January 27–28, 2017, 8pm
The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 8th St.
Troy, NY 12180
empac.rpi.edu
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Following several years of development at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, artist Charles Atlas and choreographers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener will premiere their new two-part 3D video and live dance work, Tesseract, at EMPAC on January 27 and 28 at 8pm.
The work’s first part, Tesseract (3D), is a stereoscopic 3D video. A six-chapter work of science fiction, it is Atlas’s first “dance video” in over a decade. Filmed with a mobile camera rig that moves with the choreography, Tesseract (3D) traverses a series of hybrid and imagined worlds staged and filmed over a series of EMPAC production residencies. Each chapter combines a specific set, choreography, and camera motion to encompass pas de deux and ensemble pieces, choreographed and performed by former Merce Cunningham dancers Mitchell and Riener. Manipulating the 3D footage to combine live dance with animation, Atlas’s distinctive video effects reach into otherworldly dimensions beyond the stage.
For the second part of the evening, Tesseract (live) expands the view from film frame to proscenium stage. A performance for six dancers and multiple mobile cameras—the footage of which Atlas will manipulate in real-time and project back onto the stage—Tesseract (live) superimposes the space of dance with live cinematic production, rendering a choreographic analogue to the four-dimensional cube from which the piece takes its title.
Tesseract (3D) by Charles Atlas / Rashaun Mitchell / Silas Riener was commissioned and produced by EMPAC/Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-commissioned by Triangle France. Tesseract (live) by Charles Atlas / Rashaun Mitchell / Silas Riener was co-commissioned by EMPAC/Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and On the Boards. Tesseract was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Tesseract was developed, in part, through residencies at EMPAC/ Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Watermill Center, and the Walker Art Center.
Tesseract will kick off the spring 2017 season at EMPAC, which will include Okwui Okpokwasili‘s Poor People’s TV Room, a dance production inspired by Nigerian women’s movements, on February 10; a discussion with Gerard & Kelly regarding their choreographic meditation on queer space, Modern Living, on February 23; a concert by Iranian hand drummer Mohammad Reza Mortazavi on March 3; Andrew Schneider‘s multimedia theatrical performance FIELD on March 30; a performance of repertoire and new works by violin virtuoso Anne Akiko Meyers on April 18; and Trajal Harrell‘s hybrid vogue/butoh performance, The Return of La Argentina, on April 29. The season features three installments of the “Watering the Flowers” film series, with evenings programmed by Isabelle Pauwels, Mariam Ghani, and Boudry/Lorenz, and a series of talks delivered by Anna Everett, Sarah Juliet Lauro, Susan Kozel, Mary Armentrout, EMPAC director Johannes Goebel, and Grimshaw Architects.
