DANCE
BY RACHAEL CARNES
WRITING THEIR
OWN SONNET
New improvisational dance outfit,
Tesseract Theatre Company, takes
shape
T
esseract Theatre Company is a new star in the con-
stellation of local performing arts, launching into
orbit with a series of informal workshops.
“The same way that a choreographer or troupe
constructs a dance inspired by a particular piece of
music or to express a certain emotion or idea, the Tesser-
act Theatre Company constructs devised works based on
inspiration, to communicate a greater truth,” says group
co-founder Mia Vance.
In geometry, a tesseract is the four-dimensional analog
of a cube. Book nerds know it as a way of wrinkling time,
so you can travel without having to go the long way ‘round.
And this theatrical Tesseract burns brightly, inviting cu-
riosity and building community.
“In dance, there is more than just the movement and
in theatre there are more than just the lines — each uses
its tools and techniques to communicate something deeper
with its audience,” Vance says.
Unlike more traditional venues, Tesseract Theatre Com-
pany — founded by Vance, her husband Cullen Vance, Eric
Braman, Taylor Freeman and Gypsy Prince — doesn’t be-
gin with a script.
“We begin with movement technique. From this tech-
nique, characters emerge,” Vance says. “We place these
characters together, improvisationally, and story emerges.”
Via a process that develops story through accessible
experimentation, repetition and deep discussion, Tesseract
gently moves towards character and plot formation.
TESSERACT
THEATRE COMPANY
REHEARSES
“This process is guided not by a director but by what we
call a ‘butcher,’” Vance says. “The butcher is responsible
for cutting away bits of the devised work that do not serve
the story as a whole.”
Beyond that point, the rehearsal process becomes a lit-
tle more typical.
“We continue repeating the piece we’ve developed,
exploring and refining what we’ve created, adding in cos-
tumes, props and any other theatrical elements as needed,
and voila! A brand new, never-before-seen devised perfor-
mance is born,” Vance says.
Tesseract Theatre Company’s model for devising a
piece of theatre is rooted in movement at its core. Using
the Viewpoints techniques developed by Anne Bogart and
Tina Landau, the group explores the emotions, characters
and relationships that will become the ingredients for sto-
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“Tesseract Theatre Company is excited to continue of-
fering free monthly public workshops at Amazon Commu-
nity Center,” Vance says.
(Full disclosure: This writer took one of the workshops
last summer, and had a blast.)
“These workshops offer an opportunity for members
of the community to become familiar with the shared lan-
guage of our movement-based improvisation techniques,
and to become eligible to participate in future devised per-
formance projects,” Vance says.
Catch the next free workshops noon to 1:30 pm Nov. 5
and Dec. 3, at Amazon Community Center; you can find
the group on FaceBook, or email them at tesseracttheatre-
co@gmail.com.
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