ArtAbounds
Boundary-breaking performances co-presented
by The Lobero and UCSB Arts & Lectures
August 20, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero present Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in an evening of dance to live music featuring the Orion String Quartet
Summary Facts:
- Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center perform a visionary fusion of dance and music
- Program features four new dances choreographed by Bill T. Jones and the music of Beethoven, Kurtág, Ravel and Shostakovich
- First of three ArtAbounds 2002-2003 performances presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero
- Opening performances of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2002-2003 season
- Thursday, Friday & Saturday, October 3, 4 & 5
- 8 pm / Lobero Theatre
- General: $45 / UCSB Students: $25 (limited availability)
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535, Lobero Theatre at 963-0761
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center have joined forces to create a visionary program that showcases the distinctive joys of modern dance and chamber music. This ravishing program is the inaugural event of the 2002-2003 ArtAbounds season, and will be performed on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 3, 4 and 5 at 8 pm in the Lobero Theatre. Led by legendary choreographer and MacArthur “Genius” Grant-recipient Bill T. Jones, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is one of the foremost modern dance companies in the world, acclaimed for groundbreaking pieces including Still/Here and Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, led by artistic director David Shifrin, is the nation’s premier repertory company for chamber music, annually presenting over 100 performances and commissioning important new works from a formidable array of composers. All the potential of such a dynamic collaboration comes to fruition in these works that The New York Times called “new and vibrant...a resounding success,” while praising “Mr. Jones’ explosive, brilliant choreography” and “the musicians’ exciting performance.”
The program for the Santa Barbara performances opens with “Verbum,” danced to Beethoven’s String Quartet in F (Op. 135) and played from the orchestra pit by the Orion String Quartet, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s quartet in residence. The dancers’ movement ranges from the nonchalant to the technically complex and comments on the role of the individual in a group and on the shifting natures of illusion and reality. The second piece, “WORLDWITHOUT/IN,” places musicians on stage as both performers and onlookers in an elaborate fantasy-ritual of transformation set to Gyö rgy Kurtág’s String Quartet (Op. 1) and 12 Microludes. Next, the Orion String Quartet performs a shimmering rendition of excerpts from Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, accompanied by an improvised solo dance by a member of the company. The evening concludes with “Black Suzanne,” set to Shostakovich’s Octet (Op. 11), a nearly gladiatorial struggle, as two dancers balance atop other members of the company in “fights” that create an exciting physical drama and thrilling geometric patterns.
Both Jones and Shifrin are ecstatic about the chance to work together on this project. “I believe Bill’s love of music and his appreciation of the musicians will set this collaboration apart from what it might have been with another choreographer and another dance company,” Shifrin claims. “And for the Chamber Music Society fans, there is the element of hearing repertoire that is part of the canon, and that most of our core audience knows quite well, but hearing it and seeing it in a very different way.” Jones explains his enthusiasm for the collaboration: “When a dance work is made, the relationship between the dancers and the musicians is unpredictable. With live music it is alive and dramatic. And the dancers can never grow blasé. The event becomes more charged, more resonant.”
After all three performances members of the company will take part in a Meet-the-Artists discussion. Members of the company will also teach a dance class on Saturday, October 5 from 1:30–3:30 pm at the Carrillo Recreation Center. This class is sponsored by the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance; for information and to make a reservation, please phone 966-6950.
The performances by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center are the first ArtAbounds event of the 2002-2003 performing arts season. An innovative partnership between UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero, ArtAbounds permits both presenters to bring to Santa Barbara international artists of the highest stature that neither could bring on its own. This project is funded in part by the Audience Development and Marketing Grant Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. Other ArtAbounds performances will be: Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancing The Sleeping Beauty on February 5 at the Arlington Theatre and a recital by Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano and Warren Jones, piano on March 18 at UCSB Campbell Hall.
The performances by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center are presented in association with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and are sponsored by Michael Towbes, the Santa Barbara News-Press and KDB 93.7FM. They are funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Phillip Morris Companies Inc.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
or the Lobero Theatre at (805) 963-0761.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.