Bill Chats: A Series of Conversations between Bill T. Jones and Noted Artists
Company:
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
announces
Bill Chats
Series of Conversations between Bill T. Jones and Noted Artists,
Scholars and Critics in the Field of Dance
Bill Chats begin January 26, 2014 and continue through March
New York, NY, January 14, 2014 – New York Live Arts today announced Bill Chats, a series of free conversations featuring Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, in dialogue with noted artists, scholars and critics from the field of dance and other disciplines on key topics facing the community today. The first Bill Chat, presented in collaboration with The Aspen Institute Arts Program, will take place on January 26 at 5:00pm, with following events on March 9 at 5:00pm and March 23 at 5:00pm, in New York Live Arts’ Theater.
Through the launch of Bill Chats, New York Live Arts continues to expand its footprint in the areas of thoughts and humanities. This new speaking program utilizes various entryways to examine the history, theories and ideas around contemporary performance, and examines the role of such factors as economy, race and politics in the definition of modern and contemporary performance. In each chat, Bill T. Jones discusses a new theme with noted artists, scholars and critics in an intimate setting.
"Sometimes when I consider the history of contemporary dance and performance, I am confronted with the reality that this history, like love or time, is dear to us, defining even, and yet very difficult to describe and often notoriously misleading,” said Jones. “I look forward to speaking with an array of noted artists, scholars and critics and benefiting from their perspective on the evolution that has shaped and shifted our field and its interstitial histories: what has been lost, distorted or is hiding in plain sight.”
The first Bill Chat, The Decrepitude of Art, is presented in collaboration with The Aspen Institute Arts Program. It will feature that program’s director, the former New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Damian Woetzel, and David Vaughan, former Merce Cunningham Dance Company Archivist in conversation with Bill T. Jones. This speaking program will focus on the pivotal years when modern performance was no longer looking towards classical forms and rules to dictate its working vocabulary. The relationship between Merce Cunningham and the traditional performance world will start the dialogue.
Further information regarding the spring Bill Chats will be released in February. The first Bill Chat,The Decrepitude of Art,will be live streamed in collaboration with 2ndLine.tv.
Listing info:
The Decrepitude of Art
Jan 26, 5:00pm
When was the downtown established?
Mar 9, 5:00pm
When did the avant-garde become black?
Mar 23, 5:00pm
New York Live Arts Theater, New York Live Arts
FREE
T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
Box Office hours:
Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm
About Bill T. Jones:
BILL T. JONES (Artistic Director/Co-Founder/Choreographer: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Executive Artistic Director: New York Live Arts) is the recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography of the critically acclaimed FELA!; a 2007 Tony Award, 2007 Obie Award, and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation CALLAWAY Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award; the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography forThe Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the 2005 Harlem Renaissance Award; the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and the 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2010, Mr. Jones was recognized as Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.”
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 2011, Mr. Jones was named Executive Artistic Director of New York Lives Arts, an organization that strives to create a robust framework in support of the nation’s dance and movement-based artists through new approaches to producing, presenting and educating.
About David Vaughan:
David Vaughan has danced, sung, acted, and choreographed in London, Paris, on and off Broadway, in American regional theaters, in film, television, ballet and modern dance companies and cabaret. He was the archivist of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. He is the author of Frederick Ashton and his Ballets (revised edition, Dance Books, 1999) and of Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years (Aperture, 1997), now available in an updated version as an app for iPad.
About Damian Woetzel:
Damian Woetzel has taken on multiple roles in arts leadership since retiring from a 20-year career as Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet. Since June 2011, Woetzel has been the Director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, where he creates programs aiming to further the value of the arts in society. Woetzel also currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Vail International Dance Festival and as the Founding Director of the Jerome Robbins New Essential Works Program. Outside these roles, Woetzel is active as a director and producer: his recent projects have included the first performance of the White House Dance Series, lil buck @ (le) poisson rouge, and culminating year-end performances for the Silk Road Connect program, in collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma with whom he works on education projects nationally. Woetzel holds a Master in Public Administration Degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and has taught as a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Woetzel was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities by President Obama in 2009.
About The Aspen Institute Arts Program:
The Aspen Institute Arts Program was established to support and invigorate the arts in America, and to return the arts to the center of the Aspen Institute’s “Great Conversation.” Directed by Damian Woetzel, it brings together artists, advocates, educators, managers, foundations and government officials to exchange ideas and develop policies and programs that strengthen the reciprocal relationship between the arts and society. For more information, visit aspeninstitute.org/artsprogram.
About New York Live Arts:
New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.
We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists. Our influence extends beyond NYC through our international cultural exchange program that currently places artists in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Funding Support for New York Live Arts:
Major support for New York Live Arts is provided by: Bloomberg Philanthropies; The Brownstone Foundation; The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; Con Edison; The Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; The Ford Foundation; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; Florence Gould Foundation; Japan Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation; MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts; The New York Community Trust; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. New York Live Arts is supported by public funds administered by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
