FALL 2022
As we enter another fall season, with the fear of the pandemic replaced by fears of the war on our rights, our safety, our planet, Ukraine, we turn to Hannah Arendt’s modus operandi: Amor Mundi (Love of the world). What is most difficult, writes Arendt, is to love the world as it is. Loving the world means neither uncritical acceptance nor contemptuous rejection, but the unwavering facing up to and comprehension of that which is. We have no alternative but to engage with the world, and to keep engaging during another challenging mid-term election. And as we know, the culture wars never ended. The artists that we are presenting on our stage this fall—Robyn Orlin, Yvonne Rainer, Emily Johnson and Vanessa Anspaugh—belong to the category of humans that the Supreme Court recently deemed second class, incapable of making their own choices. Well, these self-determining, deeply thoughtful artists have much to say. Their works demand of us to think critically, to see with open hearts, to question assumptions, to become the future and to take radical care. We are proud to share these works with you. There’s so much more to say, but let’s pause here. We can continue the discussion at a Bill Chats. Hope to see you soon. –Bill T. Jones & Janet Wong
Cover photo: Albert Ibokwe Khoza in the work of artist Robyn Orlin by John Hogg/Dance Umbrella and portraits at left by Maria Baranova
FALL 2022 CALENDAR Box Office
Ticketing
Directions
Accessability
Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077 Hours: M onday–Friday: 3pm–9pm Saturday & Sunday: 11am–9pm Ticket pricing is on a variable scale, with a minimum of $15 made possible by Con-Edison. We offer a standard ticket price, as well as options to pay more or less. Live Core artists, Students and Seniors receive 20% off select tickets. Limited $10 student rush tickets day of the show, pending availability. 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. ASL Interpretation will be provided for various presentations this fall - please see newyorklivearts.org for updates. Live Arts' entrances are located on the street level, as is the main entrance to the theater. Box Office staff is available for assistance at either the single revolving door or pair of push bar doors. The elevator provides access to theater seating at the front of the audience, administrative offices, and the studios. Studios and bathroom entrances from within them have ADA push button swing doors.
SEP 15 530PM
SEP 22-24 730PM OCT 5-8 730PM OCT 15 OCT 20-22 730PM OCT 24 7PM NOV 10-12 730PM DEC 6 7PM COMING SOON!
Chaz Guest Ford Foundation Live Gallery opening reception Season Opener: Robyn Orlin And so you see... Presented in partnership with FIAF's Crossing The Line Festival Yvonne Rainer HELLZAPOPPIN’: What about the bees? Presented in partnership with Performa Emily Johnson/Catalyst Special Off-site event Live Feed: Emily Johnson/Catalyst Being Future Being Bill Chats OFF-SITE at the New School Live Feed: Vanessa Anspaugh mourning after mornings Bill Chats Join us spring 2023 for a New York premiere from resident Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company, world premiere from Faye Driscoll, our 2023 Live Ideas Festival, and more!
We acknowledge and pay respect to Lenape people past, present, and coming in the future. We acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking where New York Live Arts is located, the land, and waters of the Lenape homeland.
SEASON OPENER ROBYN ORLIN
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SEP 22-24 730PM NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE
And so you see... our honourable blue sky and ever enduring sun... can only be consumed slice by slice… Tickets start at $15/$25 Presented in partnership with FIAF's Crossing The Line Festival Famed South African choreographer Robyn Orlin, in her New York City premiere, presents a powerful solo performance to NY audiences featuring Albert Ibokwe Khoza who embodies the creative energy of a younger generation, reflecting their intense desire to change society. "... An ironical playful body, caught between sin, transformation, decay and brilliance, uses the 'seven deadly sins', on a journey through a 'requiem to humanity' with the third world still on stage and the first world paying to be part of the show ... Think of this piece as a 'requiem to humanity.'" -Robyn Orlin Sep 23 Stay Late Conversation
“quote?” - Eva Yaa Asantewaa
The presentation of And so you see... a solo performance for Albert Ibokwe Khoza by Robyn Orlin, is possible thanks to FUSED (French U.S. Exchange in Dance), a program of Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States with support from the Florence Gould Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Institut français-Paris, the French Ministry of Culture, and private donors. With the support of King's Fountain. Image by John Hogg/Dance Umbrella
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YVONNE RAINER
“Yvonne Rainer's methods of composition are remarkably consistent across multiple mediums, including choreography, performance, film, writing, and teaching." - Gregg Bordowitz: Introduction of "Revisions" by Yvonne Rainer HELLZAPOPPIN’: What about the bees? Tickets start at $15/$40
Presented in partnership with Performa Legendary dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and writer Yvonne Rainer presents a riveting work that reflects on America’s ongoing reckoning with systemic racism. In the vein of previous performances, the piece juxtaposes text, dance and excerpts from the two classic films—Hellzapoppin’, a 1941 Hollywood musical, and Zero for Conduct, 1933, by French auteur Jean Vigo—as backdrop and inspiration. At 87 years old, Rainer has announced that this will be her “last dance,” the culmination of over sixty years of choreography, film, writing, and teaching. Featuring Emily Coates, Brittany Bailey, Brittany EngelAdams, Patricia Hoffbauer, Vincent McCloskey, Emmanuèle Phuon, David Thomson, Timothy Ward, and Kathleen Chalfant. Oct 6 Stay Late Conversation with Yvonne Rainer and Bill T. Jones 04
OCT 5-8 730PM WORLD PREMIERE
Co-commissioned by Performa, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Staatliche Kunsthalle BadenBaden. Produced and presented by Performa with New York Live Arts. Generous support is provided by Sarah Arison and the Performa Commissioning Fund. Photo by Paula Court
LIV FEED
EMILY JOHNSON/ CATALYST
“Johnson is trying to spark some healing and some change in the world...And she’s good at it.” - The New York Times
OCT 15
OFF-SITE EVENT
OCT 20-22 730PM NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE
Being Future Being is commissioned by BroadStage at Santa Monica College, and is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Bunnell Street Arts Center (AK); New York Live Arts (NY); Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (OR) and NPN, with contributions from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional commissioning and development support is provided by Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by The Howard Gilman Foundation and Ford Foundation; Abrons Arts Center; University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center; Portland Ovations; Jacob’s Pillow’s Pillow Lab residency; a Movement Research Residency, funded by the Scherman Foundation’s Katharine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund; and New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency with funding from Rockefeller Brothers Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Partners for New Performance. The creation of Being Future Being is made possible in part with support from Native Arts and Cultures Foundation SHIFT: Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts Award and New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Mellon Foundation. Photo by Scott Lynch
Being Future Being Tickets start at $15/$25
Celebrated for a distinguished body of dance works, Emily Johnson gathers audiences in a shared experience of movement, story, sound, collective action, and the continuance of Indigenous thrivance. Her newest dance performance and process, Being Future Being, delves into the power of creation, with new stories that seek to sustain a world that must begin again. Co-commissioned by New York Live Arts and featuring an original score by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Raven Chacon, Being Future Being conjures present joy as it seeks to build a radically-just and Indigenized future, one we can live in now and foster for generations to come. Oct 21 Stay Late Conversation
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LIV FEED
VANESSA ANSPAUGH
“draws the viewer in immediately and never lets go.” - The New York Times mourning after mornings Tickets start at $15/$25
NOV 10-12 730PM
WORLD PREMIERE
mourning after mornings wants to wake-up. Inspired by early & contemporary death and grieving rituals, three archetypal female outcasts (facing their own aging bodies) tell an ancient story that is also the present. Narrative and time is constructed and deconstructed in cyclical reverie. This seasoned cast of performers (and younger ghosts) explore communal loss and mourning, reclaiming wildness, as they attend to the devastating, absurd, and sacred ways we come to care for bodies and ritualize endings. mourning after mornings is being made in collaboration with, Anna Azrieli, Rebecca Serrell, Maura Nguyen-Donohue along with Laura Osterhaus-Rosentone, Jo Warren, and composer Leslie Alison, and lighting designer Kathy Couch. Nov 11 Stay Late Conversation
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The Live Feed Residency program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Partners for New Performance. Photo courtesy of the artist
LIVE GALLERY
FALL 2022
Chaz Guest
SEP 15 530PM
An exhibition featuring 3 works by celebrated American painter and sculptor Chaz Guest. From his acclaimed "Cotton Series" paintings of enslaved African Americans rendered on 100% pure Georgia cotton flags to his latest graphic novel creation Buffalo Warrior, Guest proudly inserts his culture into every piece he makes. Known for profound inventiveness in capturing the raw essence of the universal human spirit, Guest leaves those who encounter his works moved in powerfully personal ways. He is represented by Vito Schnabel Gallery in NYC and Night Gallery in Los Angeles.
INSTALLATION FORD FOUNDATION LIVE GALLERY
OPENING RECEPTION
Photo by Brian Bowen Smith
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What Problem? National Tour Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s latest work What Problem? provokes the tension between belonging to a community and feelings of isolation that many feel during these divisive political times. Adapted for proscenium stages from the massive work, Deep Blue Sea (2021), Jones conceived of this highly personal work in pursuit of the elusive “we” including a cast of local community members, a deconstructed text from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Jones and the company develop individual content with local community members in each of the touring locations making each performance specific to its host city. Jones reflects on King’s immortal words, we shall overcome, mixed with the scripture of our democracy as formed and shaped by WE THE PEOPLE. There has always been an uneasy recognition of the truth at the base of the great Du Bois statement concerning “the problem of the color line” for Du Bois represented the epitome of otherness; yet we now understand this is much more complex. In our fractious era, What Problem? elaborates on this line in terms of sexual politics, gender identity, class struggles and immigration.
OCT 28-29
Carolina Performing Arts UNC-Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC
NOV 4
FirstWorks in partnership with Brown Arts Institute at Brown University The Vets Auditorium, Providence, RI
NOV 15
UCSB Arts & Lectures Santa Barbara, CA
DEEP BLUE SEA Photo by Maria Baranova
NOV 19
UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance Los Angeles, CA
Adapted from Deep Blue Sea which was originally commissioned by Park Avenue Armory and Manchester International Festival in collaboration with Holland Festival and first performed on September 28, 2021. Additional commissioning support provided by The Mann Center for the Performing Arts with original support for Deep Blue Sea provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia. What Problem? Commissioning support provided by Partners in Creation, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Carolina Performing Arts, Lumberyard Center for Film and Performing Arts, Indiana University Auditorium, George Mason University, Dancers’ Workshop, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Mellon Foundation and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Rehearsal support provided by MASS MoCA, Mana Contemporary and Bethany Arts Community. 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 (2), Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Michael P.N.A. Hormel in Loving Memory of Jim Hormel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker. Produced by New York Live Arts
WHAT PROBLEM?
Photo by Jim Coleman
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CURRICULUM II
Photo by Maria Baranova
The company’s 40th anniversary season began with the premiere of Deep Blue Sea at the Park Avenue Armory, followed by a tour of Afterwardsness and What Problem? (proscenium version of Deep Blue Sea), and in June the premiere of Curriculum II. These four new full-length works embody the DNA of a company that continues to question the status quo with courage and rigor. The anniversary celebration continues this season with tours of What Problem? and Curriculum II, a home season in the spring in the Live Arts theater, the first one since 2014, and other projects to be announced throughout the season.
AFTERWARDSNESS Photo by Maria Baranova
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BILL CHATS In partnership with The New School Tickets Start at $15 This season, the popular Bill Chats series will be presented in partnership with the Presidential Visiting Scholars program at The New School.
FRESH TRACKS OCT 24 7PM
OFF-SITE AT THE NEW SCHOOL The Auditorium at 66 W. 12th Street
DEC 6 7PM
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS 3RD FLOOR STUDIOS
Bill T. Jones (along with Lisa B. Thompson) has been named Presidential Visiting Scholar at The New School for the 20222023 academic year as part of the second cohort of Presidential Visiting Scholars at the university. The Presidential Visiting Scholars program brings major thinkers of the highest standing to the university to teach unique courses, collaborate on creative or research initiatives, deliver lectures, and participate in public programming and other special projects. The Presidential Visiting Scholars are distinguished academics and artists who join The New School faculty by special invitation to support and extend The New School’s academic distinction and commitment to inclusive excellence. As part of this prestigious appointment New York Live Arts and The New School will collaborate on a series of events including public conversations, performances, and classes, that explore urgent and intersectional questions in these unsettling times, including: identity, artist/citizen, community, and climate justice. Guest speakers to be announced. Bill Chats is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
Photo: Jim Coleman
The Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program is a seasonlong residency for emerging movement-based artists in support of new work creation and professional development with nia love as Artistic Advisor. The program originated at Dance Theater Workshop in 1965 to bring new choreographic artistry to the forefront and has included great minds such as Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, and current Live Feed Artists Vanessa Anspaugh and Ashley R.T. Yergens. A new cohort of artists will be announced in late September 2022. The Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
Photo of Majesty Royale by Maria Baranova
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RANDJELOVIĆ/STRYKER RESIDENT COMMISSIONED ARTIST FAYE DRISCOLL
“Utterly original work. It doesn’t look like anything you’ve ever seen before, nor can you imagine thinking it up.” - The New York Times Faye Driscoll is New York Live Arts 2021-2022 Randjelović/ Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist. This season she will be developing Waves (working title) to premiere in the spring of 2023. Waves (working title) is a choreography of persistent, oscillating entanglement. In it, ripples of light, singing, sound and skin surge into currents that crest and cascade through bodies awash in the physicality of touch. Waves radiates throughout the space, through voices, through audiences, through objects. It asks: how can we know this flesh through, and beyond, its limitations? What forces sustain us as we struggle, push, flood and disappear into each other?
The Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist program is made possible with lead support from Mellon Foundation and has been named for lead donors Jon Stryker and New York Live Arts board Vice-chair Slobodan Randjelović. The Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA) awardee receives two years of full-time salary, healthcare benefits, full-time access to dedicated office space during the entire residency period, commissioning funds, a technical theater residency and fully-produced production. Since the creation of the program in 2011, artists selected were Yasuko Yokoshi, Kyle Abraham (MacArthur Genius Fellow 2013), Okwui Okpokwasili (MacArthur Genius Fellow 2018), RoseAnne Spradlin, and Raja Feather Kelly.
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Photo by Bea Borgers
LIV FEED The Live Feed creative residency program is a laboratory for the development of new work commissioned and presented by Live Arts. Artists have the opportunity to show their work at Live Artery during the annual Association of Performing Arts Professionals Conference, before the work premieres. The Live Feed Residency program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Partners for New Performance.
MX OOPS
Photo courtesy of the artist
LACINA COULIBALY
ANNIE DORSEN
JUMATATU M. POE
ASHLEY R.T. YERGENS
Photo courtesy of the artist
Photo by Tayarisha Poe
Photo courtesy of the artist
Photo courtesy of the artist
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BECOMING: AT HOME IN THE WORLD @ Meany Center for the Performing Arts Produced by Meany Center for the Performing Arts (Seattle, WA) in partnership with New York Live Arts Tickets on sale at meanycenter.org World-renowned choreographer, dancer, writer and Artistic Director of New York Live Arts Bill T. Jones joins Meany Center this season as a guest curator for this bold new series of events. Featuring five artists working at the cutting edge of their disciplines, the Becoming events are inspired by Jones’ deep interest in “what it takes to be a wellrounded citizen of the world in these fractious times.”
ROBYN ORLIN AND SO YOU SEE ... OUR HONOURABLE BLUE SKY AND EVER ENDURING SUN... CAN ONLY BE CONSUMED SLICE BY SLICE ... SEP 30-OCT 1, 2022 Photo by Jérôme Séron
ABBY Z AND THE NEW UTILITY RADIOACTIVE PRACTICE OCT 27-29, 2022 Photo by Maria Baranova 14
“What unites these artists is perhaps a desire to redefine what is and was, to push against the status quo, crack it open and let the light come through.” No one event will be like any other. The commonality that unites them is work that is intersectional, inclusive and unapologetic in its call for social justice — and the fierce originality of the artists who created it.
HOLLAND ANDREWS JAN 21, 2023
Photo courtesy of the artist
THE MOTHERBOARD SUITE WITH SAUL WILLIAMS, MARIA BAUMAN, KAYLA FARRISH, MARJANI FORTÉ-SAUNDERS, D. SABELA GRIMES, JASMINE HEARN, AND SHAMEL PITTS APR 1, 2023 Photo by Maria Baranova
DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES I CHOOSE TO REMEMBER US WHOLE SPRING 2023 Photo by Maria Baranova 15
LIVE CORE
DONATE/SUPPORT
Are you an artist working to connect with larger audiences and raise funds to support your work?
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.
Enrollment in Live Core is $100 for a full year of unlimited access to the program’s offerings, including the Fiscal Sponsorship Program, discounts on tickets and workshops, professional development services, and more! For more information on joining Live Core, please visit newyorklivearts.org or contact Bianca Bailey at bbailey@newyorklivearts.org.
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.
Photos (above) by Jesse Anders and Rebecca Smeyne 16
SUPPORT Support for New York Live Arts is provided by the Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, The Brant Foundation, Inc., Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Dance/NYC, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund in the New York Community Trust, Muriel Pollia Foundation, The Poss Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund,Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, San Francisco Foundation The Semel Charitable Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Tides Foundation.
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 (2), Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Michael P.N.A. Hormel in Loving Memory of Jim Hormel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, 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, Live Ideas, Open Spectrum, Bill Chats, and humanities programming: Alexes Hazen, Linda Hirschson, Julie Orlando, Andrea Rosen, Nina Stricker, Robyn Trani.
Corporate support for New York Live Arts includes Con Edison, Google, Tito’s Handmade Vodka. 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 special thanks to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by Mellon Foundation.
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New York Live Arts 219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011 Home of the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company
New York Live Arts @NewYorkLiveArts @nylivearts
Cover photo: Albert Ibokwe Khoza in the work of artist Robyn Orlin by John Hogg/Dance Umbrella