T. Jones News

The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) joins the worldwide celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birthday with its presentation of Trois Grandes Fugues, featuring three interpretations of the composer's complex a?oeGrosse Fugea?? from a trio of trailblazing female choreographers a?" Lucinda Childs, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Maguy Marin a?" danced by Lyon Opera Ballet. The engagement will play The Joyce Theater from March 18-22. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

Sarah Mettin has been named Artistic Associate of Metropolitan Ballet Company in Jenkintown, PA.

Bard SummerScape's 17th edition celebrates one of the most important female figures in classical music history, with seven weeks of music, opera, theater, dance, film and the SummerScape Spiegeltent, centered around the 31st Bard Music Festival, 'Nadia Boulanger and Her World.'

Boston Ballet's rEVOLUTION: Dance on the Edge features three works by pivotal choreographers which stretch the label 'contemporary' to its breaking point. The three pieces, which all premiered between 1957-1987 may trace through the timeline of progress for commercial ballet in America, but I question if anything a ballet company can do could live up to the streamlined, techno aesthetic toted by their marketing team. The title, with its radical use of capitalization, cuts through the smooth blackness on the cover of the program above a photograph of two dancers in an acrobatic pose in green leotards. Inside the booklet, a geometrically conceived sketch of a dancer invites us to an event called 'Turning Pointe' where we can engage with a?oeleading innovators in the arts, sciences, and industry who are building the future in Boston.a?? Another page announces Boston Ballet's upcoming collaboration with Stephen Galloway, the creative movement director for the Rolling Stones, promising to a?oeshatter expectations of what ballet can bea??. 

The Apollo Theater announced today its first multi-work commissioning initiative dedicated to the creation of a diverse, 21st century American performing arts canon, Apollo New Works. Made possible with the support of a $2 million grant from the Ford Foundation for the creation of new work by artists of color, the initiative is also funded by a $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the Apollo's Master Artist in Residency, a central component of the program.

Eight new half-hour episodes of Poetry in America will begin airing on public television stations nationwide (check local listings) and on the World Channel starting this April and continuing through the spring and summer. Also in April, which is National Poetry Month, the series will be available to stream on pbs.org and individual episodes will be available on poetryinamerica.org.

New York Live Arts' (Live Arts) Live Feed creative residency and commissioning program presents the world premiere of light and desire, a new evening-length work by the NYC-based dancemaker and professor Colleen Thomas, featuring an ensemble of acclaimed international female performers and artmakers. The piece - anchored by a short film by the award-winning filmmaker Carla Forte - looks at how women artists cope under unjust and manipulative power structures. light and desire will be presented at New York Live Arts Studio (219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011) from Wednesday, March 25th through Saturday, March 28th; all performances at 7:30 pm.

Multi-genre musical experience We Shall Overcome comes to Pepperdine University at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, 2020 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.

Queer|Art, New York City's home for the creative and professional development of LGBTQ+ artists, is pleased to announce the winner of the second annual Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant For Queer Women(+) Dance Artists, Hollerin Space. Philadelphia-based duo Hollerin Space will receive a $10,000 cash grant to support the development of Hold On, a new work that researches algorithms of black assembly and theories and practices of being free. This particular work traces black gathering and migrations in the broad period between 1919 and into some optimistic future. Development of this work will include study and enactment of the Juneteenth tradition of call, drum & step as part of the group's training for the premiere of an ensemble production set for 2020 in Philadelphia. The ensemble will convene for 10 workshops over a 9 month period, centering research and world building, at House of Black Infinity located in Philadelphia.

ODC Theater will present Kinetech Arts in the world premiere of AI SENSORIUM, a multidisciplinary investigation of the powers and pitfalls of artificial intelligence (AI). Performances run February 21 - 23, Friday to Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 - $30, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834.

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance will return to NYC February 25 and 26, 2020 with the premiere of Tales of Hopper (2019), a new theater-dance work inspired by American realist painter Edward Hopper. Performances will take place at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018 at 7:30pm. Tickets available at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4418307.

Producers Brennan T. Jones and Danielle Demisay have announced the first New York presentation of Grace McLeod's acclaimed New Play, Herland, directed by James Fleming. Herland is cast by Hano Casting.

The Atlanta Opera will launch the new year with a new mainstage production of Salome, Richard Strauss's still unsettling 1905 take on Oscar Wilde's twisted biblical tale of incest, seduction and power (Jan 25, 28, 31; Feb 2).

As 2020 approaches, a new appreciation of male virtuosity demands consideration. Possibilities for dancers have exploded over the last decade as extreme stretching and acrobatics have come into vogue, though not always for the best. While circus tricks and random moments now seem to rule the stage, not all 'innovation' has been destructive for men. Where once trying to play it straight was the norm, this generation of performers gives zero f*x for anything other than staying true to their artistry and health.

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.

Chicago's own Trinity Irish Dance Company (TIDC) returns to the Auditorium Theatre's landmark stage on Saturday, February 29, 2020, following its lauded 2019 performance at the theatre.

Renowned violinist/composer Daniel Bernard Roumain collaborates with local music makers in a concert infused with electronic, urban, and classical sounds, celebrating a worldview of civil rights for all.

Jacob's Pillow announces public events held January through May in its Winter/Spring season, featuring co-presentations with local cultural partners; Pillow Parties; workshops and classes; Pillow Pop-Ups; and more. Events take place January through May on the Pillow's 220-acre campus in Becket, MA and across Berkshire County. As the Pillow continues to advance its five year strategic plan, Vision '22, the organization increasingly activates its local and national presence by expanding programming and extending resources beyond its acclaimed summer dance festival.

Theodora Skipitares has achieved renown for her large-scale puppetry epics on such topics as physics, genetics and medicine. An early American giant of science is the subject of her latest multi-media spectacle, 'The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker.' It celebrates the life of the free black man who, living in Maryland from 1731 to 1806, became one of his era's most outstanding engineers and astronomers. La MaMa will present the world premiere of the piece January 23 to February 2 in its Ellen Stewart Theatre, at 66 East Fourth Street.

On its final original telecast of the year, ABC's “The Rookie” improved by 9% week to week among Adults 18-49 (1.2/6 vs. 1.1/5) to match its season high and grew for its 2nd straight telecast in Total Viewers (+7% - 7.2 million vs. 6.7 million) to attract its biggest audience since its season premiere—since 9/29/19.