SILA SVETA turns ballet into spatial holography in Shenzhen
SILA SVETA’s holographic “Swan Lake” in Shenzhen brings the legendary ballet into Digital Art Gallery D+ through a 25-minute performance designed for 270-degree viewing. Presented inside the Holographic Space of the Longgang International Art Center, the project reframes classical choreography through digital art, spatial projection, and a three-sided stage system. The multimedia production studio keeps the original story and central characters of Swan Lake intact, while changing how the audience encounters movement, scale, and theatrical atmosphere inside a contemporary digital art venue.
The multimedia production studio developed the creative concept, direction, content, script, casting, and technical consulting for the show, keeping the original narrative and central characters of Swan Lake intact. A professional ballet troupe performs the work, while choreographer and director Oleg Glushkov, whose projects have been presented at institutions including the Metropolitan Opera, directs the stage movement. The production does not replace the ballet’s classical structure. It gives its atmosphere, conflict, and emotional rhythm a new spatial format for a contemporary digital venue.
The Holographic Space at D+ is built around a 9-by-9-metre stage with a three-sided holographic structure. Transparent film spans the performance area, while hidden floor screens reflect imagery at an approximate 45-degree angle to create floating, semi-transparent figures. SILA SVETA extends the visual field with projections across the floor and rear wall, giving the stage depth without relying on heavy physical scenery. The Shenzhen production can be viewed from multiple angles, with each side offering a different reading of the same scene.
SILA SVETA uses a restrained visual palette of black, white, and red to shape the ballet’s digital dramaturgy. Rothbart, the antagonist, is not performed by a dancer but appears through red-coded graphic presences that return across the show. Marionette hands hover over Odette, broken wings form a threatening creature, and clawed shadows cross the stage through floor projection. These images give Rothbart a continuous presence while leaving the dancers’ bodies, gestures, and classical structure at the centre of the performance.
Sound and perspective are treated as part of the same spatial system. The U-shaped audience area is surrounded by panoramic audio, with speakers integrated into the stage and rear walls to position sound with accuracy. Scenes are not simply repeated across the three holographic sides. They shift according to the viewer’s location, making the audience’s position part of the work. In this format, choreography, holography, projection mapping, and immersive installation design work as one theatrical structure.
Digital Art Gallery D+ forms part of the wider Longgang International Art Center in Shenzhen’s Greater Bay Area, a large-scale cultural complex shaped as two connected blocks for classical and contemporary art. Spanning around 17,000 square metres, D+ includes the Flight Hall, White Box, Flex Space, Holographic Space, and Dome Art Gallery. Within this context, SILA SVETA’s Swan Lake shows how digital art can extend a classical work without flattening its theatrical structure, using holography as a spatial language for movement, tension, and audience perspective.
All images courtesy of SILA SVETA
