choreography
BANNING BOULDIN
+
NEW DIALECT

collaborators
James Barrett, Kira Fargas, David Flores, Lenin Fernandez, Becca Hoback
Mary Ruth Isbell, Emma Morrison, Hadassah Perry, Rebecca Steinberg, Curtis Thomas, Lizzy Vasuta

**“The Triangle offers a stirring portrait of struggle and courage....an unforgettable evening of dance. ”**

- NASHVILLE SCENE

V I D E O

P E R F O R M A N C E
S T I L L S

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C H O R E O G R A P H E R ‘ S
N O T E

“How can I make dances if I can’t move?” I asked myself this question three years ago, while lying in a hospital bed unable to feel my limbs.

While my first Multiple Sclerosis attack was terrifying for me as a veteran professional dancer and choreographer, it is also entirely responsible for setting me off on a creative course and a new line of questioning that led to the creation of this work. The Triangle has been a vehicle for me to cultivate new strengths from my weakness, explore my shifting relationship to our society as someone with recurring physical needs, and reflect on the meaningful characters and sources of encouragement in my life during this significant period.

My experiences battling and making peace with MS have only just begun, and while this creative process started out as a personal odyssey, it quickly became much larger than me, thanks to my generous collaborators. Through our research—both in life and in the studio—I’ve come to see how the themes of The Triangle apply to so many of us; we strive, we fall short, we fear our own limitations, we mask our weakness from others (even ourselves). We also empathize, offer support, ask for help, and bravely move into unknown personal territory. Together, we ask, “What does it really mean to be strong?” The Triangle and the artists who made it possible show me there are many nuanced answers to that question, and some that our society is reluctant to recognize.

In this piece, you’ll see dancers blinded by masks of flowers and connected to each other through a complex system of straps—problem solving within their constraints. You’ll see caregivers tending to their loved ones, and cleaners clearing the floor without giving much thought to the strangers around them, as if to say, “Life goes on.”

Every role, prop, and device in this work for me paints a picture. I leave it to you to determine what these images mean to you.

- Banning Bouldin

Gestures and movements used in The Triangle were created cumulatively over a three year period during numerous outreach workshops and choreographic residencies. Many thanks to our all our collaborators, Erin Kouwe, Spencer Grady, Joi Ware, New Dialect’s Summer Intensive 2018 participants, Whim W’Him, and Centennial Performing Arts Studios’ Dance with Parkinson’s Disease class for your invaluable contributions to this project.

R E V I E W

The Triangle Offers a Stirring Portrait of Struggle and Courage
by Amy Stumpfl

“Prior to Thursday evening’s performance of The Triangle, New Dialect artistic director Banning Bouldin spoke to an enthusiastic group of patrons at OZ Arts Nashville about the origins of the piece, which she created in response to a life-altering diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

“The point of origin started with me,” she said of The Triangle, which enjoyed a sold-out premiere at OZ last season, along with a successful run at the esteemed Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass. “But it quickly became much larger than me.”

[read the review in its entirety]

P R E S E N T A T I O N S

THE TRIANGLE premiered in February 2019 to sold out audiences at OZ Arts, Nashville’s contemporary performing arts center. The work appeared in a double-billing with New Dialect’s re-staging of Roy Assaf’s Girls.

Later that same year, the work was again staged in Massachusetts, during the closing week of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

The show returned to Nashville in February 2020 as the headliner in a four-night run at OZ alongside the premiere of Rosie Herrera’s First Fruit.

The production was then scheduled to tour with the support of South Arts’ Momentum touring program. Due to COVID-19, those plans were postponed indefinitely.

J A C O B ‘ S
P I L L O W

New Dialect was invited to perform The Triangle on the Inside/Out stage in August of 2019.
Due to weather, the performance was moved inside to the Perles Family Studio.

D E S I G N W E E K

The costume worn by the Creature in The Triangle was displayed at the offices of Hastings Architecture during a Nashville Design Week. The display coincided with an event concerned with the future of the arts in the city. Tim Ozgener (OZ Arts), Mark Scala (Frist Museum) and H. Beecher Hicks III (National Museum of African-American Music) comprised the morning’s panel. Banning Bouldin had been asked to join them, but had to decline due to scheduling.