The Building of a Season : SPAC 2012
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Bill T. Jones /
Arnie Zane
Dance Company
JUN 7

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.

SPAC welcomes back Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company, to the SPAC stage, JUN 7

Set to Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major for Strings, Op. 20, D-Man in the Waters (1989, revised 1998) is classic of modern dance and a New York Dance and Performance, “Bessie” Award-winning work. It is described as a “celebration of life and the resiliency of the human spirit that guides audiences through loss, hope and triumph.” A New York Times review noted, “Rarely has one seen a dance company throw itself onto the stage with such kinetic exaltation.” Also on the program is Spent Days Out Yonder (2001), a pure musical exploration set to the second movement of Mozart’s String Quartet No. 23 in F Major. Both works will be accompanied by live music performed by local musicians.

Founded in 1982 by Bill T. Jones and his late partner, Arnie Zane, The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company strives to nurture the art of dance, educate the public, and collaborate with members of the art communities in all genres. Company co-founder, Artistic Director and choreographer Bill T. Jones has created over 140 works for the company, and has received numerous commissions to create dances for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Berlin Opera Ballet, among others. He has received major honors ranging from a 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award to Kennedy Center Honors in 2010 as well as two Tony Awards for Best Choreography for the hit shows, Fela! and Spring Awakening. Mr. Jones was recently named Executive Artistic Director of New York Live Arts. The Company last danced at SPAC in July of 2010, when they performed Bill T. Jones’ groundbreaking multimedia tribute to Abraham Lincoln, Fondly Do We Hope, Fervently Do We Pray.

In addition to Bill T. Jones’ pre-show Talk, the Company’s SPAC program will also include a Master Class at the National Museum of Dance. Dates and times for these events, as well as the third work the company will perform at SPAC, will be announced at a later date.

Performance Program:

Spent Days Out Yonder
Continuous Replay �
D-Man in the Waters

†Contains Full Nudity

Spent Days Out Yonder

Spent Days Out Yonder is a pure musical exploration, rare in the Bill T. Jones canon, set to the second movement of Mozart’s String Quartet No. 23 in F Major. The movement is firmly rooted in Mr. Jones’s elegant, weighted movement vocabulary, challenging dancers to move with ease, efficiency and physical honesty through the sublime score.

Continuous Replay

Continuous Replay, which is titled after a dance work of Zane’s, is the first comprehensive presentation of his photography. Zane took up the camera in earnest in 1971, the year he and Jones met. His photography examines the body’s physicality, sexual identity, and potential for beauty and decay. The design of the book and of its associated exhibition—which will travel widely within the United States—reflects Zane’s aesthetic strategies and the dynamic interplay between his art and life, photography and dance, his collection of found images and his own photographs, and his self-portraits and images of others. The core of the book consists of six portfolios that present Zane’s photographs side by side with his artwork, sketches, performance notes, snapshots of Bill and Arnie, and video stills and photos of the company in action. The portfolios are interpreted through writings by friends, dancers, curators, and historians from the worlds of photography, art, and dance.

D-Man in the Waters

Bill T Jones’s joyful tour-de-force, D-Man in the Waters, is a true classic of modern dance and a New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award-winning work. It is a celebration of life and the resiliency of the human spirit that guides audiences through loss, hope and triumph. Set to Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20 the work is one of the finest examples of the post-modern aesthetic and was featured in PBS’s landmark film Dancing in the Light – Six Dances by African-American Choreographers.