Happy New Year!
In writing a new year's thank you card to Eric Anderson, one of the fiercest friends of the company, I quoted what the young Rabbi said at the memorial for Arnie Zane in April of 1988: "The day is long, the work is great, we're not obliged to finish the task, but neither are we allowed to ignore it." This was a condolence to family and friends as we honored a young, talented man whose life had abruptly ended.However, now, at the beginning of this new year, I would like this quote to be a gentle prod and encouragement to myself and, by extension, all who care for our company and the work we do, as we look not back, but forward. What is the work that we are privileged and obliged to do?
- We must radically re-imagine our organization.
- One way this may happen is a merger with a respected organization that complements our mission, but has different strengths. I can't speak in greater details right now, but stay tuned...
- This change will result in our broadening our description to reflect more accurately what we have been doing. What we have doing is behaving as a multi-disciplinary performance ensemble (working with actors, singers, live music and video on an ongoing basis) as opposed to a strictly defined "dance company."
- This change promises at long last the realization of our desire for a home.
- On a more specific creative level, this year sees the beginning of a new work. The artistic team, Associate Artistic Director, Janet Wong, Creative Director, Bjorn Amelan, and I are in discussions with Montclair's Peak Performances and Arizona's State University in Tempe about the development of an exciting hybrid event: A performance work created to be viewed by a live audience and broadcast simultaneously.
- This year we stay committed to expanding our audience base. One way we hope to do this is by the creation and/or restaging of smaller scale works with one to six performers affording us access to spaces and locations that have not been able to present the larger format works that have been the hallmark of the company for years.
- No matter what the new description of the company, educational outreach remains of paramount importance to us. This last semester saw senior company member Leah Cox take the lead of our newly founded Educational Department. This Educational Department has gotten off to a great start. Among other activities, we are looking to expand on last year's pilot program with Bard College by increasing our presence as teachers there. We are in discussions with Bard President Leon Bottstein, its Fisher Center for Performing Arts and its Dance Department to institute a yearly multi-week company residency.
- Lastly, the success of Fela! on Broadway has made it abundantly clear to me that I must clarify the relationship of my outside projects with this rapidly evolving entity that I have been the chief custodian of for the past 28 years.
- 2009 was an astounding year. We must learn from the accomplishments that were the Lincoln Project and the success of Fela! Now is the time to create a new model: in conceiving, funding, developing, promoting and presenting... A new way of being.
–– Bill T. Jones, Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Where am I?...
Two days after Thanksgiving, four days since Fela! premiered on Broadway, seventeen days since Serenade/The Proposition opened at the Joyce Theater in NY, two months and ten days since Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray premiered at Illinois's Ravinia Festival, three months and twenty days since I last wrote a blog...
–– Bill T. Jones, Saturday, November 28, 2009
Questions on Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray
In this video, I address some of the common questions we've been getting from our audiences.
–– Bill T. Jones, Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Letter to Merce
Please forgive me for making you a landmark in the landscape - a fine, singular, curiously shaped tree perhaps. Yes, you are the landmark many of us use to get our bearings, measure ourselves against, or sometimes, to take refuge under.
–– Bill T. Jones, Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Roots, Renaissance, Revolution!
I told Anne that while I am flattered to be seen as a "revolutionary" it would be more accurate and less pompous if I said simply that I am a survivor working with every tool I have to make work, maintain an organization (will we always be a dance company?) and stay in touch with that impulse that lead me to this life in the first place.
–– Bill T. Jones, Friday, June 19, 2009
Looking for Lincoln
A dance theater work about Mr. Lincoln as I conceive it comes with some obstacles. They might be roughly delineated by these two familiar categories: form and content. Formally, I remain suspicious of the biopic narrative and yet, if there was ever an individual and an era, which cried out for a narrative it is this man and that time.
–– Bill T. Jones, Tuesday, May 5, 2009
