Drawing on the unique mechanics of gliding, the piece unveils a hybrid dance language shaped by the performers’ atypical mobility.

Structured as a choreographic triptych, Within A Thousand Suns reflects on the conscious and unconscious forces that shape human behavior and interactions. The work questions our conditionings and investigates the interplay between freedom and determinism, exploring the elusive boundary between them.

Oktawia Ścibior
Oktawia Ścibior is a skating artist and choreographer born in Warsaw (Poland) and living in Paris (France). For 15 years, she trained as a high-level competitive figure skater, earning a bronze medal at the Polish Nationals in 2003. Following her athletic career, Oktawia studied Physics and later Bioinformatics, obtaining Master’s degrees in both fields. Additionally, she trained in jazz dance at the National Centre for Culture in Poland, and performed in numerous traditional skating shows across Europe.
In 2013 she discovered contemporary skating through the works of the company Le Patin Libre. Since that time, she has been engaged in the development of a contemporary approach to skating, recognizing the medium’s vast potential for artistic exploration. In 2016 she founded Slippery Art Project, an association aiming to nurture the emergence of artistic creation via skating. This led her to collaborate with several artists on various contemporary skating projects in France.
Since 2018, she has been performing in the piece Murmuration by Le Patin Libre. She also closely collaborates with Samory Ba, experimenting with gliding movements on inline skates.

Samory Ba
Samory Ba is a French skating-artist and choreographer of Senegalese origin. A former international high-level figure skating competitor, Samory transitioned to a professional career with several renowned ice show companies. His long-standing fascination with the unique choreographic possibilities of skating eventually led him to redirect his focus towards developing a modern approach to this traditional discipline, exploring innovative possibilities within the medium. In 2010, he became one of the founding members of Le Patin Libre, a Quebec-based collective of cutting-edge skating artists. Together, they laid the foundations for a modern approach to skating and created the groundbreaking piece Vertical Influences, which had its world premiere at the Dance Umbrella Festival in London (2014). The piece received a 5-star review from The Guardian and quickly gained international recognition, becoming part of prestigious programming such as Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt, Holland Dance Festival, and National Arts Centre of Canada. With Le Patin Libre, Samory continued to push the boundaries of contemporary skating, co-creating the acclaimed works Threshold (2018) and Murmuration (2022). These pieces have been instrumental in popularizing contemporary skating on the global stage. Since 2019, Samory has also collaborated with Oktawia Ścibior on various research and creation projects, exploring the artistic potential of skating as a medium, beyond the current confines of the form.