World Premiere From Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Announced At The Center For The Arts

The Center for the Arts at George Mason University welcomes the return of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company with a thrilling world premiere co-commissioned by the Center, entitled What Problem? Saturday, February 1 at 8 p.m.

Conceived and directed by Bill T. Jones-and featuring choreography by Jones with Janet Wong and the Company-What Problem? provokes the tension between belonging to a community and feelings of isolation during these divisive political times. It is set to spoken word and original live music by Nick Hallett and sung by the Mason University Singers.

The performance includes three thought-provoking sections: Jones in solo performance; Jones alongside members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; and, in conclusion, Jones and the company onstage with 30 participants from the greater Northern Virginia community-who will have spent that week together in the final stages of the creative process.

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company dancers joining Jones in What Problem? include J. Bouey; Vinson Fraley, Jr.; Barrington Hinds; Chanel Howard; Dean Husted; Shane Larson; s. lumbert; Marie Lloyd Paspe; Nayaa Opong; and Huiwang Zhang.

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is the second of the Center for the Arts' inaugural cohort of Mason Artists-in-Residence, a new initiative serving the mission of the Center and the College of Visual and Performing Arts to make the arts an intrinsic part of the lives of every Mason student and Northern Virginia resident.

The Company's weeklong residency will include critical technical rehearsal time for the premiere of What Problem?; hours with the participating community members and with the Mason University Singers; three masterclasses with the Mason School of Dance; a masterclass with Fairfax County Public Schools' Fairfax Academy dance students; multiple Mason classroom visits by members of the Company across academic disciplines; as well as collaborations with on-campus student groups.

In addition, the residency will also include Town Hall with Bill T. Jones: A Conversation on Community, Identity, and Art at Old Town Hall (3999 University Dr, Fairfax, VA), Wednesday January 29 at 7:30pm. Additional details including Guest panelists and topics, will be announced at a later date. The event is FREE but reservations are requested here.

Creative Team: conceived and directed by Bill T. Jones; choreography by Bill T. Jones with Janet Wong and the Company; original composition by Nick Hallett and produced by HPrizm aka High Priest; Lighting Design by Robert Wierzel; Sound Design by Samuel Crawford; Costume Design by Liz Prince; Text by Bill T. Jones and Mark Hairston featuring text excerpts from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream Speech and Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

Lauded as a groundbreaking leader in modern dance, Bill T. Jones is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, MacArthur Genius Award, Kennedy Center Honors Award, and multiple Tony Awards. For more than 35 years, the landmark Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company has revolutionized modern dance while exploring issues of identity through social commentary. Founded as a multicultural dance company in 1982, the company was born of an 11-year artistic collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948-1988). Today, the company is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world.

Tickets to What Problem? are $48, $41, $29. The Center for the Arts is located at 4373 Mason Pond Drive in Fairfax, VA. Tickets are available for purchase in person at the Center for the Arts Ticket Office (open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), by calling 703-993-2787, or through the Center for the Arts' website.

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