Working Title) Two Narratives in Search of Equivalences
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Photos: Paul B. Goode A Rite A dance-theater collaboration with Anne Bogart and SITI Company. Story/Time Bill T. Jones returns to the stage in a critically acclaimed work of storytelling and dance. Play and Play: An Evening of Movement and Music “Take something and do something to it, and then do something else to it.” – Jasper Johns Body Against Body Program Seminal duets from the 1970s and 80s. Analogy (working title) Two narratives in search of equivalences. Premiering June 2015. 2015–2016 Season The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company was born out of an 11-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948–1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of Dance Company American dance. The Company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on Kyle Maude Director of Producing and Touring every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in 219 W 19th Street the dance-theater world. New York, NY 10011 t: 212.691.6500 ex 262 A Rite f: 212.633.1974 “...a serious, intricate, multidirectional centennial tribute to a work of art whose spell it deepens.” [email protected] – The New York Times newyorklivearts.org /#/BTJAZDC A Rite is the intriguing and powerful dance-theater collaboration between renowned artists Bill T. Jones, North American Representation Anne Bogart and their respective companies, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company. An Opus 3 Artists impassioned scholar waxes poetic about the cyclical structure of Stravinsky’s work that, in turn, evokes questions 470 Park Avenue South about our place in space/time. A shell-shocked WWI veteran finds solace from his battle-scarred psyche in the 9th Floor North work’s opening chords while reeling under the relentless assault of The Augurs’ bombastic percussion. A Rite New York, NY 10016 seamlessly joins minds, bodies and voices for a dance-theater reflection on Stravinsky’s groundbreaking score. t: 212.584.7500 Commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with additional commissioning [email protected] support provided by the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. opus3artists.com European Representation Story/Time Gillian Newson “Modern yet wry, gorgeously danced and at times discordant...a dance-theater roller coaster with surprises Dance Arts UK/MSM Ltd around every corner.” – San Francisco Chronicle t: +44 207 622 8549 m: + 44 776 816 6381 Director and choreographer Bill T. Jones – whose major honors include a MacArthur “Genius” Award, the [email protected] Kennedy Center Honors and two Tony Awards for Best Choreography – returns to the stage at the center of a skype: gilliannnewson new work for his renowned company. Inspired by legendary artist and composer John Cage’s Indeterminacy, a performance of ninety one-minute stories interrupted by a chance musical score, Jones creates a collage of dance, music, and seventy of his own short stories, arranged anew for each performance by chance procedure. Original music composed by Ted Coffey will accompanies the diverse company of dancers. Co-commissioned by Peak Performances at Montclair State (NJ) and the Walker Art Center. Play and Play: An Evening of Movement and Music “Rarely has one seen a dance company throw itself onto the stage with such kinetic exaltation.” – The New York Times The Company’s classical music-focused program includes D-Man in the Waters (1989), Bill T. Jones’s joyful tour de force and a genuine modern dance classic, set to Mendelssohn’s Octet in E Flat Major Opus 20, this renowned work showcases the virtuosic company in a celebration of life and the resiliency of the human spirit. Other works include pieces to Mozart, Schubert and Ravel. Requires local string musicians. Reconstruction support for D-Man in the Waters provided by the American Dance Festival. Body Against Body Program “Bill T. Jones unadorned is a revelation.” – The Boston Globe The Body Against Body Program is an intimate and focused collection of duet works drawn from the Company’s 30 year history. Bill T. Jones returns to his roots in the avant-garde with a program that revives and reconsiders the challenging, groundbreaking works that launched Jones and the late Arnie Zane, his partner and collaborator of 17 years. Still some of the most significant examples of the post modern aesthetic, these pieces redefined the duet form and changed the face of American dance. Both conceptually and physically rigorous, the works take on new life through the diverse dancers of Jones’s company, providing a rare look at the origins of a widely acclaimed choreographer. Body Against Body was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Analogy (working title) A new evening-length work that looks at the tension between experiences that are uniquely situated in time and place, and the ways in which feelings evoked by these experiences have consequences on the lives of individuals and can connect across generations for better and for worse. W.G. Sebald’s writing sometimes described as a mixture of fiction, memory and history, in which stories are spliced with facts, photos, maps and postcards is an essential stylistic device driving this hybrid dance/theater/music work. Analogy (working title) strives to create a multi-dimensional experience in which the dancers suggest the process of memory, “the then and now,” “the us and them,” through their bodies and voices. Analogy (working title) will premiere on June 18, 2015 as part of the Peak Performance Series at Montclair State University. Photos: Paul B. Goode Body Against Body Program “The combination of brisk formality and a deeply sensual attack... was riveting decades ago and it’s riveting today.” – New York Magazine Body Against Body Program “Bill T. Jones unadorned is a revelation.” The Boston Globe Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company The Body Against Body Program is an intimate and focused collection of duet works drawn Kyle Maude from the Company’s 30 year history. Bill T. Jones returns to his roots in the avant-garde with Director of Producing and Touring a program that revives and reconsiders the challenging, groundbreaking works that launched 219 W 19th St. Jones and the late Arnie Zane, his partner and collaborator of 17 years. Still some of the most New York, NY 10011 significant examples of the postmodern aesthetic, these pieces redefined the duet form and t: 212. 691. 6500 x262 changed the face of American dance. Both conceptually and physically rigorous, the works take f: 212. 633. 1974 on new life through the diverse dancers of Jones’s company, providing a rare look at the origins [email protected] of a widely acclaimed choreographer. newyorklivearts.org/#/BTJAZDC Programs include 2-3 works from the Company’s repertory: North American Representation Opus 3 Artists Blauvelt Mountain (A Fiction) (1980, reconstructed 2002) 470 Park Avenue South One of the first duets that Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane created together, Blauvelt Mountain capitalizes on the 9th Floor North disparities and specificities between distinct body types, often placing one person in a position of dependency. New York, NY 10016 Eccentric and occasionally humorous tableaux, casual conversations, and word associations are paired with t: 212.584.7500 rigorous partnering sequences to suggest the mental and emotional engagement, heightened awareness, [email protected] and intimacy necessary for successful partnering. opus3artists.com Video: vimeo.com/26696698 password: btjaz Duet x 2 (1982, reconstructed 2003) European Representation The virtuosity of Duet x 2 is rooted in conventional modern dance vocabulary and marked by demanding Gillian Newson athletics, surprising shapes and changing relationships. The work underlines the power and emotion that is Dance Arts UK/MSM Ltd experienced when two bodies walk, stand, support and crash through space at full throttle. t: +44 207 622 8549 Video: vimeo.com/50232543 password: btjaz m: + 44 776 816 6381 [email protected] Monkey Run Road (1979, reconstructed 2011) skype: gilliannnewson The earliest of the Body Against Body duets, Monkey Run Road reveals the early dance-making concerns of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. Traces of the duo’s background in jiu-jitsu, social dancing, photography, and contact improvisation are readily seen in the piece, where repetitive, athletic phrases are punctuated by minimalist tasks and fragments of dialogue. Video: vimeo.com/26697124 password: btjaz Valley Cottage: A Study (1980/1981, reconstructed 2011) A new reconstruction for 2011, Valley Cottage is a duet that has not been seen since its original performances in the early ‘80s. The reconstruction draws upon the personalities and relationships of the company’s dancers in place of the original spoken text by Jones and Zane. Video: vimeo.com/35014669 password: btjaz Duet (1995/2002) For two dancers in perfect unison, this piece’s coolly sophisticated movement reflects Jones’s work with Trisha Brown. The precise and challenging choreography is accompanied by John Oswald’s frenetic 1975 “plunderphonic” track Power, combining rock guitars with the exhortations of an evangelist preacher. The final section is set to Daniel Bernard Roumain’s imagined conversation between titans of the mid-twentieth century avant-garde and an aged African-American mother of twelve. Video: vimeo.com/84739595 password: btjaz Shared Distance (1982, reconstructed 2014) Created concurrently with the trilogy of defining duets made and performed by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane: Monkey Run Road, Blauvelt Mountain and Valley Cottage. Originally made for Bill T. Jones and Julie West, this duet plays on the masculine and feminine and the reversal of these gender-specific roles.