For Immediate Release: January 17, 2008

Bill T. Jones

Artist Talk

Chapel/Chapter

January 25th at 4:30 PM on the CenterStage

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Bill T. Jones (Artistic Director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company), recipient of a 2007 Tony Award; 2007 Obie Award; and the 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award, will discuss his new work Chapel/Chapter. “Rarely has [Mr. Jones] been better able to sublimate his wide-ranging political, social and moral concerns into art. Rarely has the strength of that art made his vision express itself more purely,” states John Rockwell of the New York Times.

Chapel/Chapter will be presented at the ’62 Center on Saturday, February 9^th, at 8:00 PM.

Mr. Jones will be speaking about Chapel/Chapter, its creation process, where it came from, and where it’s going. He will also speak about site-specific work, how Chapel/Chapter was created in a site specific space, and the process of adaptation to "conventional" theaters. Additionally, he may also touch on the just completed A Quarreling Pair.

The intimate CenterStage is the ideal setting for an up-close and person conversation with one of world’s leading artists.

Mr. Jones has created more than 100 works for his own company and has also choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Axis Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and Diversions Dance Company, among others. In 1995, Mr. 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.

Mr. 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. In June 2006, Mr. Jones choreographed Spring Awakening, A New Musical with music by Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik, directed by Michael Mayer.

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 Mr. 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. In 2004, ARTE France and Bel Air Media produced Bill T. Jones’—Solos, directed by Don Kent.

In 1995, Pantheon Books published Mr. Jones’ memoirs, Last Night on Earth. In 1989, Station Hill Press published an in-depth look at the work of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. Hyperion Books published Dance, a children’s book written by Bill T. Jones and photographer Susan Kuklin, in 1998. Mr. Jones is proud to have contributed to Continuous Replay: The Photographs of Arnie Zane, published by MIT Press in 1999.

Bill T. Jones’s interest in new media and digital technology has resulted in two collaborations with the team of Paul Kaiser, Shelley Eshkar and Mark Downey. The first, Ghostcatching - A Virtual Dance Installation, (1999) was produced by and premiered at the Cooper Union in NY. The second, 22 (2004) was the result of a three year development under the auspices of Arizona State University's Institute for Studies In The Arts and Technology in Tempe, AZ, where it premiered.

The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance continues its tradition of offering some the boldest and most vibrant work in the Berkshires. The third season offers more then 70 different events in its three award winning theatres.

Our multiple venues will come alive with professional and student productions of new and classic works of theatre, dance, and music. The inclusive and collaborative spirit that defines the arts at Williams runs through each production. The ‘62 Center’s mission of putting performance into the context of and in the service of scholarly inquiry manifests itself through the integrated programming, open to the public and Williams students alike (see website for latest information), that accompanies each CenterSeries production. These lectures and symposia, films, master classes taught by artists-in-residence, open rehearsals, and other special events connect what happens on the ‘62 Center’s stages to the Williams and surrounding Berkshire community in a unique way. Art at Williams does not exist at a remove from life on campus but as an integral part of it, inviting engagement, debate, and celebration.

Visit our website http://62center.williams.edu Tickets for this event are free.

Contact: Randal Fippinger

’62 Center for Theatre and Dance

(413) 597-4808

rfippinger@williams.edu