“HEY JACKSON! This is a huge deal!” says Christa Johnson, of Dancers’ Workshop.
If you’re the slightest bit involved with the arts and dance in our community, you’ve likely heard that renowned choreographer, Bill T. Jones and his company Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is bringing a World Premiere to Jackson! Sure he could have gone to NYC or San Fan or Paris but rather than scour the world, Jones is returning to our quaint, mountain town for the World Premiere of the final installment of his Analogy trilogy, Analogy/Ambros: The Emigrant.
Ever since Jones’ unique encounter with Artistic Director, Babs Case, Dancers’ Workshop has had a special relationship with the iconic artist. Case had always admired Jones’ work, and forever dreamt of bringing him to DW as a guest artist. Her dream finally came true in 2013 when Jones graciously accepted her invitation to Jackson Hole “to create, to build your work”, she said. The one-of-a-kind first meeting between Case and Jones involved a silent unison dance, rather than words (due to Babs inconveniently losing her voice completely!) – the partnership began and DW became a co-commissioner of all three works.
Each work in the trilogy is wildly different from the other, but they all touch on the different types of battles we fight and, in particular, the war within ourselves. The trilogy is “a very big work… like maps of the central nervous system – where an impulse starts in one place and radiates lightning-like to another place,” Jones shared.
[quote]Amanda Flosbach, DW Development Director, says, “This work is important, serious, and worthwhile. It is inspiring that our small community has become a place, a kind of incubator, where this type of work is created and nurtured. When we direct our collective resources toward supporting artists to create their work here, that is extraordinary.” [/quote]
- The trilogy’s creation process began in 2014 when Jones brought Associate Artistic Director, Janet Wong, and his company to Jackson Hole for their first of four extended residencies. Part 1 centered around the character of Dora, a French Jewish nurse during WWII.
- In 2015, they returned to perform the polished work of Analogy/Dora: Tramontane.
- In 2016, the JH community was introduced to “pretty boy gangster thug” Lance in a special preview performance of part 2 of the trilogy, Analogy/Lance: Pretty aka The Escape Artist.
- This summer, meet Ambros, the German manservant to a young Jewish scion, at the onset of WWI in the World Premiere of the trilogy’s final installment, Analogy/Ambros: The Emigrant. The idea for Ambros was inspired by Jones’ re-reading of W.G. Sebald’s celebrated novel, “The Emigrants”.
Dancers’ Workshop is honored to work with and present such a fearless and boundary-pushing artist who is always seeking to create his next masterpiece.
Stay tuned for more about the WORLD PREMIERE of Analogy/Ambros: The Emigrant, premiering in Jackson Hole on July 21 & 22. Click here to learn more or purchase tickets.
