Collaborative Chemistry

“We’ve decided not to have any more art fights,” laughs Paula Mann. She’s sitting next to her husband, Steve Paul, talking about their upcoming show The Closer I Get the Less I Believe It. For Mann and Paul (who call their company Time Track Productions), collaboration is natural: Their relationship began with Paul, then a lighting designer, lighting Mann’s choreography. That doesn’t mean collaboration is easy—but watching them, you see they’ve struck a balance. Paul, genial and open, is full of ideas and references, his conversation like a series of diverging pathways, while Mann, light, quick, and soft-spoken, talks about the heart of the project and the practical details of their work. They complement each other: “He’s good at piling on,” says Mann, “and I’m good at pulling apart.”

“If you saw our house you’d understand,” she says: His space is crowded, while hers is neat.

Since Mann and Paul began collaborating, Paul’s work has evolved from lighting design into animation and video work. The result, when combined with Mann’s modern choreography, is difficult to describe, because the duo achieves onstage effects that look Photoshopped. In one scene, a woman dances with an image of herself while fireflies dance around her. Dual projectors and screens make it happen, but onstage it’s seamless.

In the past, Time Track Productions has explored our relationship with various media, but virtual reality is the focus here. Paul points out that virtual reality, for many, is often as compelling as reality, which gives it the potential to be a new interactive art form: “We’ve only just begun to explore the depths of what that storytelling can be,” he says.

Virtual reality may be their topic now, but it’s clear that the larger exploration is their collaboration with each other. “We’ve just scratched the surface of what can be done,” says Mann. June 21–24. Ritz Theater, 345 13th Ave. NE, Mpls., 612-436-1129

Reach Lightsey Darst at Lightseyd@msn.com.