Bill T. Jones News

Be prepared for something very different from the typical musicals in Olney's historic 75th year history.

ODC presents Dance and Diaspora, featuring work by belly dance artist Jill Parker and Afro-Brazilian dance artist Tania Santiago. This double bill, a high-energy celebration of live music and the cultural diversity within San Francisco's dance scene, runs from tonight to Saturday, February 22 to 23, 2013.

Innovative composer and violinist Daniel Roumain comes to Emory's Schwartz Center for Performing Arts today, Feb. 22 for residency activities and a concert. The classically trained musician crosses genres and cultures; and is perhaps the only artist whose collaborations span the worlds of Philip Glass, Cassandra Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Savion Glover and Lady Gaga.

Celebrating their 25th Anniversary season, the Orion String Quartet joins the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company for a highly anticipated two-week engagement at The Joyce Theater from March 26th-April 7th.

As first reported on Showbiz411, Academy Award-winning actor Robert DeNiro is set to direct a musical stage production of A BRONX TALE, a film he helmed back in 1993.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The next seven national tours to hit the Windy City (SEVEN!--and all before April), plus 'Fiddler On The Roof' at the Paramount, 'Barnum' at the Mercury, Ricky Ian Gordon at Northwestern and a twofer from the Mueller family!

Producers Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith and Ruth & Stephen Hendel have announced that Grammy Award-winning recording artist and former member of Destiny's Child Michelle Williams will play the role of Sandra Isadore, activist and love interest to Fela Kuti in the national tour of the hit Award-winning Broadway musical Fela!, coming to Cleveland for three performances ONLY at PlayhouseSquare's Palace Theatre, April 2-4, 2013. Tickets are on sale now!

Haitian singer Emeline Michel celebrates the release of her latest CD, Quintessence, which has been five years in the making, with a glorious display of Creole soul March 8 and 9 at Harlem Stage. Two Haitian writers of note featured on the new recording will perform alongside Michel: novelist Edwidge Danticat and legendary storyteller Jean-Claude Martineau will read their poetry and recite stories about the power of their nation's spirit, backed by a 12-piece band. Classically-trained Haitian tenor James Germain also shares the spotlight, displaying fresh and unexpected aspects of Haiti's diverse culture.

Serendipity or divine will brought Adesola Osakalumi to the role of Fela. Adesola's father owned a record label and a record store in the Bronx. Fela Kuti, the Nigerian multi-instrumental musician and human rights activist would come into the store. As a child, Adesola met him two times, observing the soul of the man. Now as an adult, Adesola is unfolding Fela's music, beliefs and life story.

From March 7-17, 2013, Houston Ballet will present The Rite of Spring, a program of premieres featuring three exciting 21st century choreographers and honoring the centenary of the premiere of Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky's landmark work. The company will unveil the world premiere of Stanton Welch's The Rite of Spring. A world premiere by internationally renowned choreographer Edwaard Liang to music by the Italian composer Ezio Bosso and a Houston Ballet premiere of Mark Morris's Pacific round out the program.

Jacob's Pillow Dance and MASS MoCA co-present world-renowned contemporary ballet ensemble Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal March 2-3 at MASS MoCA's Hunter Center for the Performing Arts. The Montreal-based dance company blends a variety of dance styles, influences, and music in three diverse works by prominent, international choreographers: Wen Wei Wang of Canada, Spain's Cayetano Soto, and Israeli-American dancemaker Barak Marshall. This co-presentation coincides with the final month of MASS MoCA's Oh, Canada exhibit, the largest survey of Canadian contemporary art ever produced outside of Canada.

Northrop at the University of Minnesota received a $50,000 Joyce Foundation Award to commission Emily Johnson's SHORE, set to premiere in June of 2014, soon after the grand re-opening of Northrop.

Russia's profound and far-reaching impact on 20th-century culture will be explored at the 2013 annual Bard SummerScape festival, which once again offers an extraordinary summer of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret, keyed to the theme of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival, Stravinsky and His World. Presented in the striking Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College's bucolic Hudson River campus, the seven-week festival opens on July 6 with the first of two performances of A Rite (2013) by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company, and closes on August 18 with a party in Bard's beloved Spiegeltent, which returns for the full seven weeks. Complementing the Bard Music Festival's exploration of “Stravinsky and His World,” some of the great Russian-born composer's most captivating compatriots provide key SummerScape highlights. These include the first fully-staged American production of Sergey Taneyev's opera Oresteia; the world premiere of an original stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's seminal novel The Master and Margarita; and a film festival titled “Between Traditions: Stravinsky's Legacy and Russian Emigré Cinema.” Together, SummerScape's offerings will continue Bard's yearlong tenth-anniversary celebrations for the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, which commence with a month of special performances in April.

Due to production and timing complications, Opera New Jersey and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra have cancelled the February 1 and February 8, 2013, performances of La traviata at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, respectively.

Former member of Destiny's Child Michelle Williams joined the national tour of the hit Award-winning Broadway musical Fela! when it opened at Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, DC on January 29. Fela! received three 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Choreography. Williams and the rest of the cast met the press just last week, and you can check out what they had to say below!

New York Live Arts' Executive Artistic Director, Bill T. Jones, today announced the creation of Live Ideas, the latest program initiative for the Chelsea-based organization that has become an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry and artists actively engaged with the political, intellectual and cultural currents of our times. Taking place each spring, Live Ideas will concentrate on a different theme, explored through conversation and artistic presentations over several days. The inaugural festival, taking place Wednesday, April 17th through Sunday, April 21st, 2013 at New York Live Arts is themed The Worlds of Oliver Sacks.

Innovative composer and violinist Daniel Roumain comes to Emory's Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on Friday, Feb. 22 for residency activities and a concert. The classically trained musician crosses genres and cultures; and is perhaps the only artist whose collaborations span the worlds of Philip Glass, Cassandra Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Savion Glover and Lady Gaga.

Sean Curran opened at The Joyce this week to a captivated audience.

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, presents the Third Annual Winning Works: Choreographers of Color Award, featuring three World Premieres by rising-star choreographers Ma Cong, William McClellan and Jeremy McQueen. New York-based fashion designer LaQuan Smith will conceptualize and design a costume for McQueen's piece. The three World Premieres, along with Academy Co-Artistic Director Alexei Kremnev's work titled Carnival of Animals, are presented in Winning Works: Choreographers of Color Award 2013 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive, in one performance only, Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 4 pm.

According to BroadwayGirlNYC, SUPER FLY, the musical based on the 1972 film directed by Gordon Parks, is coming to Broadway in late 2013. The Mottola Group and The Dodgers Developmental Lab held a developmental workshop for the show last Spring. Bill T. Jones, who also helmed the workshop, will direct and choreograph, as Tommy Mottola just announced on the Howard Stern Show.