« March 2006 | Bill's Blog | May 2006 »
April 2006
A Catch-Up List
Blind Date:
Our most recent performances were in Denver and Beaver Creek, CO; the next one is in Princeton, NJ. The work continues to evolve. The focus now is on tinkering with Peter Nigrini's video contribution to adjust it to the structural changes we've made to the piece. It is now one act, the ending is completely changed, certain sections have been dropped. So if you have seen it already, I invite you to come look again!
Harlem Home:
Things are looking more than promising with our Board of Directors, City Government, Federal Government and Administration proceeding in a methodical and ever more excited direction towards our goal of our joining the "125th Street Cultural Corridor." I want to express my gratitude to the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Economic Development Corporation for their belief in us and their partnership. Stay tuned for happy developments in the next few weeks.
Hungry People:
There was an unfortunate misquote in the NY Times on April 5 following the much anticipated Creative New York conference at the Museum of Modern Art. Hosted by the City of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Partnership for New York City and the Center for an Urban Future, this conference presented a report that was an attempt to take a clear eyed overview of what plagues New York's future as a creative center and to describe that situation in the most comprehensive and inconclusive language. The report has found that New York runs the risk of slipping from its traditional leadership role as a place that is defined by diversity, innovation and ambition. There were two panels and I sat on the second. Its purpose was to shed light on the study's findings and, if possible, to make suggestions. At one point during the first panel, the conversation seemed to flounder briefly as the very successful "captains of industry" on stage were attempting to determine how acute the aforementioned crisis was. I interjected from the audience "We need more hungry people in this room!" A look of concern crossed many faces as they assumed I was playing the poverty card in the face of several billionaires in a seven hundred million plus cultural palace evoking the specter of class warfare. The NY Times reported me as saying my dancers are desperate. What I actually said was, having been in touch with former dancers of my company who are now attempting to build their own companies, like so many "start up enterprises" in NY's creative core, they were feeling despairing, and a bit desperate about the future. I was evoking the image of the hungry artist, alienated yet again and feeling with each passing year a greater distance from the success that New York has traditionally offered to innovators, dreamers and the bold. Taken as a whole the day was an essential, but frustrating exercise in getting different sectors to speak to one another. Everyone is curious to see what the follow thru will be!
The Company:
We've been in workshop mode for the past few weeks (when not touring). Pure inquiry is always exciting, though there is desire to find product at the end of each session, an impulse that must be restrained as what is there to be gained is oftentimes slow growing and invisible… We have been giving attention as well during this period to our teaching program in the making. Anyone interested in attending upcoming classes and our summer workshop please contact info@billtjones.org
Spring Awakening:
I am once again collaborating with a director (Michael Meyers) as choreographer rehearsing a new musical. Spring Awakening is a musical adaptation of the legendary play of the same name by Frank Wedekind. The play was a scandal from the time it was first written (1893) and not allowed to be performed in London until 1963. I highly recommend reading it and do hope that you will come and see the musical at the Atlantic Theater in June.
So, as you can see, everything is in full flower and for that I am full of gratitude and awe! Speaking of spring: We at the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company would like to welcome Alexander Oyelana Strozier, the newest member of the household of board member Shola Olatoye and her husband Matthew Strozier!
Happy Spring,
Bill T. Jones
-- Bill T. Jones (Monday, April 17, 2006)
