BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS
WORLD PREMIERE OF “BLIND DATE” AT ALEXANDER KASSER THEATER
AT MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY, SEPTEMBER 21, 23 & 24
Bill T. Jones has never
been one to flinch at challenges; instead, he specializes in them.
Most recent example: “Blind Date,” which receives its
world premiere at Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University,
September 21, 23 & 24. In it, Jones again artistically pricks
our political, spiritual and social consciousness and consciences.
Using an original score by the Company’s
music director Daniel Bernard Roumain and an ever-changing multi-media
set by Bjorn Amelan with projected film images by Peter Nigrini,
and lighting by Robert Wierzel, the 90-minute dance/theater piece
asks alternately bold, sensitive and subtle questions about patriotism
in an increasingly dangerous world. What does it mean to be patriotic?
Whom does patriotism serve? The meaning of honor, sacrifice and
duty are explored in this time when spiritual self-righteousness
and nationalistic fervor replace 18th century ideals of reason and
humanity. Drawing on the multi-cultural and international backgrounds
of his dancers, Jones probes their past and present experiences
and changing ideas about surviving in our current environment, poetically
and theatrically transforming and endowing them with universal relevance.
After its New Jersey engagement,
“Blind Date” will be seen at The John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts, November 18 & 19, followed by shows
at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, January
12 & 13; Flynn Theatre for the Performing Arts in Burlington,
VT on January 15; University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts
Center in Amherst, MA on February 2; Quick Center at Fairfield University
in Fairfield, CT on February 4; Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI
on March 4; Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, WI on March 7;
Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN on March 10; Benedum Center,
Pittsburgh, PA on March 25; Newman Center for the Performing Arts,
Denver, CO, March 31; Vilar Center, Beaver Creek, CO on April 2;
and the McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ on May 16. (Please see attached
schedule for tour dates of other repertory.)
This has been a banner year for Bill
T. Jones. In addition to being personally awarded three major honors––the
2005 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award, Harlem Renaissance
Award and the Wexner Prize––his company recently received
a $210,000 grant from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone to help
it to expand its staff while it seeks a permanent performance and
rehearsal facility in Harlem. In July, the Company moved its administrative
offices from 853 Broadway to 120th Street and Lenox Avenue as a
first step in that direction.
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance
Company was founded by Jones and Zane in 1982, eleven years after
the two artists had begun collaborating and working as a duo. Since
that time it has been honored with innumerable awards including
several New York Dance and Performance Awards (a.k.a. “Bessies”).
In 1999, it was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Dance in London. The Company, one of the most well-traveled
in the world, has been represented in and the subject of many documentaries,
most recently “Free to Dance,” produced by the American
Dance Festival.
In addition to this year’s
honors, Jones was the recipient of the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian
Gish Prize (2003), a MacArthur Fellowship (1994) and a Dance Magazine
Award (1993), among others. In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition
named him “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Jones has
received choreographic commissions from Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater, Boston Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and the Lyon Opera Ballet,
where he was also resident choreographer for four years. His memoir,
“Last Night on Earth,” was published by Pantheon Books
in 1995.
The curtain for all performances
of “Blind Date” at Montclair State University’s
Alexander Kasser Theater is at 7:30pm. Tickets are $35 and are available
at the box office, online at www.montclair.edu/kasser or by calling
973-655-5112. Alexander Kasser Theater is located north of the intersection
of College Avenue and Red Hawk Road on the campus of Montclair State
University, which is located at Valley Road and Normal Avenue in
Montclair, NJ.
###
Support provided by the National Endowment
for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New
York State Council on the Arts, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone
and The Wallace Foundation.
Lead commissioning support for “Blind
Date” was provided by Montclair State University, Office of
Arts and Cultural Programming with additional commissioning support
provided by Aaron Davis Hall, Inc., Harlem’s Center for the
Performing Arts.
Major Support was made possible by the National Endowment for the
Arts with additional support provided by Barbara and Eric Dobkin,
Eleanor Friedman and Ruth and Stephen Hendel.
“Blind Date” was made possible by the Doris Duke Fund
for Dance of the National Dance Project, a program administered
by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
and the Ford Foundation.
The Multi-Arts Production Fund: A Program of Creative Capital Supported
by the Rockefeller Foundation.
082505
BACK TO TOP
250 West 57th Street Suite
2318 New York NY 10107 USA
T: 212.245.5100 F:212.397.1102 eja@ejassociates.org
www.ejassociates.org
ELLEN JACOBS ASSOCIATES
|