A quiet, underwater stillness runs through July 15th to…, shaping the emotional landscape of a young artist negotiating life with bipolar disorder. During a seaside holiday, Ella—played with striking physical clarity by Peiyi Zhong—spends her days diving beneath the waves, learning to “equalise” under pressure. This small act of bodily adjustment becomes a recurring metaphor for the delicate recalibrations she must make on land, where emotional balance is far more fragile.
Back in her daily life, equilibrium remains elusive. Ella’s manic phases fuel bursts of creative intensity, while her lows draw her into states of paralysis. Much of the production’s force comes from Liping Jiang’s movement direction, which Zhong executes with precision and an unguarded emotional directness. Lines of dialogue are sparse and functional, leaving the body to reveal what language cannot. The movement becomes the true narrative thread.
One of the production’s strongest assets is its original score, composed by Xinyu Lu and Nik Sheva. The music draws from contemporary classical language, blended with shades of R&B and jazz. The melodies feel rich, varied, and never overly sentimental, offering depth without excess. In scenes where the narrative thins or pauses, the score provides momentum and texture; in emotionally charged passages, it amplifies intensity with refined restraint. The sound world gives the production a sense of coherence, lending the movement sequences a resonant atmospheric frame.
Yet the narrative itself occasionally feels underdeveloped. The emotional terrain is compelling, but certain story elements remain at the level of fragments without fully unfolding. Ella’s interactions with gallery manager James (Hangming Zhang) seem to gesture toward potential connection, though the series of short vignettes they share—including a curious scene involving chopped onions—never quite settles into meaningful dramatic development. The relationship drifts rather than builds.
Still, the production lands moments of real impact. Ella’s guilt over missing her grandmother’s death—having been unreachable during her diving retreat—is conveyed with spare, disciplined movement. Zhong’s physical articulation here is both controlled and raw, allowing the audience to feel the weight of shame, grief, and emotional overload tightening around her. The sequence stands out as the most grounded portion of the piece.
The final scene situates Ella in a therapist’s office, unable to escape the invisible force that pulls her back into the chair. “Can talking really help?” she asks, suspended in the still air of the room. No response arrives, and the silence becomes part of the answer. The choreography and the sound design together give the moment its weight, reminding us that healing sometimes exists in forms beyond language.
July 15th to… excels in movement, atmosphere, and its evocative score. While the storyline can feel thin in places, the production achieves a compelling emotional honesty through its physical vocabulary and the rich musical environment that surrounds it. The work resonates most strongly when the body and the music speak in tandem—where ideas fade, and sensation takes over.