FALL 2019
BILL T. JONES, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
We acknowledge and pay respect to Lenape people, elders, and ancestors past, present, and coming in the future. We acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking where we are now, the land, and waters of the Lenape homeland.
As we embark on the 9th season of New York Live Arts, the questions on our minds are:
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS “WE”? HOW AND WHY DO WE COME TOGETHER? WHAT MAKES A COMMUNITY? We’ve been grappling with these questions in rehearsals for the new work of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. In a way, they have always been part of the company’s raison d’être. Bill and Arnie formed the company to create a community that is representative of the world they wanted to live in, not the world as it was in 1982. And these questions are at the heart of New York Live Arts. Today, more than ever, we are in pursuit of the elusive “we” and perhaps it will always be aspirational, speculative, a work in progress. So, we continue to look to artists, activists, thinkers who embody, reframe and reimagine these questions. One thing we know: the work in progress that is New York Live Arts is an ever evolving community that is committed to support and to challenge, to teach and to learn, to allow space for failure along the way, and to bear witness. We look forward to welcoming you. –Bill T. Jones & Janet Wong Photo (above) by Phillip Habib Cover photo courtesy of Rashaad Newsome Studio
SARAH JONES Created and Performed by Tony® winner Sarah Jones Directed by Carolyn Cantor
“a must-see one-woman marvel” - LA Times
SEP 12-15 & 18-21 730PM
Sell/Buy/Date
Tickets start at $25 Back by popular demand, New York Live Arts presents the return of Tony Award® -winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones (Bridge & Tunnel) to kick off the 2019-20 season. Jones plays a dazzling medley of characters in Sell/Buy/Date, an exuberant show inspired by the real-life experiences of people affected by the sex industry. Set in the future and brimming with Jones’ masterful, multiculturalcharacterizations, Sell/Buy/Date conveys an honest, moving and even humorous look at a complex and fascinating subject, all while preserving the full humanity of voices seldom heard in the theater. Directed by Carolyn Cantor. Commissioned by the NoVo Foundation, which works around the world to end violence and discrimination against all girls and women. www.novofoundation.org
01
ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER / ROSAS
SEP 24-28 730PM
Fase
Tickets start at $35 Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's very first choreography, premiered in 1982. Comprised of three duets and one solo, it is set to four repetitive compositions by Reich. De Keersmaeker uses the structure of Reich’s music to develop an independent movement idiom that doesn’t merely illustrate the music but also adds a new dimension to it. An early part of this piece premiered in Live Arts’ legacy program Fresh Tracks. Sep 26 Stay Late Conversation Sep 28, 2PM Rosas Masterclass
02
“cerebral, formally rigorous dances” - The New York Times
OCT 1-5 730PM
Rosas danst Rosas Tickets start at $35
In 1983, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker had her international breakthrough with Rosas danst Rosas, a performance that has since become a benchmark in the history of postmodern dance. Building on the minimalism initiated in Fase, abstract movements constitute the basis of a layered choreographic structure in which repetition plays the lead role. Four female dancers dance themselves, again and again in a work that is unequivocally feminine. Repetitive, “maximalistic” music by Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch was created concurrently with the choreography. Oct 3 Stay Late Conversation Photos by Anne Van Aerschot
03
YANIRA CASTRO a canary torsi
AUG 8-SEP 7 AUG 8 6PM
OPENING RECEPTION
OCT 19 5PM
Wild, Wild Earth
In partnership with NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program A group exhibition co-curated by Yanira Castro, Martita Abril, and Dain DeltaDawn that assembles artists from the New York Foundation for the Art’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program including: Valeria Carboni, Riaki Enyama, Ana Maria Farina, Nazanin Noroozi, Masahito Ono, Htet T San, Beverly Tu and Chen Wang.
In | Between
FREE - Respect the Reservation A group showcase co-curated by Yanira Castro and Martita Abril that assembles artists from the New York Foundation for the Art’s Immigrant Artist Program including: Júlia Brandão, Floor Grootenhuis and Julian Louis Phillips, Robert Ó Shea, Lyto Triantafyllidou and Tina Wang. Image design by Simon Courchel
04
LIV FEED
OCT 16-20 730PM
Last Audience
FREE - Respect the Reservation Last Audience is a work embodied by its audience—a live laboratory for the communal work of conjuring. Comprised of a set of unique scores written for each performance, the piece grapples with agency and manipulation, negotiating the individual and the collective inside a theatrical context. Drawing on language and themes from requiems and Greek classical tragedy on judgement and democratic formation, Last Audience moves inside the unstable space between the perfunctory and the transformative.
630PM
COMMUNE A free, public meal before each performance with special guests invited to contribute a dessert, poem, story, dance. The Live Feed creative residency program supports and nurtures the development of new work with residencies and commissions generated over two years. Lead support of Live Feed is generously provided by Partners for New Performance and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Additional support for Last Audience is provided by NYSCA Theater commission, MAP Fund and New Music USA. 05
RASHAAD NEWSOME Black Magic Interdisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome’s multipart project, Black Magic, at New York Live Arts, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center and Icebox Project Space, is a holistic reflection on agency, Blackness, and the futurity of intersectional identities and oppression. The project is comprised of three separate elements, an exhibition entitled To Be Real; a presentation of Newsome’s ongoing critically acclaimed performance FIVE (2010); and a vogue ball - The Champion Ball.
NEW YORK SEP 19 6PM
To Be Real @ New York Live Arts
OPENING RECEPTION
Five distinct prints representing dancers from Newsome's FIVE SFMOMA performance. This series incorporates a complex layering of performance, ephemeral and recorded movement, traditional printing and digital technology, bringing new vibrance and dimensionality to the printed surface.
NOV 8-9 730PM
FIVE @ New York Live Arts Tickets start at $25
FIVE is a generative multilayered work that sequentially incorporates choreography, performance, video, digital and two-dimensional drawing, and sculpture. Originally conceptualized using the five primary movements of voguing, FIVE recalibrates them into a new choreographic and video experience. Five dancers perform on camera as Newsome reframes and remixes the footage live, creating abstracted gestures. FIVE’s malleability and durational shape-shifting is a reflection of change within the vogue style, perceptions around the art form, and the dynamic change in how it has manifested and is consumed. Support of FIVE Live Arts generously provided by the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
06
BLACK MAGIC Events by Rashaad Newsome are Commissioned by New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency Program in collaboration with Philadelphia Photo Arts Center with generous support from The William Penn Foundation. Additional support provided by Partners for New Performance and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
LIV FEED
PHILADELPHIA SEP 12-NOV 30
To Be Real @ Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
OCT 17 6PM
Panel Discussion @ Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
NOV 16 8PM
Champion Ball @ Icebox Project Space
NOV 23 8PM
FIVE @ Icebox Project Space
An exhibition featuring an array of new analog collages, as well as a cloud-based A.I. entity named Being (2019) whose mind has been populated with the works of radical authors, revolutionaries, theorists such as Paulo Freire, Michel Foucault, bell hooks, Janet Mock, and the like. Its physical form is a figurative sculpture suspended in a death drop made of Ghanaian mahogany wood and sex-toy silicone. Rashaad Newsome in conversation with curator Jasmine Wahi.
Continuously reenvisioned Harlem ballroom-styled vogue competitions of dance and performance, where all the categories are based on a specific artist’s work or a particular movement within art history and contemporary culture. Tickets start at $15 Newsome's acclaimed multi-media performance makes it's Philadelphia debut. Photos courtesy of Rashaad Newsome Studio
07
BILL CHATS ELIZABETH ALEXANDER SEP 17, 530PM
(program starts at 6PM) In association with Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Bill T. Jones joins Elizabeth Alexander, renowned poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, cultural advocate and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to discuss the role of the dance arts in preserving the cultural record for a new generation. The conversation will be preceded by a special work in progress screening of the anticipated new documentary film, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (co-dir. Rosalynde LeBlanc, Tom Hurwitz), about a group of dancers who must overcome the physical and emotional challenges required to learn Jones’s 1989 tour-de-force on risk and sacrifice, love, loss, and resurrection.
ELIZABETH DILLER DEC 9, 7PM Bill T. Jones in conversation with Elizabeth Diller, world renowned artist/architect of projects including The High Line and The Shed, founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, about their collaboration on the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s upcoming work premiering in Spring 2020.
Support for Bill Chats is generously provided by Partners for New Performance Photo by Abelardo Morell 08
OP N SPECTRUM
NOV 10
BALLROOM HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
2:30PM The Art of Performance Voguing Class co-taught by FX's Pose cast member Jason A Rodriguez (Vogue New Way) and Ballroom Icon Pony Zion (Vogue Fem). 5PM Ballroom: Trans Sounds of Black Freedom A Lecture / Performance / Discussion exploring the history of the House | Ballroom community as a Black Trans-Womanist theological discourse, a freedom movement, and its spiritual formation responses to race, class, sexuality, and gender oppression. This event examines how a community reimagines itself through Performance, Fashion, and Intentional Kinship. 7PM The Category is Vogue Fem (OTA) Curated by Michael Roberson, theologian, public health practitioner, activist, leader within the LGBTQ and House | Ballroom community, and advisor for the TV show Pose, and presented in partnership with House Lives Matter and the Arbert Santana Ballroom Freedom and Free School Project. Open Spectrum provides a space for community dialogue on the most vital issues facing our community today, engaging participants in active listening, constructive discourse and action planning. Support for Open Spectrum is generously provided by Partners for New Performance Photo by Gerard H. Gaskin 09
FRESH FR SH TRACKS
DEC 13-14 730PM
Tickets start at $20 A fully produced evening of the auditioned works by the five incoming Fresh Tracks artists. Live Arts’ legacy Fresh Tracks performance and residency program continues its 55-year commitment to bringing new voices to the forefront. The program provides five emerging artists with a 50hour studio residency, a professionally produced shared evening bill in the New York Live Arts Theater, commission fee, one-on-one dialogue sessions with the program’s Artistic Advisor Nia Love, development workshops led by renewed professionals from the field and exclusive access to Live Arts’ Marketing, Production and Programming staff. Through Fresh Tracks, New York Live Arts provides an unparalleled opportunity for new artistic voices to gain professional development, experience and recognition. Support for Fresh Tracks is generously provided by Partners for New Performance Photo of Dolores 'Lola' Sanchez, Fresh Tracks 2018–19 Artist, by Maria Baranova
10
Photo by PamelaJanzesian
INTRODUCING THE NEW LIV FEED ARTISTS
HOLLY BASS
CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS Photo by Tracy Rector & Melissa Ponder
MILKA DJORDJEVICH
DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES
EMILY JOHNSON The Live Feed creative residency program offers a two year opportunity for research, development and infrastructural support, providing resources of time, space and a commission. Live Feed is intended as a laboratory for physical explorations with a focus toward the premiere of a new work in the coming seasons.
ASHLEY R.T. YERGENS
Support for Live Feed is generously provided by Partners for New Performance.
11
RANDJELOVIĆ/STRYKER RESIDENT COMMISSIONED ARTIST
Raja Feather Kelly Raja Feather Kelly is the 2019 – 2020 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA). Raja is a two-time winner of the Princess Grace Award, a New York Dance Performance "Bessie" award, the Creative Capital Award (2019), and is an inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. He is a current fellow of HERE Arts and the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. Over the past decade, Kelly has created thirteen evening-length premieres and six short-format works as well as choreographing extensively for Off-Broadway theatre in New York City. In 2019 he was nominated for the 2019 Lucille Lortel Award and the Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography. His choreography has garnered a Breakout Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (2018), Dance Magazine's inaugural Harkness Promise Award (2018), and the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography (2016). Raja will be working on a commission to premiere in the Fall of 2020. The Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist program was created in 2011 by New York Live Arts to provide high level support for mid-career artists. The program is by-invitation only and offers a salary, health benefits, two years of residency time and a commission of a new work to premiere at New York Live Arts. Select works will then be chosen for a fully produced national and/or international tour managed by New York Live Arts. Since its inception, the Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist program has received lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and has been named for lead donors Jon Stryker and New York Live Arts board Vice-chair Slobodan Randjelović. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation continues to be instrumental in one of Live Arts’ signature programs for artist development, and its ongoing support is vital to the continuation of the program. 12
Photo by © Kate Unman
BILL T. JONES/ ARNIE ZANE COMPANY
GET READY! For a highly anticipated new project to be announced.
Body, Movement, Language AI sketches with Bill T. Jones
Body, Movement, Language is a collection of experiments that resulted from a two-way residency between award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones and Google Creative Lab. Inspired by Bill’s long history of intertwining improvised speech and dance, these experiments use AI to invite users to explore the creative possibilities of speech and movement and make new connections with Jones’ iconic work, using nothing more than a laptop. Please visit billtjonesai.com to participate! The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in large part by Partners in Creation: Anonymous, Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Carol Tolan, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker. 13
Photo by Maria Baranova
Photo by Jessie Anders
MEMBERSHIP & SUPPORT MEMBERSHIP
You attend our presentations. You show support to resident artists as they develop their work under our roof. You cheer Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company on. That makes you a VIP in our book! So why not make it official by becoming a member? With just one step more you can open the door to 20% discounted tickets, exclusive members-only pre-sales, invitations to private rehearsals and opportunities to engage in person with the virtuosic artists who grace our stage. Membership at Live Arts is the gateway to increased access and benefits.
LIVE CORE
Are you an artist working to connect with larger audiences and raise funds to support your work? Enrollment in Live Core is $100 for a full year of unlimited access to the program’s offerings, including Fiscal Sponsorship Program, discounts on tickets and workshops, professional development services and more! For more information on joining our membership programs visit newyorklivearts.org or contact Bianca Bailey at bbailey@newyorklivearts.org.
DONATE/ SUPPORT
Artists play a distinct role in our communities, especially in times of upheaval and change. We are honored to play a small part in ensuring artists are supported, seen, and heard. Live Arts is sustained by the generosity of individuals, and your presence and participation is vital to our ability to continue the important work ahead of us. Your tax-deductible donation of any amount provides vital resources to artists at every career stage in the form of commissioning funds, residencies, studio space, and professional services. We thank our Trustees, Patrons Circle, Advisory Council, and Members for their generous support.
To learn about ways to support New York Live Arts and the artists we serve please visit newyorklivearts.org/support or contact Ali Burke at aburke@newyorklivearts.org.
14
Photo by Jessie Anders
FUNDERS
Photo by Maria Baranova
The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the company’s Partners in Creation: Anonymous, Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Carol Tolan, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker. We thank our Partners for New Performance for supporting the Live Feed, Fresh Tracks and engagement programs. Support for New York Live Arts is provided by Con Edison, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Gladys Krieble Delmas, the Ford Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, Otter, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Public support for New York Live Arts is from Humanities New York, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
15
FALL CALENDAR AUG 8 6PM
Wild, Wild Earth - Artists from NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program Ford Foundation Live Gallery opening reception
SEP 12-15 & 18-21 730PM
Sarah Jones: Sell/Buy/Date
SEP 12-NOV 30
To Be Real - Rashaad Newsome @ Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
SEP 17 530PM
Bill Chats: Elizabeth Alexander In association with Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
SEP 19 6PM
To Be Real - Rashaad Newsome @ New York Live Arts Ford Foundation Live Gallery opening reception
SEP 24-28 730PM
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas: Fase
SEP 28 2PM
Rosas Masterclass
OCT 1-5 730PM
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas: Rosas danst Rosas
OCT 16-20 730PM
Yanira Castro: Last Audience COMMUNE at 6:30pm, performance at 7:30pm
OCT 17 6PM
Rashaad Newsome: Panel Discussion @ Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
OCT 19 5PM
In | Between - Showcase of Immigrant Artists Co-curated by Yanira Castro and Martita Abril
NOV 1-2 & NOV 2-3 730PM 2PM
Live Arts Plus Partner: Marymount Manhattan College
NOV 8-9 730PM
Rashaad Newsome: FIVE @ New York Live Arts
NOV 10 230PM 5PM
Open Spectrum: Ballroom Has Something To Say
NOV 14 – 16 730PM
Live Arts Plus Partner: cullen+them’s young dance collective
NOV 16 8PM
Rashaad Newsome: Champion Ball @ Icebox Project Space
The Art of Performance Ballroom: Trans Sounds of Black Freedom & The Category is Vogue Fem
NOV 21-23 & NOV 23 Live Arts Plus Partner: Barnard/Columbia Dances 730PM 2PM
16
NOV 23 8PM
Rashaad Newsome: FIVE @ Icebox Project Space
DEC 9 7PM
Bill Chats: Elizabeth Diller
DEC 13-14 730PM
Fresh Tracks: Auditioned Works
DEC 18-21 & DEC 21 730PM 2PM
Live Arts Plus Partner: Zvi Dance
COMING IN THE NEW YEAR LIVE ARTERY
New York Live Arts’ dynamic showcase of new and recent works by Live Arts commissioned artists and curated guests presented during the annual Association of Performing Arts Professional's conference. Programming to be announced Nov 2019.
BILL T. JONES/ ARNIE ZANE COMPANY
World premiere of new work in Spring 2020. To be announced in the Fall.
LIVE FEED
WORLD PREMIERES
Kimberly Bartosik / daela, Alexandra Chasin and Zishan Ugurlu, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Colleen Thomas, Abby Z and the New Utility
IN PROCESS SHOWINGS by new Live Feed Artists
LIVE IDEAS FESTIVAL
Black Utopia, Imagination and the Estrangement of Others (working title)
LIVE IDEAS GALA
Spring, 2020 @ The Caldwell Factory, Chelsea
LIVE ARTS PRIDE
Third annual Pride Celebration curated by Tyler Ashley aka The Dauphine of Bushwick
LIV ARTS PLUS PARTNERS Live Arts Plus Partners programs come from our community of artists and nonprofits, and receive access to discounted space, marketing, and production opportunities. Other Plus Partners include Alice Sheppard, Ballet Next, Ellen Robbins, Lakai Dance Theatre, Lang Dance and 10 Hairy Legs.
Box Office
Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077 Hours: Monday–Friday: 5pm–9pm Saturday: 1pm–9pm, Sunday: 1pm–8pm
Respect the Reservation
New York Live Arts wants to build a culture of respect around a free admission. A broad community has come together to make the work we present accessible to all audiences without charge, and so we are asking audiences to respect this effort and simply let us know if you can’t attend. If you have a reservation, and will not be able to make a performance, just let us know at least two hours before the show by calling us at 212.924.0077 or emailing boxoffice@newyorklivearts.org; we will thank you profusely and offer your ticket to someone else. That’s Respecting the Reservation.
Discounts
Members, Live Core artists, Students and Seniors receive 20% off select regular priced tickets. $15 Con Ed tickets available for every show. Limited $10 student rush tickets available day of the show.
Directions
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011 (Between 7th & 8th Aves) Subway: 1 to 18th Street, 2/3, F, M, L and A/C/E to 14th Street. 17
Home of the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011