This Thing is Real

This thing is real ostensibly presents as a minimalist, evening-length, contemporary dance theatre work for a traditional theatre space. However, one's perception is swiftly altered when performative conventions are shattered and transmuted into a spectacular psychosphere of the viewer's own projection. The work assembles a conglomeration of physically expressive forms, drawing from contemporary dance, theatre, improvisation, clowning, puppetry, and magic show tropes to create an interdiscplinarily devised, immersive experience.

this thing is real was developed over six months in residency at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. It was most recently presented in September 2025 at the Goat Farm, Atlanta.

this thing is real is a special work for me. I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Annalee on just about day two of my MFA at CalArts. We were immediately paired together in a course designed to get composers and choreographers into a room working together. It was a wild experience to suddenly be creating with someone you didn’t know at all, but Annalee and I quickly discovered we had a ton in common. From there we went on to co-create The Come Back at CalArts and I designed her MFA graduation thesis as well. When she mentioned this project with her Emory Fellowship, I jumped at the chance to get in the room again. Working with Annalee is a joy because she’s as exacting as she is down. I’m given a fairly long leash with her projects and I push it as far as I can go. For this thing is real, I really dove into the world of granular synthesis. I was fascinated by how quotidian, household, and daily sounds of life can take on a strange and otherworldly presence. We discussed in detail this kind of up-side-down world she wanted to create, a reflection on boring, regular, daily life, but with a twist. For me, this meant tearing apart a variety of samples of regular things, cooking, cleaning, washing, and putting them back together in strange ways.
Below you’ll find a sample of one of my favorite sequences from the work which I have been calling the hair monster. I run the whole show on an Ableton Live set where I move through and manipulate pre-programmed scenes. This sample showcases a doctored version of the section where I flip through about 10 Ableton scenes as the performers move through an increasingly dark sequence of the work. Though almost all of the sound for this section is resampled from parts of A-ha’s infamous Take on Me, I enjoyed creating something that sounded almost nothing like the original song save for a couple of ghostly references to the original.

Annalee TraylorCreator and Choreographer
Walter Apps, Jimmy Joyner, Henry Koskoff, Darvensky Louis, Cailan Orn, and Kendall RamirezCo-creators and Performers
Drew Sensue-WeinsteinComposer and Sound Designer
Chris Gravely Percussion
Helene KelmanSaxophone

Press

“this thing is real imbues surreal and fantastical imagery with the mundane, the forgotten, and the ignored." The grotesque is coaxed to the surface through dark humor and absurdism, revealing beauty and poeticism in the darkest, rawest human moments.”
- Carly Wynans

“Each member of the ensemble — including Sensue-Weinstein and the musicians and technical director and lighting supervisor Gregory Catellier — glittered with virtuosity in the baroque setting Traylor created. For the audience, the event was an unforgettable, immersive trip into a vividly-realized surreality with a phenomenally talented group of artists.“
- Robin Wharton, Arts Atlanta