Holly Maples (Brunel University):

Wednesday, 03 December 2014, 4 PM - 5:30 PM (GMT)

"Brother Abraham: Performing Experimental Democracy in Bill T. Jones’ Lincoln Project".

During the 2009 Bicentenary of Abraham Lincoln, Ravinia Music Festival commissioned a series of African American artists to explore contemporary American culture through a tribute to the former U.S. President. Dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones was one of the artists selected. Over a period of two years, Jones researched and developed a series of performances on Lincoln which fuse the present and the past through their exploration of race, the subjugation of humanity and an increasingly polarized union. The Bill T. Jones/Ernie Zane company is a group of multi-racial, multi-ethnic modern dance artists who explore issues of race, collective identity, sexuality and the American Experience. By combining abstract modern dance with text from Lincoln’s own “biblical” and “Shakespearean” language, the project aims to interrogate issues of human rights, the role of the president in America today, the legacy of slavery, responsible citizenship and “American exceptionalism.” 

Performance   Research Seminar Coordinator: Johannes Birringer@brunel.ac.uk

All Research Seminars are co-produced with dance-tech live TV and streamed online as well as archived.:  DAPLab.TV:  http://dance-tech.tv/videos/daplabtv/