Charles Atlas, Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener: Tesseract

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 astereoscopic 3D video. Asix-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 deuxand 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.