Before dance became art, before it tried to express anything, before it was a ceremony or a technique, it was a game. Gaming is a thread that connects many of Joshua Monten’s previous work. Now, in “Game Theory,” Monten looks a bit more deeply at the basic building blocks of play: freedom and rules, ritual and surprise, adrenaline and flow. “Game Theory” is a kinesthetic portrait of play — a typology of play’s basic forms — which is highly personal and still immediately recognizable. The result is an aesthetically rigorous composition with ample room for freedom and joy. To play means to act out situations that are not possible or not allowed in daily life. To play means to destroy and create, to flirt with danger, to release one’s animal energies, to experience the thrills of domination and being dominated. The games we like the best are often the ones that have consequences and risks, games that are more than just a game, games that make our head spin and can break our heart. Both both an indoor version (60 minutes) and a street theater version (30 minutes) of the choreography are available for performance. Selected in 2021 for the “40 Winks” program of Springback Magazine/AEROWAVES.