“All I Ask Is That I Am Allowed To Participate In The World Of Ideas” – Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones
I am a strong admirer of dance and modern dance in particular. And most notably Bill T. Jones, who has always been at the forefront of the discipline. He is an immensely creative and provocative choreographer, artistic director and dancer. I had the pleasure this evening of watching American Masters on PBS, and the featuring of “A Good Man”– Bill T. Jones and his examination of the life of President Lincoln and his new piece “The Ghost Train”. Listening to Jones’ pondering on creativity; the social, political, and psychological constructs that form his art, I was deeply inspired. It led me to my previous post on the idea of artists giving voice to their vision. This is a night of celebrating ideas, voice and Bill T. Jones.
http://youtu.be/Dg4a5RiAed8 – Bill T. Jones – As I Was Saying
http://youtu.be/ag5cSZcKp1g – Toronto Dance: Bill T. Jones – Chapel/Chapter
Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952) is an American artistic director, choreographer and dancer.
Early life
Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida and his family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York, where Jones attended Wayland High School. He began his dance training at Binghamton University, where he studied classical ballet and modern dance.
Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982.
Career
Creating more than 100 works for his own company, Jones has also choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, AXIS Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and Diversions Dance Company, among others. In 1995, Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, at Alice Tully Hall, commissioned by Lincoln Center’s “Serious Fun” Festival. His collaboration with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do!, premiered at New York’s City Center in 1999.
In 1990, Jones choreographed Sir Michael Tippett’s New Year under the direction of Sir Peter Hall for the Houston Grand Opera and the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. He conceived, co-directed and choreographed Mother of Three Sons, which was performed at the Munich Biennale, New York City Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. He also directed Lost in the Stars for the Boston Lyric Opera. Jones’ theater involvement includes co-directing Perfect Courage with Rhodessa Jones for Festival 2000, in 1990. In 1994, he directed Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.
Jones also collaborated with artist Keith Haring in 1982 to create a series of both performance and visual arts together.
Television credits include PBS’s “Great Performances” Series (Fever Swamp and Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land) and “Alive from Off Center” (Untitled). Still/Here was co-directed for television by Bill T. Jones and Gretchen Bender. A PBS documentary on the making of Still/Here, by Bill Moyers and David Grubin, “Bill T. Jones: Still/Here with Bill Moyers”, premiered in 1997. The 1999 Blackside documentary I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts, profiled Jones’ work. D-Man in the Waters is included in “Free to Dance”, a 2001 Emmy winning documentary that chronicles modern dance’s African-American roots. Narrated by Jones himself, the BBC/VIEW also produced a documentary film, entitled Bill T. Jones: Dancing to the Promised Land, that documents the creation of Jones’s Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land and guides us through the life, work, and creative process of Jones and the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Jones is the co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical Fela!, which ran Off-Broadway in 2008 and opened on Broadway in previews in October 2009. Jones won the Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Choreographer for his work as well as the Tony Award for Best Choreography.
Awards
In 1994, Jones received a MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 1979, Jones was granted the Creative Artists Public Service Award in Choreography, and in 1980, 1981 and 1982, he was the recipient of Choreographic Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Bill T. Jones has been awarded several New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie Awards”); 1986 Joyce Theater Season (along with Arnie Zane), D-Man in the Waters (1989 and 2001), The Table Project (2001) and The Breathing Show (2001). Mr. Jones, along with his collaborators, sister Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, received an “Izzie Award” in Choreography for Perfect Courage in 1992. In 2001, Jones received another “Izzie” for his work, Fantasy in C-Major, with AXIS Dance Company. Jones was honored with the Dorothy B. Chandler Performing Arts Award for his innovative contributions to performing arts in 1991. In 1993, Jones was presented with the Dance Magazine Award. In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Jones has received honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College, and Yale University. He is also a recipient of the SUNY Binghamton Distinguished Alumni Award.
In 2003 Jones was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” In 2005 he received the Wexner Prize at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.
In 2007, he won the Tony award for Best Choreography for Spring Awakening.
Jones was named a 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.
Jones was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2010, Jones won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for his work in Fela!.
He was one of five recipients for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.
Bill T Jones was the recipient of the 2011 YoungArts Arison Award which is given annually to an individual who has had a significant influence on the development of young American artists.
Bill T. Jones
30-Day Song Challenge: Day 20 – Asks the question, what artist best captures the essence of ambient meditation for the creation of art?
Taylor Deupree
Taylor Deupree – Rusted Oak – From the CD Shoals
Taylor Deupree – Landing – From the CD Landing
Human Mesh Dance (Taylor Deupree) – Sunken Garden
Taylor Deupree performs
Taylor Deupree (born April 30, 1971), is an American electronic musician, photographer and graphic designer. He is most known for the founding of the 12k record label, along with his work as a member of Prototype 909, his solo project as Human Mesh Dance, and his collaborations with Savvas Ysatis and Christopher Willits. In 2008, Taylor Deupree was the Président d’Honneur of the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 5th in Paris (France).
Today while working on my latest post in “The City Series” (Urban Contemplation 07: On Either Side of that Open Door it’s the Same), I found myself listening to the deeper reflective elements of my music collection—“A Dancing Beggar, Ai Yamamoto, Lawrence English and the featured artist for this challenge Taylor Deupree. Taylor is one of my favorite ambient artist. For me his music slowly evolves and creates a suspended sense of kinetic dynamics that holds the mind still while producing a beautiful landscape for creativity.
What do you think? Although the music may be challenging for any who are unfamiliar with the genre, does it resonate with you as a possible source of creative inspiration for the production of prose and / or art?
Weekly Movie-Making Moments in Film: Sunshine / 28 Days Later / District 9
Sunshine by director Danny Boyle
The sun at less than 1% sunlight filter
Sunshine is a 2007 British science fiction film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland.
In 2057 the sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device, a massive stellar bomb with the mass equivalent to Manhattan Island, which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. There is an accident, a fatal mistake, and a distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.
The crew is made up of an ensemble cast consisting of Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Chipo Chung, and Mark Strong. The script was based on a scientific back-story that took the characters on a psychological journey. The director cast a group of international actors for the film, and had the actors live together and learn about topics related to their roles, as a form of method acting. To have the actors realistically react to visual effects that would be implemented in post-production, the filmmakers constructed live sets to serve as cues. Previous science fiction films that Boyle cited as influences included Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1972 Tarkovsky’s Solaris, and the 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien.
Sunshine is one of my favorite films of all time. I have seen it several times and it never ceases to entertain me as I embrace its stunning beauty.
I was first introduced to the filmmaking of Danny Boyle in 2003 with his kinetic, apocalyptic and frightening horror film 28 Days Later: In the film a powerful virus is unleashed following a raid on a primate research facility by animal rights activists. Transmitted in a drop of blood, the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realizing that the virus is not the only thing that threatens them.
28 Days Later by Danny Boyle
The only other film in recent production, I feel parallels Sunshine in its originality and vision is District 9 by Peter Jackson and Neill Bloomkamp.
District 9 synopsis: Over 20 years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens’ welfare – they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens’ awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.
The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the
world, as well as the most valuable – he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.
District 9 by Peter Jackson and Neill Bloomkamp
The roundup in District 9
All three films are distinctly different in their subject matter, but are so well acted, produced, and directed it is difficult to choose one over the other as a favorite.
So what do you think? Are you a big fan of the Science Fiction genre? Have you seen any of these remarkable films, and if so do you have a favorite? And what is your favorite film of this genre and why?
30-Day Song Challenge: Day 17 – What musician best captured the essence of analog electronic space music
KLAUS SCHULZE
klaus Schulze Mirage
http://youtu.be/UpaoRFPzwQ4 – Velvet Voyage from the 1977 album Mirage – an electronic winter landscape – video by picturemusic 75
Klaus Schulze "X"
http://youtu.be/0vtE7–vetE – Frank Herbert from the classic 1978 album “X” by Klaus Schulze – video by zrhno
German composer, Klaus Schulze is one the most creative and
enduring electronic musician of our modern age. Born in Berlin in 1947, his
musical career began as a drummer, bassist and guitarist with several rock
bands including the band PSY FREE. He was an original member of TANGERINE DREAM and a
founding member of ASH RA TEMPEL. Both of these bands are all time favorites of mine,
and had become a significant part of my listening playlist during the 1970’s and 80’s. Klaus Schulze ventured out on his own in the early 70’s and recorded his first solo album in 1972 entitled Irrlicht. Several remarkable albums followed including
Cyborg in 1973, Timewind in 1975, and Body Love; a USA Billboard import charting in
at #2. In 1977 and 1978 he then produced the two albums featured here in this music
challenge; namely Mirage, and “X” respectively.
Out of the vast collection of recordings Klaus Schulze has
produced, these two distinctly different albums in style and sound composition
are my favorites.
In an interview with the master of “electronic space music”, Klaus
described his music as “the background to a mental picture, but the exact
interpretation must be made by the listener, hence the music is only half
composed and the listener himself should attack the composition to gain a mental
repercussion. This is why, perhaps, people love or hate my music!”
I’ve always admired and embraced his music as an art form unto itself, with its unfolding layers of sound
— their tones, textures and colors producing a mysterious, evolving beauty at its very core.
Enjoy the master of Electronic Music.
Live concert in 1978 with Wolfgang Tiepold
Klaus performing on he Moog analog synthersizer circa 1970's
The 1980's and the emergence of the digital age in music
Klaus Schulze still going strong in 2010
Klaus Schulze – Mirage
| Velvet Voyage |
28:16 |
|
| Crystal Lake |
29:15 |
|
| In cosa crede chi non crede? |
19:39 |
Soundtrack recording from 1976 (Bonus Track) |
Klaus Schulze – “X”
| # 1 : | Friedrich Nietzsche |
24:50 |
|
| Georg Trakl |
26:04 |
||
| Frank Herbert |
10:51 |
||
| Friedemann Bach |
18:00 |
||
| # 2 : | Ludwig II. von Bayern |
28:39 |
|
| Heinrich von Kleist |
29:32 |
||
| Objet d’Louis |
21:32 |
Live with orchestra, 1978 (Bonus Track) |
The Fun House @ Highwire Gallery: 1991 / Dreaming in Future Tense / a 2011 remix
“Sometimes we turn the pages in the Book of Memories and come to remember the children who dream in future tense”…..
The Highwire Gallery production of The Fun House
workshop began in March 1991 at the Sayre Morris Community Center in West
Philadelphia and concluded with a performance in May. Funded by the PA Council
on the Arts, the goal was to bring together a group of children and introduce
them to the arts. Our focus would be on dance, performance, music and the visual
arts. Another important part of the workshop was for it to be a community
service, which merged different ethnic backgrounds and communities. For the
eleven girls who participated in the workshop, the hope was to inspire personal
challenges and the pursuit of their dreams. Everyone involved, the artists of
Highwire Gallery, the kids, Empress our musical director, Sandra Lynn our choreographer,
and “DADA” (Dancers Against Drug Abuse) met the challenge and worked hard to
make the program a huge success.
How do we encourage our children to dream, a dream that
inspires, enriches and motivates them to reach for the sky, and to touch just one of the millions of snowflakes that
can be found in the realm of possibilities? How do we lead them by the hand,
through the garden of hopes and dreams?
The Kids at Sandy Beach 2011
I think we do it one child at a time, one school at a time, one
project at a time, and as one community. Children love to discover, and be creative.
I strongly believe that the arts will provide them with the tools they will need for exploring their
imagination and giving birth to their dreams.
What do you feel is our children’s greatest need? What resources in our society would you like to see be provided for the well being and growth of our children? Do you believe that the arts, especially at a young age, is a vital tool for encouraging creative thinking and problem solving?
What do you think?
Select the link below for a dream-like journey into a contemporary child’s lullaby.
Winter Poem by Nikki Giovanni
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower
— Author and poet Nikki Giovanni
From “The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni”
And last but not least in this journey of dreams…a short animation.
Out Tonight 1989 / 2009 remix
Out Tonight / video still / digital collage 2011
Bonus song: The Smiths – There is a light that never goes out
Out Tonight, the video, was first created in 1989 and mixed with the music of The Smiths and the song “There is a Light that Never Goes Out”. The video was originally conceived as a reflection of 80’s New Wave music, the club scene, and chillin out. But I wanted to add something more, and therefore centered its theme on the possible controversy, yet beauty of interracial dating. The texts used in the video, I thought I knew what would make you smile tonight ask the question of devotion, and statements after an arrest under the immorality act reveals the possible (most notably in the past) consequence. I was inspired to produce this video after seeing the play entitled “Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act” by South African playwright Athol Fugard. In the play, Fugard examined with a visceral intensity the consequences of interracial love during apartheid in South Africa. I believe that it is extremely important that we reach out and lead by example, demonstrating that love is universal and that we are all of one race i.e. the human race—diverse, complex, and beautiful.
Love has no boundaries.
The video was created using an Amiga 1000 computer with a Digital Creations’ Super Gen video mixer. Way ahead of its time, the Amiga 1000, which was first introduced to the public in 1985, was an extraordinary machine equipped with music, video and graphic cards. The 2009 version of Out Tonight is remixed with music by Nine Inch Nails.
Maybe Tomorrow a Better Possibility / Resolution and Redemption
Maybe Tomorrow a Better Possibility / Resolution and Redemption was first conceived as a collaborative project with video artist Walter Smith and fellow artist / singer / actor and friend, Ronald Freeman in 1994. The emotional impetus for the project was the ever increasing urban decay surrounding us in Philadelphia. Through substance abuse, drug warfare, and a rapid deterioration of its infrastructure, we came to see our beloved city in a struggle for survival. The original song, Hunger for Holiness, which accompanied the original video was written and sang by Ronald. The composition sought to give insight to the problems and plight of the urban construct and hope for a better tomorrow. In this remixed version, a dreamlike jazzy trance score replaces the composition to create an otherworldly sense of ambiguity, but again hope.
Maybe Tomorrow a Better Possibility / A Self Portrait of Resolution and Redemption
n e w d i g i t a l s c a p e s 