Ravinia Commissions Bill T. Jones to Create Lincoln-Tribute

Ravinia Festival has commissioned award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones, who most recently won a Tony for his choreography for Spring Awakening, to create a new full-evening work, tentatively titled A Good Man, inspired by Abraham Lincoln and celebrating the slain president's 2009 bicentennial.

The announcement was made Wednesday October 17 by Jones and Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman in a joint press conference before the Lincoln death bed at the Chicago History Museum. The work will be performed by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

The press conference concluded Jones's daylong trip to Springfield and Chicago that provided him the opportunity to connect with real locations and relics from Lincoln's life in Illinois, including the old state Capitol, Lincoln's home, tomb and the Lincoln Library and Museum.  Jones also was introduced to the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. As a member of the commission, Kauffman sees the bicentennial as an opportunity for community involvement that will encourage guests and artists from the entire "Land of Lincoln" to seek out Ravinia, which for years has worked toward diversifying audiences and programming with an eye toward commissions and premieres by such luminaries as John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Morris, the Joffrey Ballet and Philip Glass—not to mention the first opera from South Africa, Princess Magogo.

Details on the project, which is under development, will be released as the work progresses, but the work will be central to Ravinia's 2009 celebration of Lincoln's life and legacy (which will include other events throughout the season).

After working together for more than a decade as a critically lauded dance team,

Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948-1988) formed their own company in 1982. Since then, the 10-member company has performed in more than 200 cities around the world and is recognized for its collaborative work with artists ranging from painter Keith Haring to the Orion String Quartet. The Harlem-based company is also celebrated for its educational endeavors. Its acclaimed dance works include Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land, Still/Here, Blind Date and last year's Chapel/Chapter.

In addition to winning the Tony for Spring Awakening, Jones receivedthe 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award. He's also received the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Harlem Renaissance Award, the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and the 1994 MacArthur "genius" grant. In 2000 The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones "an irreplaceable dance treasure." Jones began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), studying classical ballet and modern dance. 

Ravinia Festival's 2009 season will reflect many aspects of the celebrated and sometimes controversial 16th president through programming across the many genres and disciplines regularly presented at America's oldest music festival, including classical, jazz, gospel, music theater and dance.  These programs will be united under the banner "Mystic Chords of Memory," a quote from Lincoln's first inaugural address. Ravinia received a $70,000 grant from the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The grant will help Ravinia commission up to 10 chamber music compositions, each setting or framed by Lincoln's words. Other programs will look at the music and composers from Lincoln's era; the global influence of this important leader; the legacy of poet Walt Whitman; and jazz, gospel and spirituals.

Photo: Bill T. Jones

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