[NEohioPAL] Preview of "Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray"

[Bob Abelman]

Dance troupe offers dramatization of Lincoln legacy

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This preview appeared in the Times papers 1/7/10

 

Abraham Lincoln's legacy has been memorialized in marble and on Mount Rushmore.  His life has been chronicled in hundreds of texts, in Mathew Brady's photography and on film.  Now-at the close of the 16th president's bicentennial year-Lincoln is being celebrated in dance.

 

In a groundbreaking work called "Fondly Do We Hope. Fervently Do We Pray," critically acclaimed dance artist Bill T. Jones and his 10-member, Harlem-based Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company reimagines a young Lincoln and attempts to stir complicated emotions about his accomplishments as reflected in contemporary times.

 

 At the heart of this performance piece, which is making its local premiere at the Ohio Theater in PlayhouseSquare on Saturday, January 30, is the question "are we the United States envisioned by this great man?"  

 

"Fondly Do We Hope. Fervently Do We Pray" is dance theater-an energetic configuration of modern dance, dramatic recitation of poetry and prose, video presentation and an original score that draws from European and American concert and folk traditions.

 

"Some people take umbrage with the fact that dance does not seem to be the central mode of expression [in contemporary America]," noted Mr. Jones in a recent interview on the PBS television program Bill Moyers Journal.  "But I'm trying to make this for an internet generation. I'm trying to make it for a generation of people who are much more visual than they are in any way literary. So, yes, dance."

 

"Of all that was done this year to remember Lincoln," suggested commentator Bill Moyers in his Christmas day broadcast, "the most imaginative, daring and provocative is the extraordinary piece of dance and theater created by the choreographer Bill T. Jones."

 

The LA Times felt that a recent performance of the work "barely avoids getting lost in its own effects -- as poetry by Walt Whitman, anonymous spirituals and the sound of Lincoln's legendary ghost train merge with video spectacle, moving scenery and surging group choreography."  However, the production holds its focus "through the talent and dedication of the performers plus Jones' powerful conviction that it takes many stories and many sources to tell Americans who they are and where they've been."

 

The Chicago Tribune noted that "Fondly Do We Hope. Fervently Do We Pray" is not perfect, but it "is not easy to dismiss or, for that matter, to forget."  

 

The production's title comes from a phrase in Lincoln's second inaugural address, spoken as the end of the Civil War was near and just two weeks before he was assassinated. 

 

Mr. Jones won a 2007 Tony Award for his choreography in the hit musical "Spring Awakening," which came through Cleveland this past March.   He is also the recipient of a 2007 Obie Award for his off-Broadway work, a MacArthur Genius Award recipient and was recently named one of America's "Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. 

 

His dance company emerged onto the international scene in 1983. It has since performed in over 200 cities in 30 countries, and is widely recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world.  After its Cleveland engagement, the troupe moves on to Italy and Israel. 

 

Among the cast of dancers is a Cleveland native, Antonio Brown, who began his dance training at the Cleveland School of the Arts. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 2007.

 

Tickets for the one-night, January 30 performance of "Fondly Do We Hope. Fervently Do We Pray," presented by DANCECleveland and Cuyahoga Community College, can be purchased at 216-241-6000 or www.playhousesquare.com.

 

 
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