Ravinia's Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration Features World Premiere Of Dance-Theater Work By Choreographer Bill T. Jones

Three-years in the making, Ravinia Festival's Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial celebration culminates with the world premiere of the much-anticipated Ravinia-commissioned full-evening dance theater work by choreographer Bill T. Jones, Fondly Do We Hope . . . Fervently Do We Pray, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, with an additional show at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, closing Ravinia's 2009 summer season. These performances are part of Ravinia's Ruth Page Festival of Dance. Jones, who won a Tony Award for choreographing Spring Awakening, has previewed his impressions of President Abraham Lincoln in two companion pieces, Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition, which had its premiere at the American Dance Festival in July 2008; and 100 Migrations, which premiered at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in November 2008. Ravinia's annual audience-inspiration program, One Score, One Chicago, which was expanded this year to four pieces as Four Score For Chicago, features Arise, a movement from Fondly Do We Hope . . . Fervently Do We Pray, which is co-composed by Jerome Begin, Christopher Lancaster and George Lewis, Jr.

These performances feature dancers from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Formed in 1982 and featuring 10 dancers, the Harlem-based company has performed in more than 200 cities around the world and is celebrated for its educational endeavors. In addition to winning the Tony for Spring Awakening, Jones received the 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 a 1994 MacArthur "genius" grant. In 2000 The Dance Heritage Coalition namEd Jones "an irreplaceable dance treasure."

Kartemquin Films, noted for such documentaries as Hoop Dreams, Home for Life and Vietnam: Long Time Coming, will construct a behind-the-scenes, feature-length film on the creation of Bill T. Jones's Ravinia commission. The company will create the film in conjunction with Media Process Group (MPG) of Chicago. Executive Director and founder of Kartemquin Films Gordon Quinn will co-direct with MPG founder Bob Hercules (Forgiving Dr. Mengele). Joanna Rudnick (In the Family) will produce and Keith Walker (Senator Obama Goes to Africa) will shoot the film. Filming began with Jones's initial visit to Springfield, IL, where the documentarians capturEd Jones emotionally interacting with artifacts (such as an iconic stovepipe hat) at the Lincoln Library and Museum, the Lincoln Tomb and his former home. In addition to Springfield, the crew has also captured footage of Jones at work in his New York studios and at Ravinia, where he workshopped the piece in May 2009. The award-winning PBS series American Masters has committed to co-produce the documentary and will premiere this exciting program as a centerpiece of their 2010 broadcast season.

Concert Dance, Inc, the contemporary professional dance company-in-residence at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, presents a world-premiere work choreographed by Artistic Director Venetia Stifler at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, with an additional performance at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 11, in Bennett - Gordon Hall. The piece features Lawrence Dillon's The Better Angels of Our Nature, one of three winning compositions selected last year from Ravinia's first competition for composers inspired by and including Abraham Lincoln's words. The Lincoln Trio and Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman perform this work live. These concerts are part of Ravinia's Ruth Page Festival of Dance and the continuing celebration of Lincoln Bicentennial. These concerts will not be broadcast to the lawn.

The Mendelssohn String Quartet appears in their last Ravinia performance at 8 p.m. on Sept. 7 in Bennett - Gordon Hall. The quartet, which includes violinists Miriam Fried and Nicholas Mann, violist Daniel Panner and cellist Marcy Rosen, is disbanding in January 2010. The Sept. 7 program includes Mendelssohn's Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Bartók's Quartet No. 2 and Beethoven's Quartet No. 15 in A Minor. This concert will not be broadcast to the lawn.

Ravinia Festival is located at Lake-Cook and Green Bay roads in Highland Park. Ravinia welcomes all festival fans to follow, connect and interact online at backstage.ravinia.org, twitter.com/raviniafestival, myspace.com/raviniafestival and facebook.com (search Ravinia Festival). All season long Ravinia will accept donations of non-perishable food and toiletry items for local food depositories that can be dropped off at the information booth near the main entrance of the park. Each donor will receive a raffle ticket that will enter them into a weekly drawing for Ravinia tickets and prizes.

For concert information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.ravinia.org or contact the box office at (847) 266-5100. Ravinia Festival is a not-for-profit organization.

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