This is the most ambitious work to date in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s 25 year history.  We are making a work about Abraham Lincoln.  It premiered on September 17, 2009 at the Ravinia Festival.  But why dance?  It would be much easier to do a play about the man.  Therein lies the challenge.  What do we want to say about Lincoln? We do not want this be a history lesson.  How do we talk about the hot button issue of the day, slavery?  How do we present the war.  More than 600,000 men died. How do we reconcile 19th century language with movement and how can our modern ears grasp the ideas behind those words?  And what about Mary Todd?  And how is he reflected in us?  The piece has to be ultimately about us.

in the DIARY you can follow the development of this piece as we work towards the premiere and how it changes when we take it on the road.  Check out the ideas behind DESIGN and MUSIC.  Find out about the little things that happen on the side in SIDELINE.  But more importantly, come and see the work somewhere.