WELCOME!
At a time when the leaves change and the nation’s future direction is at stake, can the arts play a meaningful role in fostering dialogue, reflection, and unity?The works by Lenio Kaklea (Greek artist based in Paris), Nadia Beugré (Montpellier based artist from the Ivory Coast), Ismaël Mouaraki (Moroccan French artist based in Montreal), and our Live Feed Residency Artist Wally Cardona offer a unique perspective on freedom, identity, resilience, spirituality and our place in the world, resonating deeply with our belief that the communal begins with the personal.
We are very excited (and somewhat trepidatious) about the remount of Still/Here at BAM. This rigorously formal work held the messiness of an era and ignited a wild discourse probably unworthy of revisiting. Thirty years after its premiere, a work that attempts to make sense of mortality, survival and the human spirit will hopefully remain resonant and relevant, especially in this moment.
To be continued. We look forward to seeing you.
Bill T. Jones & Janet Wong
View the season online:
We acknowledge and pay respect to Lenape people past, present, and coming in the future. We acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking where our theater sits - the land, the waters of the Lenape homeland.
Cover: Bill T. Jones, photo by Joanne Savio, 1994
FALL 2024 CALENDAR
SEP 17
530PM
OCT 9-11
730PM
OCT 24-26
730PM
OCT 30-NOV 2
730PM
NOV 8-9
730PM
NOV 14-16
730PM
NOV 16
Isaiah Gardner
Ford Foundation Live Gallery Opening Reception
Lenio Kaklea
Αγρίμι (Fauve)
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
Nadia Beugré
Quartiers libres revisited
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company
Still/Here @ BAM
Ismaël Mouaraki | Destins Croisés
Le sacre de Lila
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
Wally Cardona with Jonathan Bepler a plump single-color bulb, or a dance
Bill T. Jones
Memory Piece: Mr. Ailey, Alvin… the un-Ailey? @ The Whitney
Welcome to Our New Ticketing Options!
Live Arts is proud to launch new community ticket pricing, allowing the public to choose a price that fits any budget. Limited “Pay-What YouWish” tickets are now available for all onsite events. To support this, Live Arts has introduced a “What-It-Really-Costs” ticket at $250, reflecting the true cost of a performance in NYC. Onsite performance tickets start at a standard price of $30. Students and Seniors receive 20% off standard prices and $10 Student Rush tickets are available for any onsite show that is not sold-out.
Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077
BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY
Still/Here
OCT 30-NOV 2, 730PM
Presented at BAM
30 years after its premiere, the groundbreaking dance theater work Still/Here by Bill T. Jones returns to the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. In its 42nd season, The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company remounts this timeless “landmark of 20th century dance”, underscoring its ongoing resonance with today and its ability to evoke a spirit of survival. Created during one of the most contentious and terrifying periods, the AIDS epidemic, Still/Here broke boundaries between the personal and the political and exemplified a form of dance theater that is uniquely American. In spite of its being at the center of the culture wars, or because of it, the highly formal multimedia work defined and ultimately transcended its era. In the intervening years, much has changed in the world. Though with another Pandemic behind us, wars raging, the planet failing, and technology rising, somehow the questions around mortality remain.
The highly formal structures of Still/Here are delivered with simplicity and sophistication, marked by spoken text, video portraits, dance and the abstract nature of gesture. Gretchen Bender’s visual concept and multimedia environment is joined by music from Kenneth Frazelle (sung by Odetta) and Vernon Reid. Long-time collaborators include Liz Prince (costumes) and Robert Wierzel (lighting).
The recreation of Still/Here is produced by New York Live Arts with lead support from BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels. Additional support generously provided by ASU Gammage, Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance.
The creation of work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the Ed Bradley Family Foundation and the company’s Partners in Creation: Anonymous (2), Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker.
Photo by Beatriz Schiller, 1994
At the heart of Still/Here are the “Survival Workshops: Talking and Moving about Life and Death.” These workshops were conducted across the country with people living with life-threatening illness. The participants living on the front lines of the struggle to understand our mortality are in possession of information - info possible of being a gift and a burden. The participants’ generosity of spirit and willingness to express their experience both with words and gestures was both inspiring and difficult. They are the essence of Still/Here : their gestures inform the choreography, their words the lyrics, their images the stage. They will always be Still/Here. This work is dedicated to them.
Open Class with company members at New York Live Arts
FRIDAYS, SEP 16-DEC 20, 10AM-12PM
Join the Company for Open Class at New York Live Arts every Friday. Technique with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company uses the vocabulary and stylistic sensibilities developed by Bill T. Jones and Janet Wong to prepare dancers for the work of the Company. The classes are informed by our passion for rigor, subtlety, musicality and eclecticism, and seek to train strong, highly articulate dancers with an extensive qualitative palette.
Photo by David Smith, 1994
LENIO KAKLEA
Αγρίμι (Fauve)
OCT 9-11, 730PM
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
In Αγρίμι (Fauve), dancer, choreographer, director and writer Lenio Kaklea meticulously choreographs a ‘rewilding of bodies’. Through onstage exercises, dances and rituals, she explores the forest as a place – both physical and imaginary – for the dissolution of identities and the metamorphosis of bodies. Linking Kaklea’s choreographic creation to the geographical, environmental and poetic richness of the forests for the first time, Αγρίμι (Fauve) presents dance as another wild zone to be defended. Born in Athens, Greece, she is currently based in Paris, France, and a nominee for the 25th Pernod Ricard Foundation Award.
Oct 10 Stay Late Discussion
Photo: Maria Toultsa
Photo: Werner Strouven
NADIA BEUGRÉ
Quartiers libres revisited
OCT 24-26, 730PM
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
Nadia Beugré’s Quartiers libres (free rein) questions if there are spaces that we cannot go…that we do not have the right to explore, and what happens if we penetrate them. Twelve years after its premiere in France, Beugré revisits this emblematic solo by inviting two young artists from the Ivorian scene to explore these moving territories. Alongside sounds and piles of plastic bottles mingling with bodies, burying and concealing them, Quartiers libres revisited persists to reveal those peculiar spaces we are trapped in, those forbidden places in which we choose to wander: spaces open to endless possibilities, spaces to submit and reveal.
With the support from Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation.
ISMAËL MOUARAKI | DESTINS CROISÉS
Le sacre de Lila
NOV 8-9, 730PM
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
Inspired by the Lila ceremonies, traditional mystical and musical celebrations of his native Morocco, Ismaël Mouaraki explores trance with a group of male dancers in his newest creation. Through them, the French-Moroccan-Canadian retraces his own journey before the eyes of the public. Meaning “night” in Arabic, a “Lila” is a set of nocturnal healing rituals that blends singing, dancing, and music, traditionally found in some North African countries. Mouaraki transposes the rites and codes of these dance rituals onto the stage, while infusing his signature contemporary street dance style to reveal the sensitivity and sensuality of the male body. Tinted with the tastes and colors of Morocco, the artists transform the performance into a celebration and exaltation of bodies that unfolds with an undeniable energy.
Nov 8 Stay Late Discussion
With the support from Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation.
Photo: Sylvie-ann Paré
Photo: Daqi Fang
WALLY CARDONA with JONATHAN BEPLER
a plump single-color bulb, or a dance NOV 14-16, 730PM
a plump single-color bulb, or a dance marks Wally Cardona’s choreographic return to a stage after several years of making work off-road.
While being shut down at home a few years ago (literally and figuratively), a man received an unexpected present from a former collaborator living in London. A small red ball. It seemed lonely on its own, so he picked up one of several small wooden mallets he owns from his time in Myanmar. And the three of them – ball, man, mallet - headed into the studio. He was curious about them and it felt like they had their own curiosity about him so they continued to work together. It’s evolved into a rather refined relationship. They organize, get lost in and re-find themselves. They find relevance moment to moment and have no need for a singular resolution.
This choreography for three features an original musical score performed live by Jonathan Bepler and lighting design by Thomas Dunn .
Nov 15 Stay Late Discussion with Matthew Barney
Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
BILL T. JONES
Memory Piece:
Mr. Ailey, Alvin… the un-Ailey?
NOV 16
Presented at The Whitney
Memory Piece is a series of rare solo performances reflecting on influential moments and figures throughout the illustrious career of Bill T. Jones. Jones describes himself as someone who went in a different direction than Alvin Ailey. In this iteration, Memory Piece: Mr. Ailey, Alvin… the un-Ailey? will welcome audiences into an intimate space built from words, movement, and music.
This presentation includes Bill T. Jones in conversation with Adrienne Edwards and Glenn Ligon.
The performance will be presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Edges of Ailey, the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate the life, dances, influences, and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey.
Photos: (left) Alvin Ailey by Norman Maxon, courtesy of the New York Public Library (right) Bill T. Jones by Michael O’Neil
BILL CHATS
with special guests
Bill T. Jones has “chatted” with over 30 artists, thinkers, and influential figures over the course of this program, including Elizabeth Alexander, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Louis Chude-Sokei, Elizabeth Diller, Oscar Eustis, Howard W. French, Salman Rushdie, Moisés Kaufman & Mary Marshall Clark, Jacqueline Woodson, Hank Willis Thomas, Damian Woetzel, and many more. Guests will be announced in real time and tandem with Jones’ academic, ideological, and creative interests, inviting audiences into both important dialogues and a glimpse of his present musings.
Please visit newyorklivearts.org for details.
Bill Chats is supported in part by Partners for New Performance
Photos: (Clockwise from top left) Bill T. Jones with: Elizabeth Alexander by Ian Douglas; Elizabeth Diller by Maria Baranova;Oskar Eustis by Maria Baranova; Jacqueline Woodson by Maria Baranova
ISAIAH GARDNER
Ford Foundation Live Gallery
OPENING RECEPTION: SEP 17 5:30-7PM
ON VIEW: SEP 17-MAR 2025
Isaiah Gardner’s site specific collage captures the disgusting and beautiful essence of our human instincts. With over 200 pieces, he welcomes you to his deepest catalogue to date. Some pieces have been curated as early as age 16 for a moment to display them. The pieces were crafted with 3d fabric paint, acrylic, spray paint, and posca paint pens and digital mediums.
Image courtesy of the artist
RESIDENT ARTISTS
Live Feed
The Live Feed creative residency program is Live Arts’ central platform for the commissioning and incubation of new work. We welcome to the new roster of Live Feed artists: Roderick George, Ain Gordon, Benjamin Akio Kimitch, Ogemdi Ude, Lisa Fagan & Lena Engelstein. Join us this fall for a premiere by current residency artist Wally Cardona.
The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
Roderick George
Benjamin Akio Kimitch
Photo by Da Ping Luo
Photo by Michael Jackson
Lisa Fagan & Lena Engelstein
Photo by Rachel Keane
Photo by Sally Cohn
Photo courtesy of the artist
Photo by Maria Baranova
Photo by Maria Baranova
Miguel Gutierrez
2023-2024
Randjelović/Stryker
Resident Commissioned Artist
Miguel Gutierrez’s world premiere of Super Nothing will be a highlight of the Spring 2025 season. Inspired by bell hooks’ statement that “Moving, we confront the realities of choice and location,” the performers from New York and Los Angeles - Jay Carlon (LA), Justin Faircloth (NYC), Wendell Gray II (NYC), and Evelyn Lilian Sanchez Narvaez (LA) - navigate a shifting physical terrain of intimacy, negotiation, and pent up feeling to create a world where we rethink what it means to come together. Gutierrez is a choreographer, composer, performer, singer, writer, educator, podcaster, visual artist, and arts advocate who has been based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn for twenty five years.
The Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist program is one of the nation’s most comprehensive mid-career choreographer awards, providing two years of full-time salary, health benefits, studio time, a major commission of a new work to premiere at New York Live Arts, and artistic, administrative and production support. The goal of the residency is for Live Arts to be in collaboration with the artist in the creation of a work that may not have been possible without this kind of support, as well as building a structure towards a sustainable career that lasts beyond the residency.
Since 2011, the Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Program has been made possible with lead funding from Mellon Foundation, and we are excited to share Rockefeller Brothers Fund has joined our partnership to provide lead support going forward.
Super Nothing was commissioned, produced and presented by New York Live Arts as part of the Randjelović /Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Program, with lead support from Mellon Foundation. Co-commissioned by On the Boards/Seattle, Center for the Art of Performance/ UCLA, MCA Chicago and American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works, with additional support from Café Royal Cultural Foundation and developed with residency support from Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival and The Field Center. S uper Nothing is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project, supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).
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 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/about/opportunities.
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, photo by Whitney Browne
DONATE
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, Partners in Creation, Partners for New Performance, Patrons Circle, and Donors for their generous support.
To learn about ways to support New York Live Arts and the artists we serve please visit newyorklivearts.org/support.
Live Arts Board Treasurer Darnell L. Moore and Live Ideas Gala Co-Chair Yashua Simmons, Bill T. Jones, and Lena Waithe, photo by Whitney Browne
SUPPORT
Support for New York Live Arts is provided by the Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, 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, Jerome Foundation, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, 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, Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation.
Corporate support for New York Live Arts includes Google and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
Public support for New York Live Arts is from National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the 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.
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, 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 Live Feed, Fresh Tracks, Live Ideas, Bill Chats, and humanities programming: Alexes Hazen, Linda Hirschson, Julie Orlando, John Robinson, Andrea Rosen, Nina Stricker, Robyn Trani.
VISIT US
Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077
Hours: Monday–Friday: 3pm–9pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11am–9pm
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.
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 have ADA push button swing doors.
CART captioning and audio description offered for various presentations.
