Dissipate
A Dance on the Self
Directed by Kate S.
words by Katie Huelin
Dissipate traces the quiet intimacy between body and sound, the kind of freedom found only when no one is watching. Alone, movement becomes instinct; the self begins to dissolve into rhythm.
For London-based director Kate S, the film is both personal and universal, a reflection on learning to move without fear. Growing up in Hong Kong, dance lived in private spaces, hidden behind closed doors. In the UK, surrounded by the pulse of dance music culture, that privacy turned into liberation.
Blending East and West, humour and sincerity, Dissipate sits at the intersection of dance, art, and contemporary culture, a study of freedom through movement, and the quiet act of becoming unafraid.
Dissipate feels like both a personal and physical unravelling. What first inspired you to turn that inner journey into a visual and musical one?
You described it quite well! Dissipate honestly feels like that to me too.
For the longest time I’d like to show and express my love and personal journey towards a particular feeling – that sense of self gradually dissipates when you allow your mind and physical body to fully surrender to the stream of music you love. You form a new connection to your mind and the space around you. I was also getting very into dance music (techno and house in particular– being rather generalizing here I know, sorry!) - the urge to make a video about my bond with it eventually became so great that I couldn’t ignore it.
I’d also say that the music video of Hypoynised by Yannis (Director: Ludovic Zuili) left quite an impact on me after I first watched it many years ago. Seeing how people purely moved and danced with music, stripped away from judgment, under hypnosis - it’s so raw and beautiful. In fact, I’ve watched it so many times over the years that I think subconsciously it eventually prompted me into making my own version in a way. (without hypnosis though haha)
You’ve shared that the film was born from your own relationship with dance and self-expression. Can you share a bit about this and how your personal history shaped the emotional tone of the piece?
Growing up in a judgment-infested society, where everything you do gets criticized or scrutinised, I quickly learned that people love labelling you before you even get a chance to figure yourself out. I was always shy or maybe even intimidated by it. I’ve loved moving to music since I was a kid, but growing up, I only ever dared dance alone to music in my room. And I’d double, triple check all the other rooms in the house just to make sure no one was in the house. Safety for my emotion first to my worried mind.
When I was finally alone, with music I loved blasting around me, I could lose myself into my inner world - hide there and be boundless, shapeless and hence free in that kind of weird sense. Music and dance became my escape. My mind and body just go wherever the music takes me in a way - it was my idea of what dancing meant to me. My dance, my movement, belonged to me and me solely, safely. I want to show that intimacy expressed in the way music carries me, like a wave lifting and moving me through a journey of: transforming, evolving, shifting, and finally dissipating.
“I want the freedom on screen expressed not only in the dance moves by the dancer, but the camera movements need to feel liberated too.”
The film opens with a kind of x-ray, abstract view of the body before revealing the dancer more fully. What drew you to that visual progression, and what does it represent?
For me, listening to a new piece of music is like entering a new world. There’s certain strangeness and hence freshness that comes with a new world. I wanted to make the opening of the video look otherworldly. A visual representation of being somewhat guarded with that world and soundscape.
You’re treading and moving with care and mindfulness at the start of this journey. As the music progresses, you learn to follow it, showing yourself to it more, trusting yourself with it. Gradually, you open up, and you come back to being grounded in yourself. It becomes warmer and more welcoming, so visually it’s warmer in colour too.
The setting feels very isolating yet also liberating at the same time. Why did you choose that industrial, empty environment, and how did it shape the choreography or the camera movement?
Dissipate is a heightened showcase of my journey toward dancing freely to music. I wanted to establish a safe, judgment-free space visually. In my overly criticised mind, that meant: nobody else, nothing else in the room. Just a sole dancer to an empty space, to heighten the focus on the relationship on the self, the dance, and the music.
The emptiness of the space also meant room to roam freely, to grow, to explore. It allowed us to design the camera movement and choreography in a more spontaneous way, especially in terms of space.
That openness helped us capture genuine movements and higher level of authenticity throughout the six stages of the dance (they are also my personal stages I go through when dancing):
from the awakening, to being chained to the beat, led into a trance, suspended in self, then slowly dissipating, and finally, rejoicing.
I often think of camera-operating with dancers as a dance in its own right. In this case, both the dancer and camera operator had the spatial freedom to move around, to improvise, to respond to whatever felt right in the moment beside some pre-choregraphed moves. I want the freedom on screen expressed not only in the dance moves by the dancer, but the camera movements need to feel liberated too.
The sound design captivates the viewer from the start, moving from a driving techno pulse to a gentler, vocal-led calm, mirroring the emotional arc of the dancer. How did you and Frnge approach the interplay between sound and movement?
Dissipate was shot with temp scores with that intended arc but I was struggling to find music that represented that world and innately carried a certain precision I wanted for the emotional arc. Having worked with Frnge’s label – Chamber Collective before, I turned to digging through the artist’s work. And his works are like goldmines! (I have yet to find a bad song from him yet!) I felt like I hit a jackpot. So I reached out to express my wish to use some of his music. He watched a rough teaser, and we landed on a label collaboration with new music from him instead. The rest is history…. but I’m so grateful for the label and Frnge, who have been so communicative, supportive and open to my ideas, allowing me to keep high creative autonomy through and through. Such JOY!
There’s a lot of contrast in the film, dark clothing against light space, chaos against serenity. How do you think about visual contrast as a storytelling tool, in particular, when making Dissipate?
The visual contrast was designed to be simple and stark for demanding focus to the dancer and the music, honing attention to the details of the movement, the beat, the flow and ultimately the self. By tuning level of chaos on screen, be it the movement, the visual effects or the lack of it, or the deliberate stillness, I tried to use these tools to unfold the journey on many levels, at times nuanced, at times strikingly contrasted.
Your work often sits at the intersection of humour, humanity, and bold visual experimentation. What's next for you?
I will be directing a comedy music video for a rapper! Should be fun!
I’m diving more into comedy these days (I still work across genres though!) dry, surreal stuff that hopefully makes sense to someone or everyone, everywhere.
And, equally important, I’m on a mission to expand my apple tea collection.
Directed by Kate S. @that_turtle_there
Music by Frnge @unclefrnge
Presented by Chamber Collective @chamber.core
Dancer: Zara Asa @flowarts_asa
Executive Producer: Oneness Zheng @oneness_zeng
Producer: Kate S. @that_turtle_there
1st AD: Daniel Lee @okokdanlee DOP: Kate S. @that_turtle_there
1st AC: Hang Chau @mamaecenass
2nd AC: Ho Ho Cheung @ginger_bb14
Editor: Kate S. @that_turtle_there
Colourist: Anson Cheng @ansoncheng.visuals
Poster: Han Jo @hanjo1010, @spoon.graphics
Special Thanks: Lava Studio, Ken Mok, Ollie Lau, Cat Wu, Justin Ho, Stephenie Kay, Chris Cheung