BAM Presents A RITE as Part of 2013 Next Wave Festival, Beg. Tonight

BAM presents the New York Premiere of A Rite as part of 2013 Next Wave Festival. The collaborative work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Siti Company deconstructs the legendary score through our current cultural moment. The production runs at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave), tonight, Oct 3-5 at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $20.

The premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps and the ensuing riot in response to its revolutionary sound and Vaslav Nijinsky's radical choreography has become music and dance legend. Since that fateful night in 1913, this innovative piece of music has inspired countless composers and choreographers. Coinciding with the centenary of the work, director Anne Bogart and choreographer Bill T. Jones present the New York premiere of their collaborative piece, A Rite, as part of the 2013 Next Wave Festival.

A true dance-theater piece, A Rite examines the groundbreaking score through the lens of the present cultural moment, incorporating the writings of physicist Brian Greene, an interview with musicologist Severine Neff, the diaries of World War I veterans, and Jonah Lehrer's bestselling book Proust was a Neuroscientist. The cast of dancers and actors blends seamlessly-from a large group dance that reflects Nijinsky's famous steps to a discourse on the piece and its controversial reception-all set to a deconstruction of the score that ranges from a modern recording to an old crackling one to a section sung by the cast.

A Rite utilizes the social-historical context of the score as a point of departure, reflecting on the human condition-sacrifice, creative and spiritual death, and the individual against or with the community. Commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts, A Rite, which is part of the 30th anniversary of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the 20th anniversary of Siti Company, received its world premiere in January 2013 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following the BAM performances, A Rite will be presented at the Yerba Buena Arts Center on Oct 11-13 and The Modlin Center in Richmond, VA on Jan 23-24, 2014.

Anne Bogart is the artistic director of Siti Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. Siti Company was built on the bedrock of the ensemble and its members believe that, through the practice of collaboration, a group of artists working together over time can have a significant impact upon both contemporary theater and the world at large. The company's past productions at BAM include War of the Worlds (2001 Next Wave), bobrauschenbergamerica (2003 Next Wave), Hotel Cassiopeia (2007 Next Wave), and most recently Trojan Women (After Euripides) (2012 Next Wave). Other works include Café Variations, American Document, Antigone, Under Construction, Freshwater, Who Do You Think You Are, Radio Macbeth, Death and the Ploughman, La Dispute, Score, Room, Cabin Pressure, War of the Worlds: The Radio Play, Alice's Adventures, Culture of Desire, Bob, Small Lives/Big Dreams, The Medium, Noel Coward's Hay Fever and Private Lives, August Strindberg's Miss Julie, and Charles Mee's Orestes. Bogart is also a professor at Columbia University where she runs the graduate directing program. She is the author of four books: A Director Prepares, And then you Act, The Viewpoints Book (with Tina Landau), and Conversations with Anne. She is a recent recipient of a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Bill T. Jones, artistic director/co-founder/choreographer, is the recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography for 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 for The 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 a 1994 MacArthur "Genius" Award. In 2010, Jones was recognized as Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French government, and in 2000, the Dance Heritage Coalition namEd Jones "An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure." 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, Jones was named executive artistic director of New York Live 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. His relationship with BAM began in 1983 with Intuitive Momentum and most recently featured A Quarreling Pair (2008 Next Wave).

Additional events for A Rite:

Master Class: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company with Janet Wong

Sep 30 at 12pm

Mark Morris Dance Center (3 Lafayette Ave) Fee: $25 www.BAM.org/master-classes

Talk: The Rite of Spring at 100: A look into the BAM Archives
With BAM Hamm Archives director Sharon Lehner and Princeton music professor Simon Morrison Oct 3 at 6pm
BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Ave)
Tickets: $15 ($7.50 for Friends of BAM)

Talk: Anne Bogart, Bill T. Jones, and Janet Wong moderated by Katherine Profeta

Oct 4, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 6pm.

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue - Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue

Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal - Barclays Center
Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM
Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

Pictured: A Rite. Photo Credit: Paul B. GoodeA Rite. Photo by Paul B. Goode.