Tesseracts of Time

Directed and Choreographed by Jessica Lang

Set Design: Steven Holl

Set Concept: Steven Holl in collaboration with Jessica Lang

Architectural Director: Dimitra Tsachrelia
Music: David Lang, Morton Feldman, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Arvo Pärt
Costume Design: Bradon McDonald
Lighting Design: Nicole Pearce

Artistic Associate for Film: Kanji Segawa

Technical Associate for Filming of Dancers: Milan Misko

Filming of Architectural Spaces and Technical Editor of Film: Ruoyu Wei, Steven Holl Architects

Explorations of IN’ SHA Project Team: Ruoyu Wei, Yuliya Savelyeva

Stage Set Construction: Paper Mâché Monkey

 

Length: 21 minutes

Number of Dancers: 9

 

Tesseracts of Time, created in collaboration with architect Steven Holl and explores Holl’s basic belief of the relationship of architecture to the ground: Under the ground, In the ground, On the ground and Over the ground.

This work was originally created for and produced by Jessica Lang Dance and premiered in 2015 at The Harris Theater for Music and Dance. It was co-commissioned by the Chicago Architectural Biennial, The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, and Society for the Performing Arts:

 

World Premiere Cast: Clifton Brown, Randy Castillo, Julie Fiorenza, John Harnage, Eve Jacobs, Kana Kimura, Laura Mead, Milan Misko, Jammie Walker

 

“Sometimes great dance is as simple as making shapes with the human body that are pleasurable to look at.Jessica Lang has always traded in that kind of arresting imagery. But nothing we've seen before from the New York choreographer has been quite as stunning as Tesseracts of Time, the show-stopping piece that closed her company's performance Friday night as part of the TITAS series at Winspear Opera House.”

- Manuel Mendoza, Dallas News, December 10, 2016

Link to review

 

“Nine dancers move at times like a single 18-limbed body, organism guided by one curious mind, with individuals shearing off from the group, only to regather.”

- Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times, November 11, 2016

Link to review

 

“Tesseracts of Time", Jessica Lang Dance's newest piece, dives into the intricacies of time and space by juxtaposing architecture and dance for reflections on stagnancy and movement, permanence and ephemerality...You saw the reconciliation of dance and architecture, two art forms that seem to contradict in time and space. Dance disappears in a split second. Architecture is supposed to last forever. Dance travels. Architecture stays in place. Yet here, both lasted and disappeared, traveled and stayed still. They were one in the same, all bodies in the ether, constructing something to create reality.”

- Alexandra Villarreal, Huffington Post, November 10, 2015

Link to review

 

“At the Harris, her gift for design - for a photographer's sense of light and shadow, texture and composition and dimension - was obvious throughout, aided by Nicole Pearce's powerful but never overpowering lighting. Crisp, evocative shapes, often caught and held in stillness by her superb dancers, define Lang's choreography, nailing images. Lavishly charged music gives these crystalline moments emotional color.”

- Laura Molzahn, Chicago Tribune, November 7, 2015

Link to review

 

Performance History:

 

Jessica Lang Dance

November 5-6, 2015 in Chicago, IL

October 1, 2016 in Kansas City, MO

October 5-6, 2016 in New York, NY

November 10-12, 2016 in Seattle, WA

December 9, 2016 in Dallas, TX

January 13, 2017 in Park City, UT

February 17-19, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA

February 25, 2017 in Indianapolis, IN

March 23, 2017 in Iowa City, IA

April 12, 2017 in University Park, PA

March 13, 2017 in New Orleans, LA

March 20, 2017 in Houston, TX

February 8, 2018 in Amherst, MA

November 16, 2018 in Princeton, NJ