Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in Residence at Bard College in May

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—In May, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will conduct a three-week residency at Bard College, capping the second year of its education partnership with the Bard College Dance Program. Bill T. Jones and the full company will take up residence on campus to reconstruct two classic works; continue developing a new evening-length work set to premiere in 2012; and offer a number of activities and events open to the campus and community including master-classes, lectures, open rehearsals, and formal showings. The first part of the residency will be dedicated to remounting D-Man in the Waters (1989) and Spent Days Out Yonder (2000). The Company will devote the second part of its residency to developing a new multidisciplinary evening-length work entitled Story/Time. This new project, set to premiere in January 2012 at Montclair State University, is inspired by John Cage’s Indeterminacy and marks Jones’s return to the stage.

On Wednesday, May 18 at 7 p.m., Bill T. Jones will deliver a lecture, Dancing to Music, in which he traces the lineage of Spent Days Out Yonder and discusses musical exploration in his work. The lecture will include a showing of the piece, accompanied by students of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. On Thursday, May 19 at 2 p.m., the Company will present both D-Man in the Waters (1989) and Spent Days Out Yonder (2000), accompanied by students of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. The showing provides an exciting opportunity for Conservatory students to accompany a professional ensemble in two seminal works. D-Man in the Waters, a true classic of modern dance and a New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award–winning work, is a celebration of life and the resiliency of the human spirit, set to Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major for Strings, Op. 20. Spent Days Out Yonder (2000) is a pure musical exploration, rare in the Jones canon, set to the second movement of Mozart’s String Quartet No. 23. On Friday, May 27 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Company will conduct a work-in-progress showing of Story/Time followed by a discussion with Jones and collaborators. All events take place in the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, LUMA Theater. For reservations please contact the Fisher Center Box Office at 845-758-7900 or www.fishercenter.bard.edu.

“The Company’s upcoming residency at Bard is an exciting way to round out our second year in partnership with the College’s dance program,” said Leah Cox, the Company’s  education director. “The campus provides an intellectually rich and focused environment for the Company to conduct its creative research, and Bill and the dancers relish the opportunity to share their work and engage students and community members in their process.”

“The residency reinvigorates all of us,” said Maria Simpson, chair of the Dance Program at Bard College. “It is a special opportunity to celebrate the critical value of art in higher education at an ideal time of year when the campus is buzzing and students are at their artistic and academic peak.”

As part of the residency, Company teaching artists will conduct a creative movement workshop for 4th-grade students at Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School in Hudson, N.Y. After completing the residency, the Company will tour to three premier festivals during its summer season: American Dance Festival (June 16–18), International Festival of Arts and Ideas (June 23–25), and Nazareth College Arts Center Dance Festival (July 15–16).                                  

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ABOUT BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY
Now in its 29th year, 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 foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. Today, the 10-member Company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world.

In 2010, the Company announced a groundbreaking merger with Dance Theater Workshop that the New York Times said could “alter the contemporary dance landscape in New York.” The new organization, called New York Live Arts, is a new model of artist-led, producing/presenting/touring arts organization unique in the United States that aims to support movement-based artists through new and adaptive approaches to creation, presentation, touring, education, and community engagement. The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will become an operating program of New York Live Arts.  The inaugural season of New York Live Arts will premiere in September 2011. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s and Dance Theater Workshop’s current seasons continue through June 2011. For more information visit www.billtjones.org and www.newyorklivearts.org.
 

ABOUT BILL T. JONES
Bill T. Jones, a multi-talented artist, choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer, has received major honors ranging from a 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award to Kennedy Center Honors in 2010.  He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2009 and named “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure” by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2000.  His ventures into Broadway theater resulted in a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography in the critically acclaimed FELA!, the musical co-conceived, co-written, directed and choreographed by Mr. Jones.  He also earned a 2007 Tony Award for Best Choreography in Spring Awakening as well as an Obie Award for the show’s 2006 off-Broadway run.  His choreography for the off-Broadway production of The Seven earned him a 2006 Lucille Lortel Award.

Mr. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982.  He has created more than 140 works for his company. In 2010, Mr. Jones was named Executive Artistic Director of New York Lives Arts, a new model of artist-led, producing/presenting/touring arts organization unique in the United States that was formed by a merger of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop.
 

ABOUT THE BARD COLLEGE DANCE PROGRAM
The Bard Dance Program sees the pursuit of artistry and intellect as a single endeavor. We believe that the study of the body is a cognitive act demanding both physical practice and academic exploration. We focus on dance and choreography as a performing art with an interdisciplinary scope. Students are exposed to areas of inquiry that represent the broader contexts in which the art form exists, in and outside of the arts. We expect students to take risks—risks that call on their participation as citizens of the world and cultivate their perceptive sensibilities. We foster the discovery of a dance vocabulary that is meaningful to the dancer/choreographer and essential to her or his creative ambitions. This discovery leads to the cultivation of original choices—choices informed by a full exploration of a student’s surroundings, choices that find expression in new and dynamic ways. We prepare dancers for the versatility and integration necessary to face the questions: Where will dance go next? What will the next dance revolution look like and where will it come from? We believe that serious inquiry in all areas of the liberal arts is critical to the development of the whole person and to the success of our future artists.

Beginning in fall 2009, the dance program at Bard College has partnered with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company to offer new classes in dance technique and choreographic methods, as well as special campuswide forums and workshops. Courses are 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. This innovative partnership offers Bard students the unique opportunity to work closely with a world-renowned professional company during their undergraduate course of study.


FUNDING CREDITS
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company 2011 long-term residency at Bard College is supported in part by New York State Council on the Arts.
 
D-Man in the Waters is dedicated to Demian Acquavella. The first movement of D-Man in the Waters was commissioned by The St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and was made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. The 2011 reconstruction of D-Man in the Waters was supported by the American Dance Festival with funding from the SHS Foundation and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.  Reconstruction work was conducted in residence at Bard College and the University of Virginia.

Story/Time is co-commissioned by Peak Performances @ Montclair State (N.J.) and the Walker Arts Center. Developed in residence at Peak Performances @ Montclair State (N.J.), the Walker Arts Center, Arizona State University Gammage Auditorium, Bard College, and University of Virginia.

This event was last updated on 04-28-2011

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