance Film Festival organized by AuroApaar at the Alliance Française de Pondicherry in South India.
Credits
Music Composer: OTION
Vocals: OTION & Ina Seidou
Bass: Nathan Klumperbeek
(Post)Production / mixing: Axewood Custom Music
Artistic Director/ Choreographer: Sarada Sarita
Director & Editor: Jelle Posthuma i.c.w. Sarada Sarita
Costume Design: Rani Art & Teun Seuren
Light Design: Nistal Anand & Marcel Slagter
Stage Design: Wannes van der Veer & Nistal Anand
Animation: Lucas Flaton
Illustration: JawgemCreative
Assistant Choreographer + Research: Lorena Valenzuela Martinez
Performers: Ina Seidou, Tamara Robledo Oud, Sarada Sarita, Shahin Damka, OTION
Continue This thread (2023)
Fashion Exhibition
Composition and audio artwork
In collaboration with Roberto Luis Martins and The Amsterdam Museum
The Amsterdam Museum and in-house curator of fashion and popular culture, Roberto Luis Martins, are collaborating with Amsterdam fashion designers Karim Adduchi and Tess van Zalinge to create a new exhibition: Continue This Thread. Through more than a hundred textile objects, the exhibition showcases the power of handcrafting. For the healing space of the “Continue This Thread” exhibition, OTION composed “Frekti Singi” (Woven Song in Sranan Tongo: his ancestral language) by weaving together vocal patterns and ASMR sounds of crafts into an auditory quilt. In addition to this work, he composed a series of short instrumental audio stops to reflect the theme of 3 other the other rooms.
Credits
Curator: Roberto Luis Martins, Tess van Zalingen, Karim Adduchi
Exhibition Design: Quita Schabracq
Mixing engineer: Axewood Custom Music
Tijd Zal Ons Leren (2021/2022/2023)
Theater Production
Composition, text and performance
In collaboration with Romana Vrede and Het Nationale Theater
Tijd Zal Ons Leren is a 3-year long deep dive into the history of heroic resistance during the Dutch trans-Atlantic slave trade where OTION and actress and writer Romana Vrede created a podcast and talk show based on the historical research, music and narratives that they created during the time of the covid pandemic. This all culminated in Tijd Zal Ons Leren (Time will tell) the theater production directed by Erik Whien, where OTION joined Romana Vrede in telling a personal story that connects the past with the present and expresses hope for our collective human future by focusing on untold stories honoring and naming our ancestors.
Credits
Writer / actor: Romana Vrede
Director: Erik Whien
Stage Design: Dennis van der Broeck
Lighting Design: Julian Meiwald
Costume: Rebekka Wormann, Nen Xavier
Dramaturgy: Simone Zeefuik, Remco van Rijn
Dreaming Release (2023)
Installation, performance, ceremony
Composition and performance
In collaboration with Bambi van Balen
Dream Release is the 3rd edition of a collaboration that started during OTION's Residency at MQ in Vienna. He collaborated with visual artist Bambi van Balen on a collective dreaming experience inside their installation. OTION used sound as a somatic healing practice, creating “resonance with the water of your cells” In Bambi’s own practice they started to create liminal environments with inflatable light sculptures. The soft ephemeral object alludes to the language of dreams. The light sculptures perform a variation of light pulsations and patterns, creating affective landscapes and synchronicities within the neural networks. Following the experiential stages of a sleep cycle, we created a collective state to dream and release.
The work was researched in Vienna at the MQ, and took place at the MU in Eindhoven as part of the exhibition MOVE ! Body Politics in Motion on the 17th of September 2022. As a still form of dance, we invited the audience to lie down and let their bodies be moved by the vibration of sound and the frequencies of light. The last iteration “Dreaming While Awake” was part of the Exhibition Resilient Rebels in Museum Helmond.
De Foetus Hemel (2023)
Theater Production
Composition and vocal performance
In collaboration with The Ulrike Quade Company and Simon van Saarloos
OTION composed the score and played a digital character for this visual performance about transformation, self-determination, and the potential of life and death. The performance combined many digital elements (motion capture, robotics, and 3D projection) with spoken word and music to create an experience that inspires and confronts. The score takes you on a visual journey through human history and, in doing so, questions life, death, and the spaces in between.
Credits
Regie: Ulrike Quade
Tekst: Simon(e) van Saarloos
Content development & Kostuumontwerp: Carly Everaert
Regie-assistentie: Anne van Dorp
Performance: Naomi Grant
Compositie & stem Foetushemel: OTION
Stem poortwachter: Sjaan Flikweert
(Tech.) Dramaturgy: Marijke Hessels
Scenographic: Hendrik Walther
Visuals: Cris Mollee
VR specialist: Marijn Eken
Trailer: Bowie Verschuuren
Launch Keys Cosmetics (2023)
Performance for Brand Activation
Voice, sound and meditation
In collaboration with KEYS soulcare and MOOI agency
OTION was invited to create a customized vocal sound healing session for the Dutch launch of Alicia Keys’s soulcare brand KEYS. Using the brand’s affirmations as a guideline OTION crafted an experience where his vocal soundscapes moved the body into a state of peace, creating a moment for introspection and a tuning into oneself. In alignment with the brand identity, he inspired the participants to create their own affirmations and carve out space in their lives for soul care.
UIt huis (2023)
Theater production
Music composition and musical dramaturgy
In collaboration with Marte Boneschansker and Studio 52ND
OTION was invited to create a musical composition supporting the narratives in 'UIT HUIS, (Out Of Home).
In UIT HUIS we join children, teenagers, and young adults who have been placed out of their home in searching for an answer to the question: where are we safe? We listen to children who are just entering foster care, teenagers who have had to rebuild their lives, and young adults who reflect on their time in youth care. A theatrical audio experience centred around the experiences of young people in youth care. With headphones on, you walk through a school building and hear, feel, and see stories about coming home, feeling safe, and (self)protection. Theater maker Marte Boneschansker spoke with experts by experience and youth care professionals. During the walk, they share their stories with you, bringing the experiences of young people closer than ever.”
Zielsverhuizing (2022)
Video
Soundscape composition, poetry/text and performance
In collaboration with Amerpodia / Compagnie Theater and Joa Spruijt
OTION was commissioned to write and perform a poetic text and create a soundscape for a video project illustrating the end of the Compagnie Theater as a location specific institution. The video directed bij Joa Spruijt features OTION and performer Perry Gits.
Credits
Spoken word: OTION
Dance: Perry Gits
Concept: Robin Ruitenberg & Joachim Spruijt (special thanks to Lyon Pol)
Producer: Sergio Sanchez Garcia
Director: Joachim Spruijt
Director of photography: Robin Ruitenberg
1st AC: Krijn Wintjes
Edit: Stan Vriend
Touch'M (2021)
Film
Composition, co-production, movement direction/choreography and performance
In collaboration with Giovanni Maisto Ferreira and Axewood Custom Music
OTION wrote, composed and co-produced the soundtrack and played the protagonist for the film Touch’M. Touch’M serves as a symbolic depiction of how non-sexual touch can heal masculinity.
In today’s society, men are being conditioned out of intimate expression towards each other. Men’s touch is limited to handshakes, back claps, and shoulder pads, however, nothing more than that. By not being able to engage in certain types of touch, men are not allowed to truly express themselves. As a result, this reduces and limits healthy interactions while defining a narrow way to express masculinity. This can be tied to producing less socially acceptable forms of touch such as sexual aggression and violence. These types of touch are often characterized as traits of toxic masculinity. Such behaviours can be avoided if men are exposed to intimacy and connection in a positive manner.
Credits
Concept, Art-direction & Styling: Giovanni Maisto Ferreira
Videography: Huub Verburg
Light Design: Nistal Anand
Photography: Femke Jufferjans
Music Production: Axewood Custom Music
ícaro (2020)
Theater Production
Concept, composition, lyrics and performance
In collaboration with Nistal Anand (Lightbeats)
ICARO is inspired by the Icaros: medicine songs sung in rituals by shamans Indigenous to the land we now call South America. This performance was structured as a rite of passage ceremony where OTION sang himself into the release of childhood trauma and radical self celebration. The element water is a key component of the visual language of this work. It brings OTION back to the indigenous ceremonial practices of his ancestors where water plays a major role. Together with Nistal Anand, OTION researched how the scenography could represent water and how it could transform to different states. The music carried the OTION signature of compositions solely consisting of vocals stacked into to harmonies, manipulated into basslines and percussion on which his poetry and lyrics thrive.
Credits
Scenographic: Nistal Anand
Teaser video: Quincy Lisse
2U Duality in Unisono (2018)
Theater Production
Composition, text, choreography and performance
In collaboration with Sarada Sarita
For this project OTION and Sarada Sarita became 2U. In their performance Duality in Unisono
2U wants to open challenging conversations. The things not voiced, swiped under the rug, ignored, suppressed. It’s a conversation with self, each other with and 2U! With this creative dialogue as a starting point, they touch extreme opposites in search of the 2 sides of 1 coin: duality in unity-unity in duality. ‘They use their voice as a soundscape, while words echo meaning and turn emotion into movement.’ This is a conversation drifting on a soundscape of harmonies, disharmonies, beatboxing and spoken-word, facilitated by a loop-station that stands as an altar between the two, until there is nothing left to say but dance.
Credits
Makers/Performers: Sarada Sarita and OTION
Costume: Rasarani Keilman
Campaign Image: Steven tips