Pat and I are off on a one day jaunt to the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago today for the world premiere of Bill T. Jones’ new work Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray.  The work was commissioned by Ravinia to celebrate the Bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.  Could we have waited until it comes to New York for the Lincoln Center Festival next summer?  Sure.  But Bill has been family to us at Harlem Stage for over 15 years and how could we not be there as he unveils the most ambitious and challenging work of his career?

We saw a brief sketch of the work last January and were enticed by its potential.  It will be thrilling to see the finished work in such a wonderful setting.  And it will be rich again to see it in New York after it has lived in its skin for a year.  Performance works have a way of evolving, and when one takes the opportunity to follow them in development – and perhaps see them more than once in the life of the performance – they take on rich new dimensions.

I marvel at Bill as I look at the sheer volume of work he has his hands in – and every other part of himself – at a given time.  But we’re all richer for his great ambition and creative drive.  Right after he launches this he comes back to New York to get his fabulous FELA! on Broadway for a November opening – another great work of a very different sort of cultural icon.

We’ll give you a full report when we return.   -Brad

To learn more about Bill and his work, check out the company website at www.billtjones.org.

And you can read about Bill’s  Lincoln piece in a recent New York Times story here.

Posted on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 10:13 pm in Dance.