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25th Aniversary
Sterling Company
THE BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY TURNS 25
Plans include three premieres, an off Broadway show, the opening performances of BAM's Next Wave Festival, national and international tours
Consider the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's 25th anniversary celebration a launching pad for its future. And what a future it promises: premieres, new venues, and a cornucopia of new ideas.
The first of the Company's major events, the world premiere of "Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition," takes place July 10-12 at the 75th anniversary celebration of the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. The premiere marks the beginning of Jones's three-prong exploration of the resonant legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
Without introducing the literal character of Lincoln, "Serenade/The Proposition" weaves dance, text derived from period writings, video, and new and traditional music to explore the essential and powerful issues Lincoln's presidency raised about the moral, social and political future of the vulnerable young nation. Although essentially abstract, a human and nonjudgmental heart beats through the entire work, which takes place on a blazing white stage amid towering white columns.
Bjorn Guil Amelan, the Company's creative director, designed the elegantly dramatic set, and Janet Wong, the Company's associate artistic director, created the compelling video. Robert Wierzel designed the lighting. Employing the full company of 10 dancers, "Serenade/ The Proposition" integrates performances by actor Andrea Smith with music created and conducted collaboratively by cellist Christopher Antonio William Lancaster, vocalist Lisa Komara and keyboardist Jerome Begin.
"A Good Man!/A Good Man?" a major commission from the Ravinia Festival, scheduled to premiere at the Festival in September 2009, will add another dimension of Jones's examination of the legacy of Lincoln. Full evening in length, "A Good Man" uses Jones's childhood vision of the historic president for a starting point. Expect a dance brimming with ideas, challenges to conventional thoughts about Lincoln, and perhaps suggestions of alternative notions of Reconstruction had Lincoln lived.
Integral to the work will be material gathered from the "100 Migrations" workshops scheduled for New York, NY; Charlottesville, VA; San Francisco, CA; and Chicago, IL. Jones and his company members will encourage the 100 participants in each workshop (representing a diverse and multi-generational population) to express their own interpretations of Lincoln through movement phrases and gestures.
The making of "A Good Man!/A Good Man?" will be documented by Kartemquin Films, whose work has been broadcast nationally on NBC, PBS, Cinemax, and The Sundance Channel and whose "Hoop Dreams" won a 1995 Academy Award nomination.
Also under consideration is a solo work, "Lincoln Lectures" (working title), a text-based theater work combining spoken word, movement and music featuring Jones and additional performers.
Opening Bam's 2008 Next Wave Festival
The Company opens BAM's 2008 Next Wave Festival with the New York premiere of "A Quarreling Pair," based on the two-character play by Jane Bowles of the same name, September 30 & October 2-4, 2008. The show is the result of Bill T. Jones's 15-year fascination with Bowles's four-page puppet play. In his 90 minute production, Jones takes this apparently simple story of two sisters with radically different views of the world as a point of departure for a multi-layered theatrical exploration of what happens to a relationship lived in isolation. A combination of choreography, text, and an original score, the work creates a tension between the uniquely creative means Jones employs to explore a play that warns of the emotional suffocation and spiritual inertia resulting from a life lived without imagination and curiosity.
Awards, Rewards And Addresses
One of the most articulate and inspiring artists of his generation, Jones, who has received almost every major award given in the arts, is also a much sought-after speaker. In May alone, he received an honorary Doctorate in Letters from the College of the Arts at Montclair State University on May 15 and on May 17 he received an honorary doctorate from Skidmore College. He delivered the commencement address to the graduating class at Columbia University School of the Arts on May 21; and he participated on the panel for the "The Creative Brain" at the World Science Festival at New York University on May 29.
On The Road
In addition to learning and rehearsing the new dances, the company is racking up frequent flyer miles big time. Its performances of its newest hit, "A Quarreling Pair," is being presented in Santa Fe, NM on June 7; Lawrence, KS on October 10; Charlotte, NC on February 24, 2009; and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., March 24-25, 2009. "Chapel Chapter" will be performed at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, MA, June 26 - July 6; in Créteil, France, November 27-29; and in Rome, Italy, December 3-4. In addition to the ADF performances this summer, "Serenade/The Proposition" will also be performed in Boston, MA, October 24-26; Tampa Bay, FL on February 18, 2009; and Lake Worth, FL, February 20-21, 2009.
Up The Road
Jones is also currently creating a new musical schedule for a limited run at 37 Arts. Previews begin July 28; opening night is August 28, closing night September 21. Entitled "Fela," and based on the turbulent life of the charismatic Nigerian composer and politician Fela Anipulako Kuti, the show, co-written by Jones and his long-time dramaturge Jim Lewis, will be directed and choreographed by Jones. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1938, Fela, "He Who Has Death In His Pocket," was a singer-composer, trumpet, sax and keyboard player, bandleader, and the inventor of Afrobeat. Throughout his life, Fela fought against the corruption that permeated post-colonial Nigeria even running for President of his country. He was imprisoned, tortured, spending the remainder of his life in conflict with the regime.
