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i n v i t a t i o n ::
The Center for Contemporary & Digital Performance at Brunel University is pleased to invite you to:
PERFORMANCE RESEARCH SEMINAR
Wednesday, 03 December 2014, 4 PM - 5:30 PM
Drama Studio, Gaskell Building GASK 048, Brunel University, Cleveland Rd, Uxbridge UB8 3PH
Holly Maples (Brunel University)
"Brother Abraham: Performing Experimental Democracy in Bill T. Jones' Lincoln Project"
During the 2009 Bicentenary of Abraham Lincoln, Ravinia Music Festival commissioned a series of African American artists to explore contemporary American culture through a tribute to the former U.S. President. Dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones was one of the artists selected. Over a period of two years, Jones researched and developed a series of performances on Lincoln which fuse the present and the past through their exploration of race, the subjugation of humanity and an increasingly polarized union. The Bill T. Jones/Ernie Zane company is a group of multi-racial, multi-ethnic modern dance artists who explore issues of race, collective identity, sexuality and the American Experience. By combining abstract modern dance with text from Lincoln’s own “biblical” and “Shakespearean” language, the project aims to interrogate issues of human rights, the role of the president in America today, the legacy of slavery, responsible citizenship and “American exceptionalism.” By exploring Lincoln’s legacy in the United States and the traumatic legacy of slavery on contemporary culture, Ravinia Music Festival hopes to challenge national audiences to examine their own place in Lincoln’s legacy through experimental art practice. This paper argues that Jones/Zane Dance Company’s Lincoln project is in itself an act of embodied “experimental democracy,” encouraging Americans to continue their work towards redemption and collective healing as a nation.
Holly Maples is a Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University. Both a theatre practitioner and a scholar, she has directed productions in the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and has a Ph.D. in Drama from Trinity College Dublin. Her research examines the performance of collective identity in times of social change. Her book, Culture War: Conflict, Commemoration and the Contemporary Abbey Theatre, was published in the Reimagining Ireland series (PeterLang).
ALL WELCOME
Performance Research Seminar Coordinator: Johannes [log in to unmask]
All Research Seminars are co-produced with dance-tech live TV and streamed online as well as archived.: DAPLab.TV: http://dance-tech.tv/videos/daplabtv/
check our whole series at: http://people.brunel.ac.uk/dap/boiler15.html
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