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Celebrated Nashville dance collective New Dialect joins forces with the acclaimed American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) for the must-see collaboration of the season. Featuring evocative choreography by former Batsheva member Bobbi Jene Smith, the compelling new dance and music work assembles some of the most notable talents of the rising generation — including acclaimed dancer-choreographer and New Dialect founder Banning Bouldin in her triumphant return to the stage.

Described as “rapt and raw” by the Los Angeles Times, Broken Theater imagines a group of artists wrestling with identity and purpose after their audience disappears. Lines between selfhood and the parts we play blur as the virtuosic cast of performers slip in and out of their expected roles: “dancers sing, singers dance, and instrumentalists do both” (The New Yorker).

AMOC, New Dialect, and Carolina Performing Arts partner to present the world premiere of Broken Theater, Bobbi Jene Smith’s newest work that melds live dance-theater, music, and cinematic beauty.

Broken Theater explores themes of power, love and trust in a threading together of dance-theater, music, and cinematic beauty. It presents a company caught in the theatrics of rehearsal. Company members, preparing for a show, perform music by Schubert, Bach, Connie Converse, and Pete Seeger, exquisitely curated and choreographed. But signals are crossed; the chain of command breaks down; the artists repeat, rebuild, and take apart the moment of performance.

BROKEN THEATER

Created and Directed by Bobbi Jene Smith 

Choreographed and Performed by:

Banning Bouldin 

Julia Eichten 

Vinson Fraley 

Jonathan Fredrickson 

Keir GoGwilt 

Coleman Itzkoff 

Jesse Kovarsky 

Yiannis Logothetis 

Or Schraiber 

Bobbi Jene Smith 

Mouna Soualem 

Produced by AMOC* in association with New Dialect.

Broken Theater is a co-commission between La Mama, MassMOCA, AMOC* and New Dialect. 

BIBERViolin Sonata in E minorJ.S. BACHViolin Sonata in A major, BWV 1015VERACINIViolin Sonata Accademiche in D minor, Op. 2, No. 12TARTINIThird movement (Andante. Allegro. Adagio.) from Violin Sonata in G minor, Il trillo del Diavolo, arr. for solo violinROYERLes Marches des Scythes (Fièrement), for solo harpsichordLECLAIRViolin Sonata in D major, Op. 9, No. 3, TombeauCORELLIViolin Sonata in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12, La Folia

A rising star of historically informed performance, Rachell Ellen Wong brings rare expressive nuance and refreshing vitality to her famously soft-spoken instrument of choice, the Baroque violin. Wong is a recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only early-music specialist recognized in the award’s history. In her Cal Performances debut, Wong offers a program that includes a signature work, Biber’s Sonata No. 5; a solo arrangement of music from Tartini’s fiery The Devil’s Trill; and dazzling sonatas by Corelli, Leclair, Veracini, and Bach, accompanied by harpsichordist David Belkovski and cellist Coleman Itzkoff.

This performance is made possible, in part, by Nadine Tang and an Anonymous Patron Sponsor.

Run time for this concert is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, including intermission, but not including any possible encores.

Directed by the 2020 Avery Fisher Grant recipient violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and harpsichordist David Belkovski, Twelfth Night is an award-winning early music ensemble for the modern world. They will open Apex Concerts' Twelfth Season with a fascinating program titled From London to Dresden.