Today: The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performs "Fondly Do We Hope ... Fervently Do We Pray" at 8 p.m. in UNC's Memorial Hall. For tickets, call 919-843-3333 or visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org
At 1 p.m. today (Jan. 15), former Jones' company member Andrea Woods talks about her experiences in the company and shows video clips at a free, public event at Brodie Theatre on Duke University's East Campus.
By SUSAN BROILI
Special to The Herald-Sun
It took making a dance to rekindle the love for Abraham Lincoln that choreographer Bill T. Jones had first felt as a 5-year-old child.
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performs that dance, "Fondly Do We Hope ... Fervently Do We Pray ..." today at UNC's Memorial Hall.
As a child, Jones had been allowed to love only one white man (Abraham Lincoln) unconditionally, Jones has said. Over the years, cynicism replaced that love. But in reading books about Lincoln as research for his evening-length work, Jones regained that love and respect as he learned how Lincoln had changed from someone who had espoused the white supremacist views of his time. "Through his great intellect, fair and probing, he actually evolved. He could see black people as people," Jones said, in recent telephone interview from New York.
Jones, 57, said he had also been impressed by how Lincoln could lead the country through the bloodiest of conflicts, the Civil War, and still come out believing in a democracy "of the people, for the people and by the people."
"Anybody who can make me feel a catch in my throat and make me want to be better, is a hero," Jones said.
The title of his multimedia work comes from the end of Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."
Jones did not want his work to be a history lesson but rather a way to see ourselves and our time through Lincoln and his era and to foster this connection by portraying Lincoln as a human rather than an iconic figure. "The piece has to ultimately be about us," Jones said in a video on his company's Web site.
The work includes an emotional duet between Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd. "I want to say they were in love like you and me," Jones told Bill Moyers in a Christmas Eve interview on Moyers' PBS show, "The Journal."
Moyers called Jones' work "the most imaginative, daring and provocative of the Lincoln Bicentennial."
The Ravinia Festival in Illinois commissioned the work for a celebration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in September.
Through use of different characters -- including a soldier in Iraq -- Jones presents varied views on contemporary issues. "We're not doing too well," Jones told Moyers, of resolving issues of civil rights and human rights.
Jones has never shied away from the political in his work.
Andrea Woods, who danced with Jones' company from 1989 to 1995, agreed, adding that one thing that made a big impression on her was "watching Bill be so courageous on and off stage." He instilled courage in her and she, in turn, seeks to encourage the students she teaches at Duke University since joining the dance faculty in September, she added.
Jones has garnered many awards including the MacArthur "Genius" Award and the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement. He received a 2007 Tony Award for his work on "Spring Awakening." In November, his acclaimed Off Broadway run of "Fela!", opened on Broadway. Jones directed and choreographed the show about the Nigerian composer and musician Fela Kuti.
Jones and his New York-based company spent two years developing this Lincoln work -- the process documented by a PBS crew for an "American Masters" program on Jones in 1011, Moyers said.
Jones sees his audience as increasingly diverse and Internet savvy and seeks to reach them through his multimedia works onstage and online presentations. The new Lincoln work prompted the inauguration of his online video, he said. In it, he /discusses the Lincoln work and offers some advice to the audience.
"I would say to people ... to relax. Don't be concerned about every moment adding up to something. They should allow what can come to them to come," Jones said.
"See what sticks," Jones said in the interview. By referring to the audience as an "agent of association," he acknowledges their vital role in the process. As he hurried to an appointment, Jones agreed that through these associations, the dance lives on.
