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Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Has a full dance card in 2009-2010
World Premiere at Ravinia Festival in September
Return to The Joyce Theater with New York premiere
World Tour through July 2010
and
FELA! opens on Broadway
New York, September 10, 2009 - Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company has announced their highly-anticipated 2009-10 season, which follows a celebratory 25th anniversary tour. Tony Award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones, recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world, continues to break new ground with the Company, beginning with a much-anticipated world premiere at the renowned Ravinia Festival.
Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray
On September 17 and 19, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will present the world premiere of Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray, commissioned by Ravinia Festival, at the Festival's home in Highland Park, Illinois. Fondly... celebrates the life and legacy of America's 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, through the eyes of Jones. "I wonder about the paradise our country could have been if Lincoln had lived to complete the reconstruction of America, but which we are only left to imagine," stated Jones. "I would like to share that vision with audiences and then remove it in order to expose that great distance between what is and what could have been." This dance theatre work will investigate a handful of key moments from Lincoln's life, allowing song and memory to transport the audience to an emotional and intellectual space beyond the boundaries of space and time. The music for Fondly... co-composed by Jerome Begin, Christopher Antonio William Lancaster and George Lewis, Jr., will be performed live. A website dedicated to the new production, www.fondlydowehope.com, offers an intriguing behind-the-scenes view of the artistic process. Following the world premiere at Ravinia, Fondly...will have its west coast premiere at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, followed by stops in Santa Barbara and Irvine. This fall, the company returns the Krannert Center in Urbana, Ill, a longtime presenter. The Kentucky Center in Louisville sees the work in November, the Company's first time there. Fondly... will first be seen in the New York area at Purchase College (a development partner for the project) on President's Day 2010, before being presented at Lincoln Center Festival 2010, a co-commissioner of the work.
Serenade/The Proposition
In November, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company returns to The Joyce Theater for the first time since 1996. The company will perform Serenade/The Proposition, the first of a suite of works (culminating in Fondly...Fervently) honoring the 2009 Abraham Lincoln bicentennial. Serenade was commissioned by The Joyce Theater and premiered at the American Dance Festival in 2008; though reviewed by The New York Times ("Mr. Jones's choreography flows through this dance-theater edifice like water finding its way through a winding stone wall. Formal and often understated, phrases full of scything limbs, dipping torsos and elegantly minimal partnering periodically assemble into tableaus reminiscent of daguerreotype portraits"), the work has not yet been performed in New York City. "It feels so natural to be planning our return to The Joyce stage," commented Mr. Jones. "The Joyce was our home for so long and is known throughout the worldwide dance community as a premiere venue for dance companies." The dancers will be accompanied by original music composed by Jerome Begin and Christopher Lancaster for piano, cello and voice, performed live with Lisa Komara. TThe engagement runs November 10-15; please visit www.joyce.org for performance times.
FELA!
Following the Tony Award-winning success of Spring Awakening, FELA!, the musical in which audiences are welcomed into the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, will premiere on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neil Theater (230 West 49th Street) on November 23, 2009 (previews begin October 19). A provocative hybrid of concert, dance and musical theater, FELA! explores Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's controversial life as an artist, political activist and revolutionary musician. The show is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones and was co-written by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones. The music and lyrics are by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (additional lyrics by Jim Lewis) and feature his most captivating songs with their unique blend of jazz, funk and African rhythms and harmonies. The show was conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel and was first presented as an off-Broadway production last year at 37 Arts. [Visit www.felaonbroadway.com for updates on this groundbreaking production.]
World Tour
From October 1, 2009 through summer 2010, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will travel across the country, to Europe and the Middle East, and bring its venerable style to both familiar venues and first-time performance opportunities. In May and June 2010, the Company will return to Israel, where it last performed in 1994. (Please see tour schedule for cities and dates.)
Jean Davidson, the Company's executive director, understands the significance of this season, especially coming after the troupe's 25th anniversary celebration. "Bill T. Jones continues to explore his artistic voice and its impact on the cultural landscape of the late 20th and early 21st centuries," offered Davidson. "He has a remarkable ability to tell stories, an ability that seems to only intensify in the dance-theater work of our company as his work on Broadway expands. We are so grateful to have so many partners worldwide who share Bill's vision - from Chicago to San Francisco to Venice to Tel Aviv."
Education
For Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the artistic process also includes developing the next generation of dancers and performers. The Company will begin an innovative partnership with Bard College in September. Bard students will be offered new classes in dance technique and choreographic methods, as well as the opportunity to participate in special campus-wide forums and workshops. Courses will be taught by current and former members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company under the direction of Leah Cox, the company's education director. The partnership will allow the Company to investigate how its processes and values can meaningfully contribute to the continual development of dance pedagogy in addition to contributing to the growth of intelligent, focused movers and makers of dance. The values of intellect and artfulness, shared by both Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Bard College Dance Program, provide the conceptual basis for what will be a fruitful, enriching partnership.
Extensive educational opportunities will also be explored at Skidmore and Dartmouth Colleges during the 09-10 season. As the 2009-2010 McCormack Artist Scholar-in-Residence at Skidmore College, Bill T. Jones will be conducting residency activities on the college campus. To complement his artistic exploration of the life of Abraham Lincoln and the question of what might have been, Skidmore students will be investigating Lincoln's legacy, the continuous problems associated with racial discrimination and the Obama presidency. Company teachers will be in residence for one week, leading classes in dance technique, improvisation and choreography. The Skidmore website explains, "...Moreover, we aim to deepen the aesthetic experience and the expansion of mind and spirit through innovative programming that embraces both artistic as well as narrative texts."
At Dartmouth, in April 2010, Mr. Jones and the Company will be in residence under the auspices of the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Fellowship. This honor is reserved for those scholars, thinkers and artists "capable of achieving an important and broad scale impact educationally." During the residency, performances of Fondly... will be accompanied by nightly post-performance discussions. In addition, lectures and discussions led by Mr. Jones and dance master classes taught by company members will supplement the exploration of the Lincoln legacy.
Commissioning and Funding
Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray is made possible with lead support from the Ravinia Festival and the Company's commissioning program, "Partners in Creation". Co-commissioning support provided by Lincoln Center Festival and Indiana University Auditorium, development support provided by The Performing Arts Center Purchase College. Additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts and the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Serenade/The Proposition is made possible with lead support from the Company's commissioning program, "Partners in Creation," as well as major support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Express Company. Additional support for music commissioning is provided by the American Music Center. This work has been commissioned by The Joyce Theater's Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Work with additional commissioning support provided by Montclair State University.
