Mirror State, choreographed by Harper Wang and presented at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, opens with the dancer standing in one corner of the stage. A warm yellow light catches her against the darker space. For a few moments, the image is almost portrait-like.
The stillness does not last. She begins to move across the stage, turning, changing direction and travelling from one side of the space to another. There is an ease to the dancing and a close connection with the music. The upper body is particularly light. When the arms open and the direction changes quickly, there are moments when she has something of a bird about her — alert, quick and free.
The lighting brings more element into the work. As the follow spot falls onto the floor, the dancer’s shadow becomes visible. It follows her across the stage, sometimes close to the body, sometimes stretched further away. With a title like Mirror State, it is an image that immediately makes sense.
But the shadow is only one kind of mirror.
What interested me more was the way the choreography uses movement to make us aware of the body itself. The dancer reaches, turns, stops, travels and changes direction. Through these very simple actions, the edge of the body becomes noticeable: how far an arm can reach, how the weight shifts, where the body stops and the space outside it begins.
That relationship between body and space runs quietly through the piece. We understand the world around us through the body — through distance, weight, touch and movement. Mirror State seems to turn that idea back on itself. By becoming aware of the body and its limits, we also become more aware of ourselves.
Repetition is part of this work. Movements return, but not always in exactly the same form. A gesture may come back with a different weight or timing. A phrase may begin in a familiar way and then change direction. Sometimes the difference is small enough that you only notice it after seeing the movement again.
There are pauses too. They are brief but useful. A flowing phrase stops, the dancer holds for a moment, and then something else begins. These interruptions give the movement a little uncertainty and stop the dance work from becoming too smooth or decorative.
The travelling across the stage is also effective. The dancer repeatedly moves from one corner to another, and after a while those distances begin to feel important. There is a suggestion of a journey in it, though the work does not try to tell us exactly what that journey is.
At its current length, Mirror State could perhaps afford to stay with some of these ideas for longer. The repeated material, in particular, feels as though it could be pushed further, allowing more changes and more contrast to appear. The costume could also be reconsidered. A slightly more contemporary or fashion-led choice might work better with the movement language and the clean visual world of the piece.
by Francesca Matthys
