Subscribe to the Peak Performances @ Montclair showcases the Bill T.
Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company this autumn with a semester-long celebration of
the company’s work. In addition to
performances, including the world premiere of A Quarreling Pair, Peak
Performances events encompass the exploration of Jones’s choreography as well
as the work and contributions of his close collaborators. Bill T. Jones
recently won the Tony Award for his choreography of the Broadway hit Spring Awakening, revealing his
startling and courageous work to a whole new wave of audiences.
Originally commissioned by Peak Performances, Blind
Date is Jones’s penetrating examination of patriotism. Blind Date had its world premiere at the
Alexander Kasser Theater in October 2005 and will return to the Kasser on
October 25th. In a raw examination of patriotism, Jones is fascinated by
honor, sacrifice, duty, loyalty and service to causes larger that one’s own. He
sets out on a blind date during which wisdom, eloquence and wonder meet the
status quo, rampant consumerism and the rigidity of today’s fundamentalist
spirituality. The Village Voice described Blind
Date as “Galvanic and galvanizing.”
On October 27, the
company will present As I Was Saying, essentially a solo
work performed by Jones that recombines works from the past and present
repertory including With the Good Lord;
a reshaping of Jones’s 1983 talking solo 21,
now called 22; and Chaconne, among others.
A pinnacle during the Peak Performances season, the world
premiere of Jones’ A Quarreling Pair takes place November 30, December 1 and
December 2. A Quarreling Pair is the result of Bill T. Jones’ 15-year
fascination with Jane Bowles’s four-page puppet play of the same name. In his
hour-long production, Jones takes this apparently simple story of two sisters,
whose views are polar opposites of the world, as a point of departure for a
multi-layered theatrical exploration of what happens to a relationship that is
lived in isolation. A combination of
choreography, spoken word, and original music, the work creates tension between
the unique creative means Jones employs to explore this play that warns of the
emotional suffocation and spiritual inertia that results from a life lived
without imagination and curiosity.
Peak Performances @ Montclair has become one of the premiere
dance showcases in the nation. In the
recent past it has commissioned and presented work by the top tier of dance
artists working today, including Susan Marshall, Charlotte Vincent and Trisha
Brown.
WNYC is a media sponsor for the
2007/2008 Season of Peak Performances @ Montclair. Peak Performances also acknowledges the
generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey
State Council on the Arts.
BILL T. JONES: FALL
AT PEAK PERFORMANCES @ MONTCLAIR
Blind Date
Thursday, October 25th at 7:30 pm
As I Was Saying
Saturday, October 27th at 7:30pm
A Quarreling Pair, The
World Premiere
Friday, November 30th at 7:30 pm
Saturday, December 1st at 7:30pm
Sunday, December 2nd at 3pm.
Admission: $15
Alexander Kasser Theater
Montclair State University
One Normal Avenue
Montclair, New Jersey
973 655 5112
Contact:
Alfred R. Fredel
973.655.3004
fredela@mail.montclair.edu
Released: October 3, 2007