Rumpus Room Dance is a non-profit dance collective based in Portland, Oregon and Goteborg, Sweden. With one foot in Europe and one foot in Portland, Rumpus Room directors Rachel Tess and Stephan Laks foster cultural exchange by creating work locally with an international outlook. Rumpus Room develops one of a kind, culturally relevant contemporary dance performances unique to the neighborhoods and urban spaces chosen for the work.
Rumpus Room uses contemporary dance as its starting point, but also collaborates with architects, model makers, and spatially oriented visual artists to transform public spaces into performance spaces. These performance environments include raw and unfinished urban retail and warehouse properties as well as more traditional black box and experimental theatres. Rumpus Rooms primary motivation is to sensitize developing urban areas, taking the audiences perspective of the neighborhood from street into performance space by creating immersive, explorative environments.
