Obremski/Works- “Coloratura US”

Concept and Direction: Jesse Obremski

Choreography: Jesse Obremski

Music Composed by Coldplay

Sound Design and Editing: Jesse Obremski

Pre-show Music and Live Musicians: Ian Debono (electric and acoustic guitar), Sobina Chi Kanter (piano), Dr. Yu Wei Heath Hsiao (violin), Jesse Obremski (voice)

Lighting Design: Asami Morita, Jesse Obremski

Lighting Technician: Dani Hughes

Costume Design: Emerson Shlansky, Jesse Obremski

Visual Art: Tsai-Hsi Hung

Set Design: Midori Furutate, Jesse Obremski

Collaborative Performers: Blu Furutate, Michael Greenberg, Leo Hishikawa, Tiare Keeno, Mayu Nakaya, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau

November 9^th 2025

Culture Lab, LIC

Photo: McCall McClellan

The vibrant world Jesse Obremski builds in his multifaceted “Coloratura US” for Obremski/Works is deeply immersive, radiantly framed by the site-specific architecture and atmosphere of Culture Lab LIC. Throughout, we are invited to follow a dynamic cast of six performers as they share stories in two performance spaces: an expansive art gallery, and an intimate theater. Through Obremski’s intricate, supple choreography in tandem with music composed by Coldplay, visual art by Tsai-Hsi Hung and Midori Furutate and lighting designed by Asami Morita and Obremski, we experience scenes of hope and love woven through the realities – and heartbreak – of war.

“Coloratura” (“coloring” in Italian, and a style of singing instilled with trills and leaps) aptly captures the vivacity of the piece. Obremski shares, “I knew that with this residency, I wanted to create an environment that the performers would traverse in. With the gallery and the theater, I felt it was important to distinctly enhance them with visual art, set design, and lighting. All of the elements came together at different times, but I kept asking myself ‘WHY have this part of the work?’ and that helped me bridge the elements together.”

I felt the full impact of Obremski’s interdisciplinary approach – how movement, music, lighting, and costume design merge to create a vivid, immersive world. The dancing carries a striking vibrancy, textured with spontaneous shifts between ensemble patterns and intimate individual moments. Each performer’s distinct costume color palette subtly echoes the themes embedded in the work’s title, “Coloratura US,” highlighting personal identity even amid shared experiences. And even in unison passages, like the jubilant opening sweep across the gallery, every danced brings a unique nuance. Guided by Obremski’s intuitive voice, the movement of Blu Furutate, Michael Greenberg, Leo Highikawa, Tiare Keeno, Mayu Nakaya, and Jie-Hung Connie Shiau breathes, ripples, and communicates with arresting authenticity, allowing flashes of hope to shine even as the narrative edges toward the realities of war.

Photo: McCall McClellen

The unique performance space of Culture Lab LIC was further adorned with live musicians, including vocals by Obremski himself, electric/acoustic guitar by Ian DeBono, violin by Dr. Yu Wei Heath Hsiao, and piano by Sobina Chi Kanter. I had initially wondered about the challenge of choreographing to pop music, and Obremski embraces it with sincerity and imagination. As a longtime Coldplay fan, I found the song choices nostalgic and exhilarating, as familiar tracks take on new resonance through Obremski’s contemporary, kinetic choreography.

Visual art further enriches the work’s atmosphere, infusing it with an ethereal beauty. In the theater, Midori Furutate’s delicate paper installation stretches upward in what presents as a sweeping display of animals, figures, and hanging plants. The paper’s translucence catches the shifting light, evolving from a passive to active participant in the story, as the dancers weave around it. In the gallery, Tsai-Hsi Hung’s paintings unfurl in a cascade of color and motion, their swirling forms mirroring the performers’ rhythms.

Photo: McCall McClellen

Neon, color-changing lights also surround us in unexpected places: such as inside a door in the first space from where Greenberg and Shiau enter, or inside a dresser that sits in the first room, where the dancers take their costumes. The dancers continue to return to the dresser’s glow like a magnetic pull: in particular Greenberg, whose character is ultimately called away from the ensemble, who presents to be his family, to conflict.

While the group initially reads as a harmonious community, the wartime narrative threads throughout. It surfaces when Shiau volunteers to take Greenberg’s place before he departs, reflected through her saluting gesture. The story unfolds as Greenberg guides us into the stage space, that depicts a quiet study. At a desk, he pens a letter - seemingly to his family, perhaps to Nakaya, who embodies his child.

What follows unfolds as a fervent solo: Greenberg’s body coils and unfurls with striking intensity, each motion framed by Midori Furutate’s installation and a suspended rope. Suddenly, two hooded figures (performed by Nakaya and Hishikawa) surge toward him, clad in camouflage pants. They seize his torso, initiating a cascade of lifts and interwoven weight-sharing. The sequence crescendos, Greenberg’s character - ultimately falling.

Photo: McCall McClellen

The theme deepens in Nakaya’s poignant solo danced to Coldplay’s “Daddy,” where she aches to reunite with her parent. She tenderly dances with Greenberg’s letter, which the cast one-by-one passes on to her. Her supple elasticity merges with a passionate yearning which resonates throughout the ensemble, especially as they carry Greenberg’s limp body from the stage back into the first room, to rest on a couch - their grief palpable.

In the final scene, the cast removes their colorful tops, revealing flesh-toned undergarments and bare skin. This choice reaffirms the group’s collectivity; at the end of the day, underneath the layers we adorn, we are all human. Greenberg rises from the couch and rejoins the group, and they revisit the glowing dresser once more – whether heavenly, or a revisiting a memory, the final image feels optimistic.

Obremski and his ensemble emerge as compelling storytellers - not only through their physical precision, but through their emotional generosity. “Coloratura US” unfolds as both a celebration and a lament, capturing the full spectrum of human experience.