DEVIATED THEATRE: siGHt

DEVIATED THEATRE – siGHt

Spirits whisper warnings only a child can hear. A mother, too burdened to listen, faces an unthinkable loss. Between the living and the spirit world, chairs sit waiting—silent witnesses to love, rupture, and the questions that may never be answered.

In siGHt, DEVIATED THEATRE unravels a surreal tapestry of movement, breath, and visual poetry: figures appear and vanish, whispers swell into unspoken arguments, and grief transforms into a duet with what cannot be held.

Originally commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center in 2011 as part of Performing Arts for Everyone and the Millennium Stage, siGHt is a 60-minute dance opera blending narrative dance, partnering on folding chairs, and aerial silks.

Ethereal, haunting, and achingly human, siGHt invites the audience into a liminal space where memory, spirit, and the living entwine—and where meaning is found not in answers, but in the spaces between. Critics have praised the work of co-creators Kimmie Dobbs Chan and Enoch Chan as “spellbindingly compelling” and “incredibly effective,” with choreography that lingers in the mind long after the final image fades.

Runtime: 1 hour

Ages: Ages 13 and Older

Content Advisory: Mild references to suicide and grief

DEVIATED THEATRE
Artistic Directors: Enoch Chan & Kimmie Dobbs Chan

Enoch Chan and Kimmie Dobbs Chan are co-creators of worlds—architects of movement, narrative, and atmosphere. Together, they pioneer the form they call the dance opera: evening-length stage productions that fuse contemporary dance, acting, and aerial artistry into fantastical, original stories. Their works transport audiences into realms both haunting and humorous, where the human condition unfolds through dreamlike yet visceral performance.

Founded in 2008, DEVIATED THEATRE has been praised as “spellbindingly compelling” and “eerie, esoteric, eclectic” (DCMetro Theater Arts, 2014 & 2015). The Washington Post has lauded their signature style as “hypnotic multidisciplinary” (2011) and “incredibly effective” (2012).

Their productions often explore the liminal space between the known and the unknown—whether charting astronauts caught in a Martian dust storm (Beyond, featured on WETA Arts, 2019–2020) or imagining an apocalyptic landscape where humanity is both creature and creator (Creature, National Gallery of Art, 2016). Their choreography has been commissioned for the National Cherry Blossom Festival Opening Ceremony (2019) along with Skylark Productions, presented nationally at venues including The Kennedy Center, the Gaylord National Convention Center, and Ailey Citigroup Theater, and celebrated on the ART WORKS podcast by the National Endowment for the Arts (2017).

Honors include the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for Choreography (2011, 2014), the Mark Ryder Original Choreography Grant (2012), and the Kennedy Center Local Dance Commission (2011).

Through their work, Kimmie and Enoch invite audiences into theatrical worlds where movement becomes language, silence becomes character, and stories echo long after the curtain falls.