We often think of lighting as something of an add-on in an onstage performance — a design element that helps guide the eye while illuminating and enhancing the performers. But with the upcoming premiere of New Dialect’s 21 Yeses, those elements are actually built right into the choreography itself.
It’s just the sort of innovative work that drives Banning Bouldin, who founded New Dialect in 2013. Her goal has always been to help build a more robust contemporary dance ecosystem in her hometown. As the company’s artistic director, Bouldin has created a host of imaginative new works. But in recent years, she’s been particularly drawn to working with tangible objects and materials that both support and inspire her choreography.
“I haven’t been this excited since I made The Triangle five years ago,” says the Nashville native and Juilliard graduate, who has garnered national attention for her contributions to the dance world. “I learned so much from that process — that’s really when I started using functional objects in unconventional ways, creating sculptural formations and lifelines between the dancers. So I’m really happy to keep pulling threads from that practice forward into 21 Yeses. Not only that, but the objects in this case are being used to cast light and to generate the visual effects for the work.”
It all started when Tracey Ford, a principal/owner at EOA Architects, approached Bouldin about the possibility of creating a dance installation for Nashville Design Week. A longtime dance lover, Ford had seen The Triangle at OZ Arts, along with Neon Nights — an immersive installation Bouldin created with New Dialect in 2021 that featured lighting concepts from Michael Brown, a Nashville-based production designer known for his work with folk band Bon Iver.
“When Tracey asked if I would be interested in making something for Nashville Design Week, I was honestly terrified,” Bouldin says. “You know — terrified in the way that, as an artist, you know you’re right on the edge of your competency. It’s a good kind of terror, but still.
“My creative producer partner Teten and I had been talking about how much we’d loved working with Michael Brown, and all that we’d learned from him as a production designer in the concert industry. So Teten said, ‘What if you take those amazing wireless LED tubes that you see at concerts, and use them in your choreography?’ That was it — I couldn’t wait to jump in.”
Bouldin gathered a team of dancers and set up an experimental rehearsal environment that focused on how the LED tubes might best be utilized — from building the choreography to having the dancers create their own lighting design in real time. Together they created a 20-minute piece for Design Week that premiered at Soho House Nashville in November. A second performance took place as part of OZ Arts’ 10th Anniversary Bash in April.
“It was such a fascinating moment of reveal for us,” Bouldin says. “Looking at the way these LED tubes could impact the choreography, and then using the choreography to cause the lighting design — we realized that we were blurring the line between dance and design. The use of light and darkness, the shifts in coloration and intensity — it was so evocative. Audiences were really moved, but said it also felt very meditative. Over and over they said, ‘I just wanted it to keep going.’”
Heeding that call, Bouldin decided to expand the piece to an evening-length theatrical production under the direction of Michael Brown. Co-presented with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, New Dialect’s 21 Yeses will premiere Nov. 22 at TPAC’s Johnson Theater. The project is funded, in part, by a grant from South Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
In choosing to present the work in TPAC’s intimate Johnson Theater, Bouldin says she hopes audiences will feel like “they’re inside the dream.”
“It feels like this incredible space odyssey, but instead of watching the visual effects happen to the dancers from a distance, we’re hoping audiences feel like they’re part of the journey. The design is meant to evoke sensation, and I think dance composition does the same thing when you’re wielding it well. But we’re also playing with things that dance doesn’t normally play with here — that feeling of being at a concert or club, being inside the visual effects. I think that blurring of lines offers a neat point of engagement for audiences.
“I’m so excited for this work to have its world premiere here in Nashville,” she adds. “When I first started New Dialect, so many folks from the dance field were like, ‘You’re going to try that in Nashville?’ So the fact that we’re in our 11th season — that we’ve been met with so much support, and the dance community has grown so much over the last decade — is just amazing. I feel really proud to be working in this city, and to be sharing this piece with Nashville first.”
More upcoming theater and dance performances:
Sept. 26 & 28: Nashville Opera’s Carmen at TPAC’s Polk Theater
Oct. 3-6: Nashville Ballet’s Dracula at TPAC’s Polk Theater
Oct. 8-20: Moulin Rouge! The Musical at TPAC’s Jackson Hall
Oct. 17-19: Botis Seva/Far from the Norm’s BLKDOG at OZ Arts
Oct. 25-Nov. 3: Nashville Rep’s Our Town at TPAC’s Johnson Theater
Nov. 5-10: Shucked at TPAC’s Jackson Hall
Nov. 15-17: The Cook-Off at Nashville Opera’s Noah Liff Opera Center
Nov. 15-16: Emma Sandall’s An Ambivalent Woman of 37 at OZ Arts
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