836M Unveils 2026 Program Featuring Delphine Diallo, Anne Hege, and RAWdance

836M has announced its major programs in 2026. The nonprofit arts organization's spring residency has been awarded to composer, musician and instrument designer Anne Hege.

The fall residency has been awarded to RAWdance, a contemporary dance company based in San Francisco and New York's Hudson Valley. Throughout the remainder of the year, a variety of pop-up exhibitions, concerts, screenings and talks will populate 836M's calendar – including an immersive installation by Delphine Diallo in January. Additional events will be announced over the coming months.

Next year's program revolves around the theme of Metamorphosis. “At a time when society is transforming at an unprecedented pace, the theme of metamorphosis speaks to the urgency of reinvention, highlighting how we must evolve to keep pace with the world around us,” said Céline Ricci, 836M programming director.

DELPHINE DIALLO — EARTH ORACLE

January 14 – 26

Delphine Diallo is a Brooklyn-based artist and photographer of French and Senegalese descent. A protégé of photographer Peter Beard, Diallo has over the past 12 years focused her art-making on deconstructing traditional representations of women while paying homage to what she calls “the divine female body.”

Her most recent projects have embraced new technologies, including artificial intelligence, juxtaposing the analog with the digital as a means of storytelling. For her pop-up exhibition next month, Diallo will create an immersive installation titled Earth Oracle, aiming to transform 836M's storefront gallery into “a living, ceremonial space of elemental remembrance.”

At the heart of the experience will be an altar formed from local stone and sand — a vulva-shaped centerpiece honoring the earthly source of microcomputing and A.I. chips: silica. Two films — one a mythic travel dreamscape, the other an alchemical meditation — will be projected as part of the installation.

Together with Diallo's photographs and miniature prints mounted along the walls, Earth Oracle invites viewers into “an encounter with the unseen architecture of becoming, bridging technology, ancestral storytelling and the natural world.”

An opening reception for Diallo will take place on Tuesday, January 13 at 6:30 p.m. Then, on January 21 at 7 p.m., Clarisse Neu from Google DeepMind and Patricia Buffa from Adobe Firefly GenAI will join Diallo in a panel discussion on artificial intelligence as a catalyst for the evolution of art, society and storytelling. Earth Oracle will culminate in one final event on Monday, January 26 at 7 p.m. Attendance is free with R.S.V.P. at 836M.org.

ANNE HEGE — THE GLANCE

February 19 – May 29

Anne Hege creates musical worlds that invite an attention to the body and our present moment. In her work as a composer, vocalist, conductor, instrument builder and scholar, she explores the roots of musicality at the intersection of ensemble interaction, technology, embodiment and expression. Her works have been performed by So Percussion, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Google Mobile Devices Ensemble, Ensemble Klang, Voce in Tempore, Piedmont East Bay Children's Chorus, Resound Ensemble and Volti SF, among others.

In 2022, Hege's first “laptopera” or opera for laptop orchestra and live voices, titled The Furies, premiered with the Stanford Laptop Orchestra to rave reviews. Hege is currently the artistic director of the Peninsula Women's Chorus. She performs regularly on her analog live-looping instrument, the tape machine, in her electronic duo New Prosthetics, and with the laptop ensemble Sideband.

During her residency at 836M, Hege will develop a 90-minute “laptopera,” based on the myth of Orpheus. Titled The Glance, the project blends live voices, choreography and laptop orchestra to explore themes of love, control, trust and transformation in modern relationships. Hege's collaborators include vocalists Sidney Chen, Carmina Escobar and Michele Kennedy; art director and co-librettist Kim Anno; choreographer Carrie Ahern; and instrument designers Daniel Iglesia and Curtis Ullerich.

The culminating performances will take place at ODC Theater during the final week of May. Confirmed dates and times will be announced in the new year.

RAWDANCE — ECHO

September 1 – December 6

Described as “witty, whip-smart, and beautiful to watch” (San Francisco Chronicle), RAWdance performs from home bases in both the Bay Area and Hudson River Valley, and next year marks the company's third residency with 836M.

Founded and directed by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, RAWdance has earned a reputation for transforming theaters and public spaces through a mix of performance, curation and collaboration. For their residency next fall, the company is developing a new evening-length dance titled Echo. Inspired by the myth of Narcissus and Echo, RAWdance will reimagine the classical myth for the digital age.

Performed inside a mirrored sculptural set with the audience in the round, Echo explores how technologies like social media and artificial intelligence both reflect and distort our identities, creating feedback loops that can either broaden or narrow our perspectives. Developed with set designer Chad Owens and a cast of four dancers, Echo draws on ancient legend to examine how modern tools reshape self-perception, relationships and collective experience.

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1. URINETOWN (Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble)

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7.6% of votes

3. SWEENEY TODD (Cabrillo Stage)

7.5% of votes

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