Today we’d like to introduce you to T. Lang.
T. Lang Dance, an Atlanta based dance company, performs original, provocative works created by artistic director and choreographer, T. Lang. In 2008, Lang relocated to Atlanta from New York City and premiered her dance company in 2012. T. Lang Dance continues to develop, direct, and produce high-impact work that blends traditional and experimental contemporary movement. Their latest work, A Graveyard Duet of the Past Now was presented at the High Museum of Art.
Lang delves deeply into American history and its avoided complexities – investigating and excavating untold truths of identity and community. Envisioning choreography in which dance and technology are interdependent, Lang collaborates with forward-thinking composers, visual artists and engineers to create interactive and responsive virtual environments like no other. T. Lang Dance creates poetic movement landscapes, illustrating deep rousing investigations into interdisciplinary creative practices, historical narratives and identity.
Since locating to Atlanta, T. Lang Dance has built a strong community of collaborators to inform and create a poetic representation of the African American historical narrative at the intersection of contemporary movement, other mediums, and technology. For nine years, dance artists and choreographers have come from all over the country to participate in T. Lang Dance’s summer dance intensive program, SweatShop, in order to grow their progressive understanding of contemporary movement and exchange unique entrepreneurial strategies. SweatShop participants have been a diverse gathering of pre-professionals and professionals, young artists and established professionals in the fields of dance and choreography.
In projects and programs, T. Lang Dance actively supports and invests in creatives to work together on the forefront of possibility. Through various performance projects, T Lang Dance has collaborated with musical artists and choreographers and movement artists to push the use of technology and virtual environments, and to captivate audiences to reimagine public and institutional spaces. T Lang Dance brings together technology experts, historic interpreters, and artists to develop new creative capacities: Systems engineers build codes for augmented reality & virtual reality experience; Digital visual artists create new environments for movement artists to perform inside, presenting audiences with a new experience; African-American Literature, creative writing scholars and dramaturgs ensure historical accuracy and integrity; Musical composers and musicians thoughtfully create unique sound experiences, such as soundscapes based on ancient Kemetic healing sounds.
Receiving official non-profit status in 2018, T. Lang Dance continues to invest in its on-going efforts to expand and deepen its work. In February 2019, T Lang Dance launched a community space in the Westview neighborhood of Atlanta, The Movement Lab. The Movement Lab is a multidisciplinary incubator that serves as an accessible space for artists to find, nurture, grow and innovate through novel discoveries. The home of T Lang’s choreographic and movement studio, it serves as the base of professional development training opportunities such as SweatShop and the ILL Residency. The Movement Lab also facilitates programming such as the Black Endurance program in order to enable community investigations and expressions centered in place and in the mode of shared collaboration. The desired impact is: to empower a community of collaborators to create new works, vocabularies, mediums and technologies; and to ground, strengthen, and forward the Black embodied narrative into the future. To celebrate their upcoming one year anniversary, T. Lang Dance will present a weekend of performances from Atlanta artists. This showcase will provide free rehearsal and performance space for the underserved storytellers. Be on the lookout this month for the call of submissions.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The vision has been clear and direct however, bringing the vision to reality has had its plot twists. Now that the company built their home in the historic Westview neighborhood, there is ease to create, workshop, experiment and present new works for our community. Our space also alleviates the challenge for artists, community leaders, or creative entrepreneurs who are in need of clean open space and a need for consistency to finally have an affordable space to make their own bold moves.
Alright – so let’s talk business. What else should we know about you and your career so far?
I am a choreographer, storyteller and translator of truth whose choreographic works ignite fire. I create, write and teach poetic expressions of dance, which illustrate deep, arousing investigations into identity, history and community. I am compelled to create works that uncover untold stories of American history, allowing others to see inside alternative perspectives. I construct stories and experiences of America’s intricately complex fabric, which provide perspectives of soul and depth that I cherish. Through the vehicle of contemporary modern dance with emphasis on the interdisciplinary, my work embodies a movement style that captures the attention of the viewer with its evocative physicality, technical range and emotional viability.
My work of the embodied narrative is always led by an interest in engaging the audience, specifically to create a conversation of narratives, which connect the participant more intimately to their own narrative of community, place, and personal history. As part of my work, I aim to partner in curatorial conversation with art institutions, to research imagery and language sourced from local historic sites and local narratives, and to integrate these elements into the physical environment and/or content of the work, especially content related to local African-American history. In incorporating these lesser known histories, I intend to collaborate with local movement artists and performers, sound artists, community organizers, as their creative involvement and representation is integral to the desired impact: to engage and empower and affirm the audience in their exploration of their own individual and collective narrative.
As Artistic Director and Choreographer of the collaborative team of T. Lang Dance, my current work, A Graveyard Duet of the Past Now, manipulate images, animation, sound, and light in real-time, employing live-stream technology inside the “cube” environment; We synchronize various media to the movement-led narrative through AI-powered feedback. The desire is to use the hypnotic nature of the visual effects and animation to immerse the audience in an engrossing and transformative movement-driven narrative. By colliding technology and movement, I am creating a powerful, immersive experience, enabling the viewer to fully lose themselves in a multi-sensory experience, to emerge with a new orientation of a fraught landscape, empowered by a new perspective.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck. All roads, good or bad, lead me to my purpose.
Pricing:
- Need workshop, rehearsal, meeting, screening or performance space? Visit www.themovementlabatl.com Rentals begin at $45 per hour.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1384 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd
Atlanta, GA 30310 - Website: www.tlangdance.com and www.themovementlabatl.com
- Email: info@tlangdance.com and info@themovementlabatl.com
- Instagram: @tlangdance @themovementlabatl
- Facebook: @tlandanceatl @themovementlabatl
- Twitter: @tlangdanceco
Image Credit:
Photos by Shelia Pree Bright and Erica Abelard
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