Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane Company to Perform at Purchase College

MacArthur Genius Award and National Medal of the Arts recipient Bill T. Jones and The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company present the critically acclaimed new dance work, Analogy/Lance: Pretty aka The Escape Artist on May 13, 2017, 8 PM, at Purchase College, Purchase, NY. Lance is the second part of the Analogy: A Trilogy, inspired by W.G. Sebald's award-winning novel The Emigrants and developed by Jones with Associate Artistic Director Janet Wong. For tickets and information, log on to artscenter.org.

In Part Two of the Analogy: A Trilogy, we meet Lance Theodore Briggs, a former dancer, model, songwriter, choreographer, exotic dancer and male escort, who lived in the underworld of the late 80s and early 90s club culture and sex trade. His life has been a struggle through addiction and recovery, a battle with his own personal demons, drugs and excess. Lance's "pretty boy-gangster thug" character holds steadfast to his often tragic and sometimes outrageously humorous narrative, while facing an uncertain future.

Lance T. Briggs was born in 1970 in Buffalo, NY. He was the only boy of five children. He fathered one son. In 2014, he began an oral history project with his uncle Bill T. Jones. He is currently in recovery after having lost the use of his lower limbs due to medical circumstances not quite understood. He is writing a memoir called "Welcome to The Pretty Show".

Composer Nick Hallett and baritone Matthew Gamble accompany the dancers of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company with a delirious mixture of lullabies, rhythm and blues and house music with many songs written by Lance himself. The music is performed live onstage while the dance evokes a ballet class, a lively disco and more indefinable interior landscapes.
In his Trilogy, Jones explores how text, storytelling and movement pull and push against each other creating other experiences through the combination and recombination of these elements. All three stories, while wildly different, ruminate on the nature of service, duty and the meaning of a life well lived.

FUNDING
Analogy/Lance: Pretty aka The Escape Artist has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, Dancers' Workshop and the Executive Director's Fund at The Joyce Theater Foundation and New York Live Arts, the home of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.

The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible by the company's Partners in Creation: Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman and Carol Tolan.

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is supported in part by the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, the Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Scherman Foundation and The Shubert Foundation.

ABOUT NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
Located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, 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 its identity is Artistic Director Bill T. Jones, world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and is the company's sole producer, providing support and the environment to originate innovative and challenging new work. New York Live Arts produces and presents dance, music and theater performances in its 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 offers an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists and commissions.

ABOUT Bill T. Jones/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY
Founded in 1982, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company was born out of an 11-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948-1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. The Company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the dance-theater world.