{"id":1794890,"date":"2026-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1794890"},"modified":"2026-02-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1794890","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tRINA LIPA CARRIES THE WEIGHT OF RIBBONS<\/span>
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Rina Lipa is stepping into her own spotlight with her new debut short film, Weight of Ribbons<\/em>. Directed by a young Louis Melvyn and produced by Kinzy Diab, this story wrestles with how grand a battle ballet can be.<\/h3>\n
\"Rina<\/figure>\n

A nameless ballet dancer, slender frame encased by a grey crossover knit and signature pink leotard and tights stuck to her skin, actress and now-screenwriter Rina Lipa steps into frame to grace the studio floor. Her knees bend, her arches heighten and her arms crescendo above her head in a gracious motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a really long time, when I was young, it was always \u2018Rina Ballerina\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was my obsession. Everything revolved around ballet, performing and dancing as a dramatic, hyper child. It was just such a big part of my childhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those who have been in Rina\u2019s shoes before know the weight and responsibility that come with being a ballet dancer. By 11 years old, she was on pointe \u2013 literally. At the same time, she was in classes with girls who were four or five years her senior. \u201cIt was definitely a push \u2013 I hadn\u2019t developed. I hadn\u2019t grown into myself,\u201d she says. \u201cI was put into these spaces that felt really difficult sometimes, discipline-wise, to handle. I did that for a really long time. And then it\u2019s not that I stopped dancing, it\u2019s just ballet as a form itself\u2026I kind of fell out of love with it. The rules and how strict it could be, but I still carried on doing contemporary dance, which I found lent itself more fully to storytelling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rina always wanted to mix dance, acting and fashion into some sort of project. \u201cI always tried to link everything I do to those creative worlds as well,\u201d she shares. \u201cI haven\u2019t been in touch with that inner child for a while, so I started going back to classes and was like, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s sit down and let\u2019s try and articulate this.\u2019 It slowly moulded and took a life of its own and became a whole thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rina<\/figure>\n

So naturally, when the opportunity arose, through a series of cathartic writing conversations with friends, she was able to find solace in another medium to express herself. \u201cI wanted to share the story because I wanted to create something on my own and push myself in this writing aspect more,\u201d she explains. \u201cI\u2019d written pieces for theatre and things like that, but I hadn\u2019t written a short film and written it down in script form.\u201d And what\u2019s transpired is a \u201csomewhat personal but also, obviously, overly exaggerated and dramatised\u201d portrayal of how it can feel to grow up with ballet, and at some point, leave it behind.<\/p>\n

Calling on her friend and collaborator, producer Kinzy Diab, the synergy needed to carry this story rested within close reach. \u201cWhen Rina first shared the idea, I recognised something very honest about the tension between discipline and desire, and the quiet grief that can come with growing out of a dream you once loved,\u201d she says of the 10-minute short that captures that crossroads powerfully. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t simply a story about ballet. It felt like a microcosm for the experience of losing love in any form, whether that\u2019s a passion, a person, or a version of yourself you once held onto.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s refreshing to see this mutual understanding of the bigger picture \u2013 a reminder that the makings of this short film were very much a friends and family affair. A few serendipitous meetings (and happenings) led them to the final piece of this already-full puzzle \u2013 an \u201cIt\u201d girl-studded list of collaborators; Edie Liberty Rose with styling, pulling some gorgeous threads together, including lacy moments from Miu Miu and Valentino. Millie Hannah on hair and makeup, capturing both Rina\u2019s innocence and allure, and the youngest of the Lipa clan, Gijn, as the film\u2019s audio engineer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s how the title came to me. \u201cI was telling my boyfriend, \u2018I want something that gives a feeling of the film\u2019s heavy aspect.\u2019 The character narrates so much of how difficult her kind of experiences are, and obviously, I wanted there to be a part of the title that connotes ballet itself. And he just said, \u2018What about \u2018Weight of Ribbons<\/em>\u2019?\u201d and the rest was history. \u201cHe ate with that,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

\"Rina<\/figure>\n

The second chance-happening that helped Rina and Kinzy communicate the film\u2019s intention visually was having a young London-based director, Louis Melvyn, onboard. \u201cBallet itself is very clinical and [about] perfection. I wanted to flip that completely on the head and make it a bit exaggerated,\u201d he reveals. So, he unravelled himself creatively into an enriching research process, pulling references from films like Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Black Swan<\/em> (2011) to looking at lenses used for war films, alongside WOR<\/em>\u2019s DOP Joseph Dunn, to help affirm his direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there were key goals to achieve. One was \u201cto make the colours quite vibrant,\u201d another was that \u201cthe ballet teacher in the film is very flamboyantly dressed,\u201d and \u201cthe locations are quite colourful, [but] the school is not.\u201d It surpasses style and lies in a pace that he felt mirrored the storyline\u2019s temperament and the emotional gravitas of the broader message. \u201cIt\u2019s got a tempo of how you would in ballet, but it\u2019s all stranger than that. It becomes a weird hybrid between the story, which is a common thing, and what\u2019s expected when you think of ballet,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Against a backdrop of Camden\u2019s KOKO theatre, a childhood core for Rina, the film takes on a deeper charm. \u201cThe space holds both grandeur and emptiness, which mirrored the resolution we were working towards \u2013 that unresolved question at the heart of the film: When the hole is healed, will it make me whole again?\u201d says Kinzy. \u201cIt allowed the ending to feel expansive, but still quietly uncertain.\u201d And that\u2019s the beauty of this story \u2013 nothing is definitive, but there is a subtle comfort in the questioning.<\/p>\n

Louis\u2019 cinematography shines in that juxtaposition, his meticulous eye for composition and shape at the forefront. \u201cIt\u2019s really a psychological articulation of thoughts and fragments of ideas and things that happen,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard for me to describe this style. It was really difficult.\u201d And although nailing that style, a darkened but not gothic, vignette-framed depiction of that desire and discipline, was hard to define, it was much loved, nonetheless. And in doing so, he spun faster into a process that allowed him to understand and experiment with both his craft and the art of ballet in a new way. Taking larger leaps to develop a signature style-in-the-making.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rina<\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve really come to understand how much of a craft this is, and what actually goes into it, in terms of expectation, pressure, even in terms of the body, how taxing it is on your feet, your limbs and everything,\u201d he says. \u201cThe first scene, specifically, is kind of a big crescendo to a snapping point. That, for me, was the way of articulating the first disjunction between the main character and the art form, because the mirror becomes disjointed with her dancing. It\u2019s a visualisation of a disjointness from passion, from what you love, in a physical sense, which, again, is an example of the abnormalities that I like to explore. I\u2019ve diverted a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, however, diversions have great results \u2013 as is the case for Weight of Ribbons<\/em>. \u201cGoing back to ballet made me realise why I kind of love the arts,\u201d says Rina. For this reason, this big step into even bigger waters with film marks a turning point in her creativity, one she\u2019s willing to explore at length \u2013 and one we\u2019re excited to watch unfold. In terms of what we can expect in the future, well: \u201cI do love a horror film,\u201d Rina grins. \u201cA good horror film would be so fun and so different \u2013 dramatic! But honestly, as long as I can play female characters that reflect the real world. You could meet them outside \u2013 it\u2019s not your cliche kind of tropes that are like girl next door, or at school, or \u2018Jealous Girlfriend\u2019, these tropes that you see all the time \u2013 but very complex characters that have a lot to say.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Weight Of Ribbons<\/em>, it\u2019s fair to say she \u2013 and the team \u2013 have achieved that aspiration, and Kinzy puts it best: \u201cI hope audiences leave with a sense of freedom and permission to evolve, to let go of versions of themselves they have outgrown, and to sit with that loss without needing to frame it as failure.\u201d In that alone, there\u2019s so much more to say.<\/p>\n

Photography<\/strong> by Louis Melvyn<\/p>\n

Styling<\/strong> by Edie Liberty Rose\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hair and Makeup <\/strong>by Millie Hannah\u00a0<\/p>\n

Production<\/strong> by Kinzy Diab<\/p>\n

Words<\/strong> by Aswan Magumbe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t26 February 2026\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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Culture<\/a><\/div>\n
Film & TV<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tFashion Hong Kong brought thrills and chills to London Fashion Week\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland RINA LIPA CARRIES THE WEIGHT OF RIBBONS Rina Lipa is stepping into her own spotlight with her new debut short film, Weight of Ribbons. Directed by a young Louis Melvyn and produced by Kinzy Diab, this story wrestles with how grand a battle ballet can be. A nameless ballet dancer, slender frame encased by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-1794890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1794890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1794890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1794890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1794890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}