Next Generation: Tatiana Chance

Tatiana Chance isn’t a fan of convention. After all, the best sorts of artists arrive on the heels of feeling like an outsider, and she’s never been afraid to seek out that sense of belonging through performance.

“I fell in love with theatre maybe not by conventional methods,” Chance said. “I fell in love with Sharpay Evans from High School Musical, and it inspired me to join theatre.”

That initial dalliance with musicals brought Chance to the Dakota Academy of Performing Arts (DAPA), where she was exposed to a whole new world of artistic expression.

Tatiana Chance (center) performs as part of the cast of Bare Bodkins Theatre Company’s Much Ado About Nothing this past summer at the Queen Bee Mill Ruins of Falls Park.

“It was so different from what I was used to,” she said. “Being surrounded by talented young people, I was a spoon in Beauty and the Beast and danced my heart out. It was my first time being in a show with a real audience and a stage manager.”

Instilling each performance with a lot of heart is something Chance particularly values when she’s approaching a character, something she’s carried with her to her current setting, as a theatrically involved elementary education major at Augustana University.

“For one of my characters, I found this 16-inch baton and decided that one of my characters would have this very tiny cane as he walked,” she said of her latest role in Augustana’s production of The 39 Steps. “I love finding the physicality of the character and making those big choices to differentiate them.”

Choice-making is something she learned early on as part of the DAPA program growing up, where music director Jane Ruud encouraged her to lead with confidence.

“Make big choices. You’re okay to make mistakes,” she said. “I remember Jane always saying that if you’re going to make a mistake, make it loud. I wasn’t the most confident singer in the world, but knowing that if I’m going to be here, I’m going to put my heart out there. The support of the DAPA faculty was just amazing.”

This innate level of energy predisposes Chance to this style of expression, and it’s something she says has come in handy moving into a collegiate space.

“I find that being this energetic person that I am inspires other people,” she said. “College is hard. We’re all tired. But someone being there to smile and say good morning makes other people happy. I get joy from giving other people joy. It’s that same feeling when you get on stage. I’m here to make people smile and feel something.”

This past summer, Chance got to experience her first professional performing gig, as part of the cast of Bare Bodkins Theatre Company’s Much Ado About Nothing. This wealth of opportunity has given her life joy in a time where that can be difficult.

“Theatre is an escape,” Chance said. “I have a lot of things in my personal life, my mom having been dealing with long-haul COVID and being on oxygen for a year. The time that I don’t have to be ‘Tatiana’ and I don’t have my problems and can be someone else—it’s a time I can leave everything at the door and put myself into a character.”

For a self-professed outsider, theatre from childhood to adulthood has served Chance in a variety of ways, from expression, to giving to others, to escapism. And she doesn’t see that changing anytime soon.

“I never really felt like I belonged in school. I always felt like an outsider. Theatre was the first place where I was welcomed with open arms. Being different and being my energetic self—people embraced it.”