21 Yeses is a dance of light and void,
a theatrical form
of sensory perception
that soothes and mesmerizes audiences
as it awakens into a luminous hyperdream.

Taking on the tech-aesthetic of a space odyssey, New Dialect plays with hi-grade electricity, the presence of absence, and the geometries of choreography to encounter light as a sentient form of movement and darkness itself as an action, a vast stillness.

Combining the practice of contemporary dance with lighting technologies borrowed from the concert industry, choreographer Banning Bouldin and production designer Michael Brown (Bon Iver) create an experience where motion and light capture and release one another inside the awe of an endless distance.

TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

N O V E M B E R
22 23 24

TICKETS

B A C K S T O R Y

In 2023, Tracey Ford commissioned New Dialect to create an installation for Nashville Design Week.

We took her prompt and made a short work based on the notion of dancers creating their own lighting design in real time.

On 2 November 2023, we conducted a first experiment at SoHo House Nashville and a second during the 10th anniversary of OZ Arts in April 2024.

The work is now being expanded into an evening-length theatrical production under the direction of production designer Michael Brown.

21 Yeses premieres this fall at Tennessee Performing Arts Center on November 22, 23, 24.

Installation

test run of 21 Yeses at SoHo House Nashville during Nashville Design Week 2023
photo: Daniel Meigs

Rehearsal video

footage shot during rehearsal at Centennial Performing Arts Studios
song: “Don’t Let Them Clip Your Wings” by Rolowhipp

Original Cast
Madison Brott, Lenin Fernandez, Emma Morrison, Shabaz Ujima

CREDITS

commissioned by
TRACEY FORD

Tracey is a principal/owner at EOA Architects and a lover of dance. She and our associate producer, Tonya Lewis, first approached New Dialect in May 2023 to discuss the possibility of hosting an event during Nashville Design Week. Their invitation to dream and scheme led directly to the creation of 21 Yeses.

Tracey Ford
executive producer

Teten
creative producer

Banning Bouldin
choreographer + lighting designer

Michael Brown
production + lighting designer

Tonya Lewis
associate producer

original cast
Madison Brott
Lenin Fernandez
Emma Morrison
Shabaz Ujima

costumes
Katrina Huckerby

residency host
Kathryn Wilkening
Centennial Performing Arts Studios

Investors
South Arts
Scott Chambers
Ed Lanquist Jr
The Danner Foundation
EOA Architects
Karin & Robin Eaton
Sharon & Doug Pugh
Rick Hoos
Manuel Zeitlin

Presenters
Tennessee Performing Arts Center
SoHo House Nashville
Nashville Design Week

21 Yeses exists in three acts.
The typography of those acts was inspired by Hannah Emerson and her poem
“The Center of the Universe,” which reads as an invocation to act, to react, to be, and to be again.

CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
by Hannah Emerson

Please try to go
to hell frequently
because you will
find the light there

yes yes — please
try to kiss the ideas
that you find there
yes yes — please

try to get that
it is the center
of the universe
yes yes — please

try to help yourself
by kissing the hot hot
hot life that is born
there yes yes — please

try to yell in hell
yes yes — please
try to free yourself
by pouring yourself

into the gutter all
guttural guttural yell
yes yes yes — please
try to get that you

become the being
that you came there
to be yes yes — please
try to go to the great

great great fire that you
created because you
become the light
that the fire makes

inside of you
yes yes — please
try to kiss yourself
for going there

yes yes — please
get that you are
reborn there
yes yes — please

begin your day