NanoPlanet unfolds as a choreographic performance inside virtual reality (VR). The audience is invited to step into a single cancer cell – transformed into a vast, shifting landscape. Based on scientific data from a confocal micrograph created by researchers at the Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming, microscopic structures expand to human scale, and the body becomes part of the terrain.
The landscape “performs” with surfaces textured by butoh dancers’ bodies – muscles, wrinkles, breath, tremors. Their movements recreate the cell’s tensions and functions, forming a shimmering holographic skin where every pixel hides a human gesture. Choreography becomes both structure and experience: Wearing VR headsets, you move not as a spectator but as a co-creator. Every action alters the rhythm of this world – observation turns into participation, movement becomes knowledge.
Through this embodied encounter, NanoPlanet touches on the paradox of cancer: It is not foreign, but a natural yet malicious part of our bodies. What does it feel like to wander through a landscape of your own biology? Can dance reveal what science reduces to data? By merging performing arts, visual art and biomedical imaging, the work extends choreography into virtual space – a dance between body and data.
● Karolina Bieszczad-Stie earned her PhD in performance studies at Brunel University London in 2010. Based in Oslo, she runs Butoh Encounters, a platform exploring dance in dialogue with science and technology. She collaborates with research institutions such as the Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming and MotionLab, and has created works for events including the Nobel Peace Prize Forum (2024). In 2026, she will premiere a new piece featuring two Yaskawa robots and a dancer at the European Robotics Forum. Patryk Lichota is a composer, sound artist and multimedia creator with a PhD in media and performance studies. He works across VR, immersive installations and interactive media, and is a researcher at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
VR development, sonification & audio implementation: Patryk Lichota. Sound design: Simen Korsmo Robertsen. Dancers: Mushimaru Fujieda, Lee Mihee. Choreography: Karolina Bieszczad-Stie. Dance cinematography and colour grade: Stein Stie. Scientific Collaboration: Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming (University of Oslo). Production: Butoh Encounters. Co-production: Black Box teater. Supported by: Culture Moves Europe, Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming.