F O N D LY D O W E H O P E …
F E R V E N T LY D O W E P R A Y
B I L L T. J O N E S / A R N I E Z A N E D A N C E C O M PA N Y
TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE
2009 - 2010
UMS 09-10
1
SUPPORTERS
Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs
University of Michigan
Anonymous
Arts at Michigan
Arts Midwest’s Performing Arts Fund
Bank of Ann Arbor
Bustan al-Funun Foundation for Arab Arts
The Dan Cameron Family Foundation/Alan and Swanna Saltiel
Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
DTE Energy Foundation
The Esperance Family Foundation
David and Phyllis Herzig Endowment Fund
Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
JazzNet Endowment
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Masco Corporation Foundation
Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C.
THE MOSAIC FOUNDATION (of R. and P. Heydon)
The Mosaic Foundation [Washington, DC]
National Dance Project of the New England Foundation
for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
Prudence and Amnon Rosenthal K-12 Education
Endowment Fund
Rick and Sue Snyder
Target
TCF Bank
UMS Advisory Committee
University of Michigan Credit Union
University of Michigan Health System
U-M Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
U-M Office of the Vice President for Research
Wallace Endowment Fund
2
UMS 09-10
This performance is funded in part by the
MetLife Community Connections Fund of the
National Dance Project, a program administered by
the New England Foundation for the Arts; Arts
Midwest’s Performing Arts Fund; and the National
Endowment for the Arts as part of American
Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.
This Teacher Resource Guide is a product of the UMS
Youth Education Program. Researched and written
by Liz Stover.
Special thanks to the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance
Company, Leah Cox, Omari Rush, and Savitski Design
for their contributions, feedback, and support in
developing this guide.
F O N D LY D O W E H O P E …
F E R V E N T LY D O W E P R A Y
B I L L T. J O N E S / A R N I E Z A N E D A N C E C O M PA N Y
BILL T. JONES
artistic director
FRIDAY
JANUARY 2 2
2010
4-6 PM
POWER CENTER
Bill T. Jones at Lincoln Library , Photo: Russell Jenkins, courtesy of Ravinia Festival
TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE
2009 - 2010
U M S Y O U T H E D U C AT I O N P R O G R A M
UMS 09-10
3
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Short on time?
If you only have 15 minutes to review this guide, just read the sections in black in the Table of Contents.
Those pages will provide the most important information about this performance.
ATTENDING THE PERFORMANCE
6 Attending the Show
8 Map + Directions
9 The Power Center
25 Artistic Elements of
FDWH…FDWP
26 The Set
28 The Costumes
BILL T. JONES/
ARNIE ZANE DANCE CO.
11 Company History
12 Who are Bill T. Jones and
Arnie Zane?
14 Meet the Dancers
16 Behind the Scenes
18 Artistic Influence
THEMES + IDEAS
31 Abraham Lincoln
33 Mary Todd Lincoln
35 The Civil War: A Timeline
38 The Second Inaugural Address ABOUT UMS
+ Text Exploration
58 What is UMS?
59 Youth Education Program
ABOUT DANCE
60 How to Contact UMS?
41 Elements of Dance
43 Elements of Movement
44 Vocabulary of Dance
FONDLY DO WE HOPE...
FERVENTLY DO WE PRAY
21 The Work
22 An Essay
4
UMS 09-10
LESSON PLANS
47 Preparing for the Performance
48 Practicing Observation
50 Making a Photograph
Come Alive
52 Performance Notes
54 More Resources
56 Bibliography
AT T E N D I N G T H E P E R F O R M A N C E
UMS 09-10
Photo: Paul B. Goode
5
D E TA I L S
AT T E N D I N G T H E S H O W
We want you to enjoy your time with UMS!
PLEASE review the important information below about attending the Youth Performance:
TICKETS
TICKETS We do not use paper tickets
DOOR ENTRY A UMS Youth Performance
DURING THE PERFORMANCE At the
for Youth Performances. We hold school
staff person will greet your group at your
start of the performance, the lights well
reservations at the door and seat groups
bus as you unload. You will enter through
dim and an onstage UMS staff member
upon arrival.
the front doors of the Power Center,
will welcome you to the performance and
which faces Fletcher Street.
provide important logistical information. If
you have any questions, concerns, or complaints (for instance, about your comfort or
ARRIVAL TIME Please arrive at the Power
USHER
the behavior of surrounding groups) please
IMMEDIATELY report the situation to an
usher or staff memer in the lobby.
Center between 3:30-3:50pm to allow you
time to get seated and comfortable before
SEATING & USHERS When you arrive at
the show starts.
the front doors, tell the Head Usher at the
door the name of your school group and
he/she will have ushers escort you to your
block of seats. All UMS Youth Performance
PERFORMANCE LENGTH 90 minutes
ushers wear large, black laminated badges
with no intermission
with their names in white letters.
DROP OFF Have buses, vans, or cars drop
off students on Fletcher Street in front of
the Power Center. If there is no space in
the drop off zone, circle the block until
AFTER THE PERFORMANCE When the
space becomes available. Cars may park
performance ends, remain seated. A UMS
at curbside metered spots or in the visitor
parking lot behind the power Center.
BEFORE THE START Please allow the
staff member will come to the stage and
Buses should wait/park at Briarwood Mall.
usher to seat individuals in your group in
release each group individually based on
the order that they arrive in the theater.
the location of your seats.
Once everyone is seated you may then
rearrange yourselves and escort students
to the bathrooms before the performance
starts. PLEASE spread the adults throughout the group of students.
6
UMS 09-10
BUS PICK UP When your group is re-
SENDING FEEDBACK We LOVE feed-
ACCESSIBILITY The following services are
leased, please exit the performance hall
back from students, so after the perfor-
available to audience members:
through the same door you entered. A
mance please send us any letters, artwork,
• Wheelchair, companion, or other
UMS Youth Performance staff member will
or academic papers that your students
be outside to direct you to your bus.
create in response to the performance:
• Courtesy wheelchairs
UMS Youth Education Program, 881 N.
• Hearing Impaired Support Systems
AAPS
University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011.
PARKING There is handicapped parking
very close to the Power Center on Fletcher
Street and in the parking structure behind
AAPS EDUCATORS You will likely not
the Power Center on Palmer Drive. The
get on the bus you arrived on; a UMS staff
first three levels of the Palmer Drive struc-
member or AAPS Transportation Staf person will put you on the first available bus.
special seating
ture have 5 parking spots on each level
NO FOOD No Food or drink is allowed in
next to each elevator. There are a total of
the theater.
15 parking spaces in the garage.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY The
Power Center is wheelchair accessible and
has 12 seats for audience members with
LOST STUDENTS A small army of volunteers staff Youth Performances and will be
PATIENCE Thank you in adavance for
ready to help or direct lost and wandering
your patience; in 20 minutes we aim to get
students.
1,300 people from buses into seats and
will work as efficiently as possible to make
that happen.
special needs.
BATHROOMS ADA compliant toilets are
available in the green room (east corner)
of the Power Center for both men and
women.
ENTRY The front doors are not powered,
LOST ITEMS If someone in your group
however, there will be an usher at that
loses an item at the performance, contact
door opening it for all patrons.
the UMS Youth Education Program ([email protected]) to attempt to help
recover the item.
UMS 09-10
7
E. H U R ON S T
D RO P - O FF Z O N E
S TAT E S T
RA C KHA M
P OWER
PA L M ER D R IVE
PA R K
drop-off zone.
WA S H TEN AW AVEN U E
a spot is free in the
F L ETC H ER S T
TH AYER S T
Circle this block until
E . LIB ERTY ST
HIL L
M A L L PA R KIN G &
WILLIA M ST
N . U N IVER S ITY AVEN U E
CHURCH ST
MAP + DIRECTIONS
This map, with driving directions to the Power Center, will
be mailed to all attending educators three weeks before the performance.
MAP
8
UMS 09-10
VENUE
THE POWER CENTER
THE POWER CENTER for the Performing
was built to supply this missing link in
a new theater, realizing that state and
Arts grew out of a realization that the
design and seating capacity.
federal governments were unlikely to
University of Michigan had no adequate
provide financial support for the con-
proscenium-stage theater for the per-
In 1963, Eugene and Sadye Power,
forming arts. Hill Auditorium was too
together with their son Philip, wished to
struction of a theater.
massive and technically limited for most
make a major gift to the University. The
Opening in 1971, the Power Center
productions and the Lydia Mendelssohn
Powers were immediately interested in
achieved the seemingly contradictory
Theatre was too small. The Power Center
supporting the University’s desire to build
combination of providing a soaring
interior space with a unique level of
intimacy. Architectural features include
two large spiral staircases leading from
the orchestra level to the balcony and
the well known mirrored glass panels
on the exterior. The lobby of the Power
Center presently features two hand-woven tapestries: Modern Tapestry by Roy
Lichtenstein and Volutes (Arabesque) by
Pablo Picasso.
The Power Center seats approximately
1,300 people.
POWER CENTER
121 Fletcher St
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Emergency Contact
Number:
(734) 764-2538
(Call this number to reach a UMS staff person or
audience member at the performance.)
University of Michigan, Power Center
UMS 09-10
9
B I L L T. J O N E S / A R N I E Z A N E
D A N C E C O M PA N Y
10
UMS 09-10
Photo: Paul B. Goode
ABOUT
C O M PA N Y H I S T O R Y
THE BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE
The company has distinguished itself
In 2007, Ravinia Festival in Highland Park,
DANCE COMPANY is currently celebrat-
through its teaching and performing
Ill commissioned the company to create a
ing its 25th anniversary season. The
in various universities, festivals, and
work to honor the bicentennial of Abra-
company was founded after 11 years of
under the aegis of government agen-
ham Lincoln’s birth. The company created
collaboration during which Bill T. Jones
cies such as the US Information Agency
three new productions in response: 100
and Arnie Zane (1948–1988) redefined
(in Eastern Europe, Asia and South East
Migrations (2008), a site-specific commu-
the duet form and foreshadowed issues
Asia). Audiences of approximately 50,000
nity performance project; Serenade/The
of identity, form, and social commentary
to 100,000 annually see the company
Proposition (2008), examining the nature
that would change the face of American
across the country and around the world.
of history; and Fondly Do We Hope…
dance. The company emerged onto the
The work of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane
Fervently Do We Pray (2009), the making
international scene in 1983 with the
Dance Company freely explores both
of which is the subject of a feature-
world première of Intuitive Momentum,
musically driven works and works using
length documentary by Kartemquin Films
which featured legendary drummer Max
a wide variety of texts (such as Reading,
entitled A Good Man, to be broadcast on
Roach, at the Brooklyn Academy of Mu-
Mercy, and the Artificial Nigger based on
PBS American Masters in 2011.
sic. Since then, the 10-member company
Flannery O’Connor’s 1955 short story,
has performed worldwide in over 200
The Artificial Nigger). The repertoire is
cities in 30 countries including Australia,
widely varied in its subject matter, visual
Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ger-
imagery, and stylistic approach to move-
many, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
ment, voice, and stagecraft. The company
South Africa, and the UK. Today, the
has been acknowledged for its intensely
Harlem-based company is recognized as
collaborative method of creation that has
one of the most innovative and powerful
included artists as diverse as Keith Haring,
forces in the modern dance world.
The Orion String Quartet, the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, Cassandra Wilson, Fado singer Misia, Jazz pianist
Fred Hersch, Ross Bleckner, Jenny Holzer,
Robert Longo, Julius Hemphill, and
Peteris Vasks. The collaborations of the
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
with visual artists were the subject of Art
Performs Life (1998), a groundbreaking
exhibition at the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, Minn.
UMS 09-10
11
PEOPLE
W H O A R E B I L L T. J O N E S +
ARNIE ZANE?
BILL T. JONES is the Artistic Director
of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance
Company (BTJ/AZDC). Born in Florida in
1952, he was the tenth of 12 children.
His parents were farm workers. At age
three, his family moved to Wayland in
upstate New York. He became interested
in movement and dance while attending
college at Binghamton University in the
1970s, where he took classes in ballet
and modern dance. It was there that he
met Arnie Zane, a photographer, choreographer, and dancer.
Together, Jones and Zane created dances
that drew on their physical contrasts:
Jones black, tall, and fluid, and Zane
white, short, and jagged. In 1978, they
Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane in Rotary Action (1982)
Photo: Lois Greenfield, courtesy of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
moved to New York City, and in 1982
they founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane
the company and has choreographed for
individuals who “show exceptional merit
Dance Company, which they directed
many other dance companies. He has
and promise for continued and enhanced
together until Arnie Zane’s death of an
won many awards, including the 1994
creative work.” He won the Tony Award
illness related to AIDS in 1988. Jones has
MacArthur Genius Award, which awards
in 2007 for “Best Choreography” for the
since created more than 100 works for
a large sum of money to American
musical Spring Awakening.
12
UMS 09-10
“I danced because I FELL IN LOVE WITH MY SWEAT.
But I wanted a type of sweat that was not the sweat
of the athletic field or the locker room.
I wanted a POETIC SWEAT.
I didn’t know what that was.
I was nineteen. I wanted to be great;
I wanted to be BEAUTIFUL; I wanted to be loved.
And I LOVED what my body would say to me
when I was dancing.”
- Bill T. Jones, from Speaking of Dance
ANTONIO BROWN
PETER CHAMBERLIN
S H AY L A - V I E J E N K I N S
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Antonio Brown is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He
Peter Chamberlin, born in Augusta, Maine,
Shayla-Vie Jenkins, originally from Ewing,
began his dance training at the Cleveland School
trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts
New Jersey, began her dance training at the
of the Arts and received his BFA from The Juil-
and BalletMet of Columbus, Ohio, and graduat-
Watson Johnson Dance Theater and the Mer-
liard School in 2007 under the direction of Law-
ed from SUNY Purchase in 2007. Mr. Chamberlin
cer County Performing Arts School. In 2004,
rence Rhodes. Mr. Brown has been a member of
continues his movement exploration under the
she graduated with honors from Fordham
the Company since 2007 and is grateful to share
tutelage of Barbara Mahler and enjoys choreo-
University. In 2008, she was featured in Dance
his gifts and talents with the world.
graphing whenever he gets the chance. Mr.
Magazine’s “On The Rise”. Ms. Jenkins joined
Chamberlin joined BTJ/AZDC in 2007.
BTJ/AZDC in 2005.
ASLI BULBUL
TA L L I J A C K S O N
LaMICHAEL LEONARD, JR.
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Asli Bulbul is from Istanbul, Turkey. In 1997,
Talli Jackson was born and raised in Lib-
LaMichael Leonard, Jr. graduated from the
upon graduation from Mimar Sinan State Con-
erty, N.Y. He received his first training with
New World School of the Arts in Miami,
servatory, she moved to New York where she
Livia Vanaver at the Vanaver Caravan Dance
Florida. He joined the Martha Graham Dance
worked with various choreographers including
Institute in upstate New York. He received full
Company and danced lead roles touring
Joanna Mendl Shaw and Guido Tuveri. Ms.
scholarships from the American Dance Festival
nationally and internationally. He most recently
Bulbul joined BTJ/AZDC in 2001.
in 2006 and 2008, the Bates Dance Festival,
danced with the Buglisi Dance Theatre. Mr.
and the Ailey School. Mr. Jackson joined BTJ/
Leonard joined BTJ/AZDC in 2007.
AZDC in 2009.
MEET THE DANCERS
PEOPLE
14
UMS 09-10
I-LING LIU
ERICK MONTES
Dancer
Dancer
I-Ling Liu, a native of Taiwan, received her
Erick Montes, originally from Mexico City,
BFA from Taipei National University of the Arts
trained at the National School of Classical
in 2005. Ms. Liu joined BTJ/AZDC as an ap-
and Contemporary Dance. In 2002, he col-
prentice in 2007 and became a member of the
laborated with Stephen Petronio on projects
Company in 2008.
for Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Queens
Theatre in the Park. Mr. Montes joined BTJ/
AZDC in 2003.
PA U L M AT T E S O N
JENNIFER NUGENT
Dancer
Dancer
Paul Matteson, originally from Cumberland,
Jennifer Nugent is originally from Miami,
Maine, has received undergraduate and
Florida. She enjoys creating dances and col-
graduate degrees from Middlebury and Ben-
laborating with Paul Matteson. Ms. Nugent
nington Colleges, respectively. Mr. Matteson
joined BTJ/AZDC in August 2009. joined BTJ/AZDC in 2008.
W H AT T O W AT C H F O R :
Who do some of the dancers represent
throughout the performance?
Do these representations ever change, or do they stay the same?
UMS 09-10
15
PEOPLE
BEHIND THE SCENES
Get to know the people who make the show happen!
BJORN G. AMELAN
LAURA BICKFORD
L I N D S AY J O N E S
Sculptor/Creative Director/Set Designer
Lighting Super visor
Sound Designer
Bjorn G. Amelan was the partner of fashion
Laura Bickford grew up in New York City and
Lindsay Jones has been involved in sound de-
designer Patrick Kelly from 1983 until his pass-
studied at the Performing Arts High School,
sign nationally and internationally. He has also
ing in 1990. He began collaborating with BTJ/
Feld Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet. She gradu-
worked internationally in Austria, Zimbabwe,
AZDC in 1993. As the company’s resident set
ated from Smith College with a Bachelor of
South Africa, and Scotland, and with the Royal
designer, he has created décor for many works
Arts in Philosophy and Anthropology. Ms. Bick-
Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England.
and special presentations.
ford joined BTJ/AZDC in 2004.
JEROME BEGIN
S A M C R AW F O R D
Composer
Sound Super visor
Jerome Begin studied music composition at
Sam Crawford completed both his Associate
Ohio University with Dr. Mark Phillips and
of Science degree in Audio Technology and
studied piano and music for dance, both ac-
Bachelor of Arts in English at Indiana Univer-
companiment and composition, with André
sity in 2003. A move to New York City led him
Gribou. His works have been performed in the
to Looking Glass Studios where he worked on
United States, Korea, and Japan. Mr. Begin is
film projects with Philip Glass and Björk. He
on staff at The Juilliard School (Dance Division)
currently lives in Jersey City where he works
and also works as a composer, performer,
as a freelance live sound recording engineer
teacher, and dance accompanist in Brooklyn,
and plays banjo and bass guitar in the groups
New York, where he currently resides.
Stereofan and The Goodwill Orchestra.
CHRISTOPHER ANTONIO WILLIAM
Composer/Cello
Christopher Antonio William Lancaster (Composer/Cello) is a composer and performing
artist living in New York. His live and recorded
music is created by the processing acoustic
cello sounds through real-time samplers, audio
effects, and filtering. He composes predominately for theater, dance, and his band The
Black Sounds.
ERIC LAUNER
Technical Director
WYNNE BENNETT
JAMYL DOBSON
Actor
Piano
Wynne Bennett made her Kennedy Center debut at the age of 18. Ms. Bennett is currently
working on a solo show involving laptop,
piano, keyboard, drum machine, and film.
Eric Launer started a band after graduating
high school. The next few years found Mr.
Jamyl Dobson’s New York City credits include
Launer behind the counter of a record store,
Romeo and Juliet, Ain’t Supposed to Die a
on the air as a radio DJ, and volunteering in
Natural Death, and the workshop of Fela!
music therapy at an outpatient treatment
with Bill T. Jones. Mr. Dobson received a BA
facility for mental health. Theater met him
from Temple University and an MFA from the
again when he was invited to join the techni-
University of Iowa.
cal department at The Phillips Center for the
Performing Arts. Since then, Mr. Launer has
continued his career as a technical director.
16
UMS 09-10
GEORGE LEWIS, JR.
LIZ PRINCE
JANET WONG
Composer/Guitar/Vocals
Costume Designer
Associate Artistic Director/Video Designer
George Lewis, Jr., is a Dominican born
Liz Prince has worked extensively with Bill T.
Janet Wong was born in Hong Kong and
songwriter and performer. In addition to his
Jones since 1990 designing for his company
trained in Hong Kong and London. Upon gradu-
composing credits with BTJ/AZDC, Isabel Lewis
as well as his productions at Boston Ballet,
ation she joined the Berlin Ballet where she first
(The Labor Union), and theater companies in
Berlin Opera Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American
met Mr. Jones when he was invited to choreo-
Copenhagen, Denmark, he plays rock and roll
Dance Theater. Ms. Prince received a 1990
graph for the company. In 1993, she moved to
music with his friends.
New York Dance and Performance Award for
New York to pursue other interests. Ms. Wong
costume design.
became Rehearsal Director of the company in
1996 and Associate Artistic Director in August
KYLE MAUDE
Production Stage Manager
CLARISSA SINCENO
2006.
Singer
Kyle Maude has worked with Ballet Tech/Feld
Ballets New York, The Royal Ballet School of Lon-
Clarissa Sinceno, a Harlem native, began at
don, Buglisi-Foreman Dance, and Lesbian Pulp-o-
the Harlem School of the Arts and went on
Rama! Ms. Maude joined BTJ/AZDC in 2003.
to undergraduate studies at North Carolina
D E A N P E R RY
Head Carpenter
Dean Perry hails from Tampa, Florida and currently resides with his wife Jessica in Washington DC. He has worked on many theatrical
productions on the east coast, and holds a BS
in Business from the University of Florida. He
is thrilled to be working in his first season with
the talented people of BTJ/AZDC.
KRISTI WOOD
Company Manager
Kristi Wood grew up in St. Louis, Missouri,
School of the Arts and Manhattan School of
and since moving to New York in 2000, has
Music. At 17, she performed at the Metropoli-
worked with New York City Center, Brooklyn
tan Opera. She has since performed at jazz
Academy of Music, The Juilliard School, the
clubs the Blue Note and Birdland.
School of American Ballet, and several Broadway
and off-Broadway theaters. She worked as a set
ROBERT WIERZEL
Lighting Designer
costumer on All My Children and America’s Next
Top Model. Ms. Wood holds a BFA in Drama
Robert Wierzel has worked with artists in the-
from the Tisch Institute of Performing Arts at
ater, dance, new music, opera, and museums
New York University. This is her second season
on stages throughout the country and abroad.
with BTJ/AZDC.
He has a long history (21 years) with choreographer Bill T. Jones and his company. Mr.
Wierzel is currently on the faculty of New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
UMS 09-10
17
“Bill T. Jones has made dances with strong political messages,
using talking and décor to help REPRESENT THE UNDERREPRESENTED:
gays, blacks, those with HIV/AIDS, and others facing death.
In addition to being an activist and storyteller, Jones has increasingly
focused on structuring BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED group dances.
In them he combines his mastery at improvising lush, complex phrases with his
DESIRE TO EXPLORE music, time, space, and movement.
Jones’s work ranges from CONFRONTATIONAL TO TENDER,
intuitive to formal, narrative to abstract.
His work is animated by his own commandingly athletic
and theatrical presence on stage and his ability to evoke a strong
COMMITMENT from his company members.”
— Joyce Morgenroth, from her book Speaking of Dance
I N S P I R AT I O N
ARTISTIC INFLUENCE
18
UMS 09-10
UMS 09-10
Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
19
F O N D LY D O W E H O P E …
F E R V E N T LY D O W E P R AY
20
UMS 09-10
ABOUT
THE WORK
CONTINUING THIS TRADITION of challenging, thought-provoking work, Mr. Jones has created a new evening-length work about
Abraham Lincoln, Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray, which premiered at the Ravinia Festival and is now on tour. Commissioned by the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray has found Mr. Jones “leading
with his own heart,” seeking a way to articulate, if not reconcile the view of Lincoln he had as a young boy growing up during the
civil rights struggle and as a mid-life liberal artist who “has very few heroes.” The most ambitious project in the BTJ/AZDC’s 25-year
history, Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray investigates the myriad meanings of Lincoln, rejecting accepted truth in favor of
challenging (and celebrating) the lasting contributions of this great man. This dance-theater work investigates a handful of key moments from his remarkable life, allowing song and memory to transport the audience to an emotional and intellectual space beyond
the boundaries of space and time. By envisioning the America that might have been had Lincoln completed the Reconstruction, Mr.
Jones exposes the great distance between what is and what could have been.
UMS 09-10
21
READING
A N E S S AY
F O N D LY D O W E H O P E … F E R V E N T LY D O W E P R AY
By Suzanne Carbonneau
IN HIS FIRST MONUMENTAL work of
Jones once again looks into the heart of
questions of an age sunder the body
dance-theater, Bill T. Jones addressed the
American darkness through a figure who
politic; on how history repeats itself; and
infernal contradictions at the heart of
has been both canonized and tarnished.
on how we experience history not only
America. His Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s
And once again, Jones has something
as fact but also as feeling. Jones employs
Cabin/The Promised Land revisited the
larger in mind than either hagiography
all the elements of theater to assemble a
torturous history of a revered cultural
or condemnation, employing the Lincoln
reverie about Lincoln that is also a con-
icon that had grown gangrenous over
myth to create a dream analysis of
templation about each one of us.
time. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel
America itself.
had argued the immorality of slavery and
In recognition of Jones’s ambition to span
The title, of course, comes from Lincoln’s
historical divides, Fondly Do We Hope
magisterial Second Inaugural, words
is a dance with history. Its conversa-
carved into the Lincoln Memorial, where
tion toggles between past and pres-
21st-century visitors still burst into tears
ent, between present and the future.
at the sight of Daniel Chester French’s
Appropriately for a work about mongrel
statue of a careworn Lincoln. He is our
America, the languages of Fondly Do We
peerless, timeless national hero, en-
Hope are polyglot—kinetic, visual, aural,
shrined in American myth as the man
textual. As he did in the Promised Land
who redeemed us from our foundational
apotheosis of Last Supper, Jones looks to
sin of racial slavery. Unlike George Wash-
the experience of the body as our shared
ington, who has been lost in historical
human condition across culture, across
distance as an Olympian figure, Lincoln
race, across time. “At the heart of the
a moral history of America.
appeals to our vision of the quintessential
piece,” says Jones, “are muscles, blood
American as a common man of noble ac-
and flesh.”
Nearly twenty years on, Jones revisits that
tion. He is, as Jones points out, our Great
decisive moment in American history.
Man and our Everyman. How then to
In his newest work of dance theater,
reconcile the complexities of the histori-
Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We
cal record with this indelible myth?
its perennial relevance, is Walt Whit-
But as in Last Supper, Jones is not out
of the Body.” Jones employs his danc-
to present a straightforward version of
ers’ bodies—so lovingly catalogued by
history. Nor is this biopictorial theater.
Whitman in their particulars (“Leg fibers,
Fondly Do We Hope is something else
knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg”)—
entirely: a consideration of how the great
as the engine of the work. The perform-
was instrumental in turning Northern
sentiment towards abolition, but the
novel’s post-Civil War co-optation by
Confederate apologists resulted in Uncle
Tom becoming a synonym for “race
traitor.” With characteristic fearlessness,
however, Jones waded into this untouchable material, employing Stowe’s novel as
a springboard for meditations on identity,
hatred, sex, death, and religion. Jones’s
work was simultaneously personal and
political, and ultimately nothing less than
Pray, AbrahamLincoln is the catalyst for a
rumination on the American conscience
that embraces past, present, and future.
With this commission by the Ravinia
Festival to mark the Lincoln bicentennial,
22
UMS 09-10
The lodestone text of Fondly Do We
Hope, repeated three times to suggest
man’s paean to human anatomy, “Poem
ers dance on a luxuriantly figured carpet
blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid
age. He cites her heartbreaking mad-
of words by Lincoln and his compatriots.
by another drawn with the sword”).
ness and grief as another. Jones links the
The movement is not intended to depict
story of Todd and her inability to cope
psychological situations nor to illustrate
The mix of voices in Fondly Do We Hope
this text. Rather, it exists as evocative
reflects the breadth of Lincoln’s influence
counterweight to the specificity of the
and influences: in addition to Lincoln’s
narration. This movement material—
own words, we hear Thomas Jefferson,
what Jones describes as “the DNA” of
the King James Bible, Frederick Douglass.
this work—is laid out at the opening by
But it is Whitman who speaks for Lincoln
a single performer, dancing to Whit-
from somewhere deep within his psyche.
man’s delirious celebration of our physical
Jones names Whitman as Lincoln’s
matter. Over the course of Fondly De We
“proxy” with good reason. Whitman
Traveling again to the present, Jones
Hope, Jones harvests this thematic inven-
himself declared a profound identification
stages diagrammatic histories of four
tory for boundless variations. Always,
with the President: “Lincoln is particu-
of our contemporaries as companion
Jones says, the movement is in “the
larly my man — particularly belongs to
biographies to those of Lincoln and
service of feelings and ideas.” Together,
me; yes, and by the same token, I am Lin-
Mary Todd. Taken together, these fel-
words and movement alchemize into
coln’s man: I guess I particularly belong to
low citizens suggest the diversity of the
something greater than the sum of these
him; we are afloat on the same stream —
American public. The biography of one
individual elements.
we are rooted in the same ground.” And
of them corresponds with the outlines
it is through Whitman, who famously
of Jones’s own life (“born in 1952”; “a
Music, too, is a central device that
proclaimed his communion with all living
family of fieldworkers”; “seven brothers
bridges Lincoln’s day with our own.
things in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” that
and four sisters”; “a life in the theater”;
Contemporary compositions are inter-
Lincoln travels through time to speak
“his great grandmother, he thinks, was
spersed with 19th-century music drawn
directly to us. We belong to Lincoln, as
born a slave”). Ultimately, just as we did
from every level of society, suggesting
he belongs to us.
with Lincoln and Mary Todd, we come to
the complexity of Lincoln’s experience
upon the death of her husband, with the
national disarray experienced at the loss
of that same person. In this analogy, the
Song of Solomon speaks for both personal and communal sorrow (“Set me as
a seal upon thine heart. For love is strong
as death”).
understand the poverty of the schematic
as frontiersman and person of hardwon
In acknowledgment that Lincoln is “a
cultivation. Traditional tunes, including
story that we tell ourselves, and more
“Annie Laurie” and the Lincoln favorite
importantly,a story that we tell our chil-
“Weevily Wheat,” along with the Ameri-
dren,” Jones presents us with faux-naïf
can spiritual “Since I Laid My Burden
schoolbook biographies of Lincoln and
Down,” nuzzle against European classical
Mary Todd. Jones believes that we cling
compositions. Befitting Lincoln’s person-
to this Great Man version of Lincoln as
ality and the tragedy of the war he over-
a model for how we might “make our
saw, this score is largely melancholic. The
peace with an insane and oftentimes
cemetery looms over a musical setting
unfair world.” But Jones believes that in
of a verse Lincoln particularly admired,
perpetuating these simplistic biographies,
Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “The Last Leaf.”
we are obscuring the true nature of our
Death even seeps into Mendelssohn.
relationship with the past. We have only
Passages from Whitman’s searing “The
to look to the character of Mary Todd,
And just as importantly, what are the
Wound-Dresser” are heard as oratorio
for example, to recognize the value in a
issues that shaped Lincoln’s thinking and
within Mendelssohn’s score, reminding
more considered analysis. As she did in
that forge our own? Jones looks to the
us that Lincoln’s assassination followed
Lincoln’s life, Todd holds a central place
Lincoln-Douglas Debates for the marrow
upon mass slaughter. A companion
in Fondly Do We Hope. Jones points to
of those ideas that divided Americans
oratorio from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
Todd’s obsessive acquisitiveness as a pro-
in the mid-nineteenth century. Slavery,
is similarly death-soaked (“every drop of
found metaphor for our own unhinged
the boil that would shortly burst into the
biography, which focuses on the “facts”
of a life but ignores its resonances,
contradictions, reverberations. We begin
to see that this approach does injustice
to all its subjects—Great Man or the least
among us. But still, Jones has made us
consider how our own stories intersect
with history. He asks: Do we face great
questions in our day equivalent to the
conflagration over slavery? What is the
work still to be done? Who will do that
work?
UMS 09-10
23
Civil War, was the inescapable sub-
Jones understands that his own rela-
ject of those arguments. With precise
tionship with history is too fraught, too
calibration, Jones distills the Lincoln-
labyrinthine to allow himself to offer us
Douglas positions to their essences, while
pieties or platitudes in place of the frus-
introducing a more raucous discourse
tratingly imperfect and genuinely great
touching on the issues of our own day. In
Lincoln. Recognizing that Lincoln was a
pairs, the dancers engage these debates
man of his time—some of Lincoln’s earli-
with richly abstracted and virtuosic move-
er declarations about gradual abolition or
ment that Jones describes as “pitched
racial inferiority can be shocking—Jones
and performed in such a way that it’s
admires Lincoln all the more for his ability
as if the dancers were orators.” That is,
to grow and change, to become a great
the dancers do not act out the text, but
man. The choreographer declares that
they do move to its cadences, pauses and
at the end of his journey in making this
emphases.
work, he finds himself genuinely moved
The simple visual design of the work,
conceived by Bjorn Amelan, embodies a
by Lincoln. “In some ways,” says Jones,
“I think I love him more than I ever did.”
complex metaphor. An imposing cylindri-
At the conclusion of Fondly Do We
cal volume echoes a central movement
Hope…Fervently Do We Pray, we are
image in which the dancers circle the
accorded what Jones calls “cautious
stage in a cloudlike formation. Jones calls
hopefulness” about Lincoln’s legacy.
this “The Maelstrom,” a reference to a
Adapting Whitman’s example of imag-
fabled oceanic whirlpool that terrorized
ining ourselves into the future, Jones
the 19th-century imagination. The Mael-
leaves us with the biography of a person
strom is, of course, a visual metaphor
just coming into life. We hear from this
for the great tumult of the Civil War,
descendant a hundred years hence, as
just as it is, Jones says, an apt symbol for
he nears the end of his days—as far from
our contemporary “undeclared cultural
us in time as is Lincoln. And in 2109, this
war.” Amelan’s spare set also features
speaker is left with the same questions
columns that simultaneously suggest the
about us that we have of Lincoln, expe-
White House, grand antebellum planta-
riencing an identical desire “to believe in
tions, and the birthplace of democracy
great men and great women.” What will
in ancient Greece. This décor creates a
this citizen of the future see in us when
continually evolving arena for the projec-
he looks back? What will we have done
tion of spectral images that link past and
in answering the great challenges of our
present. In her video of phantom figures
day? Will he find us—as Lincoln grew
from the 19th century, Janet Wong con-
to be—led by the “better angels of our
jures a ghost-world whose inhabitants
nature”?
shadow the contemporary ensemble, just
as Whitman had projected himself into
the future.
In the end, Jones insists that Fondly Do
We Hope is not intended as a history
lesson. On the contrary, he cites its claims
on history as “glancing and ambivalent.”
24
UMS 09-10
ABOUT
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
O F F O N D LY D O W E H O P E … F E R V E N T LY D O W E P R AY
DANCE
ACTING
VIDEO
This is a modern dance company, but
The actor in the piece you will see is often
There is also video in this piece. Sometimes
it uses all kinds of movements, includ-
speaking text and not acting as if he were
the video is meant to be watched alone.
ing ones that many people do every day.
in a play. The text he is speaking is drawn
At other times, it is shown while many
Examples of dance styles include modern,
from many famous writers and think-
other things are going on. The video is
ballet, hip hop, jazz, and ballroom.
ers, including Abraham Lincoln, Stephen
non-narrative, meaning it doesn’t have a
Douglas, William Shakespeare, and poet
story. Rather, it operates poetically, sug-
Walt Whitman.
gesting ideas and feelings.
MUSIC
The musicians in this work both write and
S TA G E D E S I G N
perform their parts. Some of the musicians play several instruments and there
The stage is designed to make you feel like
are many musical styles that they draw
you are entering another world, the world
from, including jazz, classical, heavy metal,
of this piece. Stage designs can be very
folk, and rock and roll. Because this piece
obvious, like a set of the inside of a house.
is about the Civil War period, some of the
This is designed to be more abstract. It
music is drawn from that period of time
does not represent anything in particular.
(1850–1860).
It includes curtains, columns, and a small
stage built over some of the seats in the
audience.
W H AT T O W AT C H F O R :
What kinds of feelings does the music evoke at the different
parts of the performance?
What is the actor’s purpose throughout the performance?
UMS 09-10
25
ABOUT
THE SET
THE SET IS MADE UP of an oval floor on the main stage and a smaller oval “satellite” stage connected by a walkway. An oval
traveler track hangs over the main stage from which white curtains are hung. The material is in four sections, 2 opaque and 2
translucent. They can close off the stage or be arranged in different configurations. They can also be used as projection surfaces.
There are also six white classical columns that will be arranged into various configurations.
Photos: Courtesy of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
26
UMS 09-10
W H AT T O W AT C H F O R :
Notice the configurations of the six columns throughout the performance.
What might each configuration represent?
How are the two stages used differently?
UMS 09-10
27
ABOUT
THE COSTUMES
The costumes for Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray were designed by Liz Prince.
Pages 28-29 include original sketches of the costumes.
28
UMS 09-10
Photos: Courtesy of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
W H AT T O W AT C H F O R :
Notice the color of the costumes.
What do you think each color represents?
UMS 09-10
29
THEMES + IDEAS
30
UMS 09-10
Photo: Russell Jenkins/Ravinia Festival]
H I S T O RY
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
THE SON OF a Kentucky frontiersman,
should say. My mother, who died in my
Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to
Abraham Lincoln had to struggle to live
tenth year, was of a family of the name
attain knowledge while working on a
and learn. Five months before receiving
of Hanks....My father...removed from
farm, splitting rails for fences, and keep-
his party’s nomination for President, he
Kentucky to...Indiana, in my eighth
ing store at New Salem, Illinois. He was
sketched his life:
year....It was a wild region, with many
a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent
bears and other wild animals still in the
eight years in the Illinois legislature, and
“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin
woods. There I grew up...Of course when
as a lawyer rode the circuit of courts for
County, Kentucky. My parents were
I came of age I did not know much.
many years. His law partner said of him,
both born in Virginia, of undistinguished
Still somehow, I could read, write, and
“His ambition was a little engine that
families—second families, perhaps I
cipher...but that was all.”
knew no rest.”
UMS 09-10
31
He married Mary Todd, and they had
As President, he built the new Reublican
morial in Washington, DC: “With malice
four boys, only one of whom lived to
Party into a strong national organization.
toward none; with charity for all; with
maturity. In 1858 Lincoln ran against
Further, he rallied most of the northern
firmness in the right, as God gives us to
Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost
Democrats to the Union cause. On Janu-
see the right, let us strive on to finish the
the election, but in debating with Doug-
ary 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation
work we are in; to bind up the nation’s
las he gained a national reputation that
Proclamation that declared forever free
wounds....”
won him the Republican nomination for
those slaves within the Confederacy.
President in 1860.
On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln
Lincoln never let the world forget that the
was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in
Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural
Civil War involved an even larger issue.
Washington, DC, by John Wilkes Booth,
Address: “In your hands, my dissatisfied
This he stated most movingly in dedicat-
an actor who thought he was helping
fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is
ing the military cemetery at Gettysburg:
the South. The opposite was the result,
the momentous issue of civil war. The
“that we here highly resolve that these
for with Lincoln’s death, the possibility of
government will not assail you....You have
dead shall not have died in vain—that this
peace with magnanimity died.
no oath registered in Heaven to destroy
nation, under God, shall have a new birth
the government, while I shall have the
of freedom—and that government of the
most solemn one to preserve, protect and
people, by the people, for the people,
defend it.”
shall not perish from the earth.”
Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was
willing to use force to defend Federal law
and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina,
and forced its surrender, he called on the
states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more
House, his casket was viewed by millions
as it was carried on a special train back to
Illinois. He was buried May 4 in Oak Ridge
military triumphs heralded an end to war.
Cemetery in Springfield.
In his planning for peace, the President
Biography used with permission from
was flexible and generous, encouraging
www.abrahamlincoln200.org.
Southerners to lay down their arms and
join speedily in reunion.
The spirit that guided him was clearly that
four remained within the Union. The Civil
of his Second Inaugural Address, now
War had begun.
inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Me-
W H AT T O W AT C H F O R :
Who dances as Abraham Lincoln?
UMS 09-10
morning. Following a funeral at the White
Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union
slave states joined the Confederacy but
32
President Lincoln died at 7:22 the next
H I S T O RY
MARY TODD LINCOLN
EARLY YEARS: 1818–1838 Born in
Among the prized values of the Todds
SPRINGFIELD COURTSHIP AND 1818, Mary Todd Lincoln lived in
was a commitment to education for
MARRIAGE: 1838–1861 In 1838, Mary
Lexington, Kentucky, for 20 years. Her
daughters as well as sons. Mary ben-
Todd left the social life of Lexington to
father, Robert Smith Todd, became
efited from this aspiration; an excellent
live in her sister’s home in Springfield,
a wealthy merchant and Whig party
student, she learned the basic curricu-
Illinois. Such independence for young
leader. Her mother, Eliza Parker Todd,
lum of reading, writing, and arithmetic
women was unusual for the times. But
also descended from an affluent fam-
at John Ward’s local school. When she
Mary despised her stepmother. Her
ily, died in 1825. Thus began a series
was fourteen, she attended an all-girls
beloved sister Elizabeth had set up a
of deaths that marred Mary’s life.
boarding school on the outskirts of
household in the rapidly growing new
Her mother succumbed to puerperal
Lexington. There, her studies expanded
capital. In her sister’s and brother-in-
sepsis (“the childbed fevers”) after the
to include languages and the traditional
law’s home she met Abraham Lincoln,
birth of her seventh child in 12 years.
sewing and stitching. She continued to
an aspiring Whig politician and state
Robert Todd quickly replaced his first
be a superior student, acclaimed for her
legislator. Other men, mostly politicians
wife with a stepmother Mary hated.
performances in plays and her profi-
like Senator Stephen Douglas, courted
Nine household slaves served the large
ciency in French.
the attractive Mary Todd. Dances,
Todd family in an elegant brick home
sleigh-rides, and railroad expeditions
in Lexington.
UMS 09-10
33
brought the young people of the new
dressed, she presided over receptions
put her in touch with her dead sons and
capital together.
and soirees. She also visited wounded
husband. Then in 1871 Tad died of pleu-
soldiers in Washington hospitals and
risy in a Chicago hotel.
It was the gangly Lincoln whom she
raised money for the former slaves who
favored and married in 1842. Then fol-
flocked into the city during the Civil War.
lowed Mary Lincoln’s domestic years—
Her contributions to our national history
the birth of her four sons (and the death
emerged from her understanding of the
of her beloved Eddie in 1850 from
significance of the White House as a sym-
tuberculosis), the management of her
bol of the power of the Union. She also
home, and her support of her husband’s
recognized the extent to which social
emerging political career. She was unusu-
gatherings in the Red and Gold Rooms
ally ambitious for what she called “our
provided opportunities for foreign diplo-
Lincoln party.” An excellent hostess,
mats, congressmen, military leaders, and
she invited important politicians to the
common soldiers to meet the president.
Lincoln home. When Lincoln was elected
But amid such triumphs Mary Lincoln lost
president in 1860, he hurried home, call-
her son Willie to typhoid fever in 1862.
ing out “Mary, Mary, we are elected.”
Then her husband died from an assassin’s
FIRST LADY: 1861–1865 Mary Lincoln’s
bullet in April 1865.
four years in the White House began
WIDOWHOOD: 1865–1882 A devas-
with the Confederate attack on Fort
tated Mary Lincoln now began her years
Sumter and ended with her husband’s
of wandering. Leaving Washington for
death. At a critical moment in the na-
Chicago, she was accompanied by her
tion’s history she expanded American
eldest son, 23-year-old Robert, and her
understanding of a First Lady’s role. She
youngest son, 12- year-old Tad. But she
oversaw expensive, much-needed and
was unable to afford a home in Chicago.
tasteful improvements to the White
She took Tad to Germany where he
House. She organized receptions that
attended school in Frankfurt. She trav-
made the White House a center of
eled to European spas. She sought out
social and political importance. Elegantly
spiritualists, believing that mediums could
W H AT T O W AT C H F O R :
Who dances as Mary Todd?
34
UMS 09-10
Four years later, her son Robert Lincoln
directed legal efforts to have her committed to a private mental institution outside
of Chicago. Never insane, she remained
in the asylum only four months. But Mary
Lincoln was convinced that her son would
try to send her back to an institution. So
she fled to Pau, a city near the Pyrenees in
southern France. She lived there alone for
four years. Eventually, her declining health
forced her to return to the United States,
where she lived quietly with her sister
Elizabeth Edwards in Springfield until she
died on July 16, 1882 from a stroke. She
was 63 years old.
Biography used with permission from
www.abrahamlincoln200.org.
H I S T O RY
T H E C I V I L WA R : A T I M E L I N E
1859
1860
1861
OCTOBER 16–18
NOVEMBER 6
J A N U A RY 9
John Brown, in an attempt to amass arms for a
Abraham Lincoln is elected President, with Han-
Star of the West, an unarmed merchant vessel se-
slave insurrection, attacks the federal armory and
nibal Hamlin as his Vice President.
cretly carrying federal troops and supplies to Fort
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Sumter, is fired upon by South Carolina artillery at
DECEMBER 20
the entrance to Charleston harbor.
As a consequence of Lincoln’s election, a special
convention of the South Carolina legislature votes
to secede from the Union.
J A N U A RY 9 – F E B R U A RY 1
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
and Texas follow South Carolina’s lead and secede
from the Union.
J A N U A RY 2 9
Kansas is admitted as a state with a constitution
prohibiting slavery.
F E B R U A RY
Delegates from six seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a government and
elect Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate
States of America.
MARCH 4
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the sixteenth
President of the United States.
APRIL 12–13
Fort Sumter is bombarded and surrenders to South
Carolina troops led by P.G.T. Beauregard.
UMS 09-10
35
1 8 6 1 (cont.)
1863
1862
APRIL 15
F E B R U A RY 6
J A N U A RY 1
Lincoln declares a state of insurrection and calls
General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Henry, Ten-
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation,
for 75,000 volunteers to enlist for three months
nessee. Ten days later he accepts the “uncondi-
which declares that slaves in the seceded states
of service.
tional and immediate surrender” of Fort Donelson.
are now free.
These victories open up the state of Tennessee for
A P R I L 1 7 – M AY 2 0
Union advancement.
Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina
secede from the Union.
J U LY 1 – 3
The Battle of Gettysburg is fought in Pennsylva-
M AY 3 1 – J U N E 1 , 1 8 6 2
nia. General George G. Meade compromises his
During the Battle of Seven Pines in Virginia, Robert
victory by allowing Lee to retreat South across
APRIL 19
E. Lee takes over command of the Confederate
the Potomac.
Lincoln orders a blockade of all Confederate ports.
army from the wounded Joseph E. Johnston.
APRIL 20
AUGUST 20
Violent riots erupt in New York City in protest of
Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the
Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune publishes
the draft.
United States Army.
The Prayer of Twenty Millions, a plea for Lincoln to
J U LY 1 3 – 1 5
liberate slaves in the Union.
M AY 2 9
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy.
AUGUST 29–30
The South is again victorious at the Second Battle
of Manassas.
NOVEMBER 19
Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address, in which
he reiterates the nation’s fundamental principle
that all men are created equal.
J U LY 2 1
Confederate forces win a victory at the First Battle
of Manassas. Confederate General Thomas J.
Jackson earns the nickname “Stonewall” for his
tenacity in the battle.
SEPTEMBER 17
NOVEMBER 23–25
The Battle of Antietam, Maryland, exacts heavy
After three days of battle, the Union victory
losses on both sides.
at Chattanooga, Tennessee, opens the way
for Union advancement into the heart of the
SEPTEMBER 22
President Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
NOVEMBER 7
General McClellan receives Lincoln’s order relieving
him of command of the Army of the Potomac.
36
UMS 09-10
Confederacy.
1865
1864
1 8 6 5 (cont.)
MARCH 10
J A N U A RY 3 1
M AY 1 0
Newly commissioned to the rank of lieutenant
Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment,
Jefferson Davis is captured and taken prisoner
general, Ulysses S. Grant is given official authority
which abolishes slavery throughout the
near Irwinville, Georgia.
to command all of the armies of the United States.
United States.
M AY 5 – 6
MARCH 4
In New Orleans, terms of surrender are of-
The Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia is the first
Lincoln is inaugurated as President for a
fered to General E. Kirby Smith, commander
of a bloody series of month-long engagements
second term.
of the Trans-Mississippi Department. His
M AY 2 6
between Grant and Lee.
acceptance on June 2 formally ends Confeder-
APRIL 3
JUNE 28
Union troops occupy Richmond.
JUNE 30
Lincoln signs a bill repealing the fugitive
slave laws.
APRIL 9
Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of North-
J U LY 1 1 – 1 2
ate resistance.
ern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox.
Confederate forces under Jubal Early probe and
All eight conspirators are convicted for the assassination of President Lincoln; four are sentenced
to death.
Timeline courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (www.
fire upon the northern defenses of Washing-
APRIL 14
ton, D.C., throwing the Capital into a state of
John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln at
high alert.
Ford’s Theater; Secretary of State William H.
si.edu) and used with support of its mission for the
increase and diffusion of knowledge.
Seward is stabbed and wounded in an assas-
NOVEMBER 8
sination attempt inside his Washington home.
Lincoln is reelected President, with Andrew Johnson as Vice President.
APRIL 15
Lincoln dies, and Andrew Johnson is inaugu-
DECEMBER 21
rated as President.
Savannah falls to Sherman’s army without
resistance. Sherman gives the city to Lincoln as a
APRIL 26
Christmas present.
John Wilkes Booth is shot in a barn in Virginia
and dies.
UMS 09-10
37
H I S T O RY
THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
BY PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 4, 1865
as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably
but one of them would make war rather
At this second appearing to take the oath
satisfactory and encouraging to all. With
than let the nation survive; and the other
of the presidential office, there is less
high hope for the future, no prediction in
would accept war rather than let it per-
occasion for an extended address than
regard to it is ventured.
ish. And the war came.
On the occasion corresponding to this
One eighth of the whole population
four years ago, all thoughts were anxious-
were colored slaves, not distributed
ly directed to an impending civil war. All
generally over the Union, but localized
dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While
in the Southern part of it. These slaves
the inaugural [sic] address was being
constituted a peculiar and powerful
delivered from this place, devoted alto-
interest. All knew that this interest was,
gether to saving the Union without war,
somehow, the cause of the war. To
insurgent agents were in the city seeking
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this
to destroy it without war—seeking to dis-
interest was the object for which the
solve [sic] the Union, and divide effects, by
insurgents would rend the Union, even
negotiation. Both parties deprecated war;
by war; while the government claimed
there was at the first. Then a statement,
somewhat in detail, of a course to be
pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now,
at the expiration of four years, during
which public declarations have been
constantly called forth on every point
and phase of the great contest which
still absorbs the attention, and engrosses
the energies of the nation, little that is
new could be presented. The progress
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly
depends, is as well known to the public
38
UMS 09-10
no right to do more than to restrict the
therein any departure from those divine
territorial enlargement of it. Neither party
attributes which the believers in a Living
expected for the war, the magnitude,
God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do
throughout Fondly Do We Hope…
or the duration, which it has already at-
we hope—fervently do we pray—that
Fervently Do We Pray. They include:
tained. Neither anticipated that the cause
this mighty scourge of war may speed-
of the conflict might cease with, or even
ily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it
Lincoln’s Address to the Washington
before, the conflict itself should cease.
continue, until all the wealth piled by the
Temperance Society of Springfield, IL
Each looked for an easier triumph, and a
bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years
(2/22/1842)
result less fundamental and astounding.
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until
Both read the same Bible, and pray to
every drop of blood drawn with the lash,
Lincoln’s House Divided Speech
the same God; and each invokes His aid
shall be paid by another drawn with the
(6/16/1858)
against the other. It may seem strange
sword, as was said three thousand years
that any men should dare to ask a just
ago, so still it must be said “the judg-
God’s assistance in wringing their bread
ments of the Lord, are true and righteous
from the sweat of other men’s faces;
altogether”
but let us judge not that we be not
judged. The prayers of both could not
be answered; that of neither has been
answered fully. The Almighty has his own
purposes. “Woe unto the world because
of offences! for it must needs be that
offences come; but woe to that man by
whom the offence cometh!” If we shall
suppose that American Slavery is one of
those offences which, in the providence
of God, must needs come, but which,
having continued through His appointed
time, He now wills to remove, and that
With malice toward none; with charity
for all; with firmness in the right, as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up
T E X T E X P L O R AT I O N
There are many excerpts of texts
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
(3/4/1861)
Lincoln’s Address at Sanitary Fair
(4/18/1864)
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
(3/4/1865)
the nation’s wounds; to care for him who
Frederick Douglass’s “Colonization”
shall have borne the battle, and for his
from The North Star
widow, and his orphan—to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and last-
Declaration of Independence
ing peace, among ourselves, and with all
nations.
Walt Whitman’s The Wound-Dresser
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is in the public domain.
Walt Whitman’s Poem of the Body
He gives to both North and South, this
Walt Whitman’s Crossing
terrible war, as the woe due to those by
Brooklyn Ferry
whom the offence came, shall we discern
Song of Solomon from the King
James Bible
Book of Revelation from the King
James Bible
UMS 09-10
39
ABOUT DANCE
40
UMS 09-10
Photo: Russell Jenkins/Ravinia Festival]
ABOUT
ELEMENTS OF DANCE
ANYONE CAN PARTICIPATE IN DANCE. You do not necessarily need years of practice or special classes to enjoy it. Dance has
been a part of human lives since the beginning of history, sometimes as a part of ceremonies or rituals, other times to create a performance for other people, and even for people to just have fun and socialize. Below are a few of the reasons people dance today.
Dance gives people the opportunity to express their feelings, culture, and values through body movement. Every type of dance,
from break dancing to ballet, tells a story about the society and time in history that it comes from. Dance is one of the few things
that cultures all over the world from all time periods have in common, so it is able to express individual cultures and the human
qualities we all have in common at the same time.
There are four words that can be used while describing dance: body, energy, space, and time. By talking about these four elements, dance artists find it easier to communicate in words what is normally expressed only with movement. While performing,
they use physical, outward movement to show other people what they feel emotionally inside.
During a dance performance, more goes on than just a dancer expressing him or herself on stage while the audience passively
watches. Seeing dance is an active experience. While you watch the dancers, think about the way they are moving and how they
might be feeling. Think about how the dancers feel about each other, and how their movement helped you understand that. The
key to watching dance is to imagine that you’re living in the dancer’s body, that you are actually doing the moves that you see.
drawing loops, a hip jutting out straight
to the side, or the head swooping down
and up through an arc. The range of
these movements can vary from so small
ENERGY Energy choices may reveal
SPACE “Where?” is a question about
emotional states. For example, a power-
space and spacing. Choices about use of
the reach of the dancer or the size of the
ful push might imply aggression or
space include such variables as position
dance area. There are countless variations
confidence depending of the intent and
or place, size or range, level, direction,
and combinations of ways that move-
situation. A delicate touch might reflect
and pathway. Here are some examples
ment can occur in space.
affection and timidity or perhaps preci-
of space choices applied to actions: the
sion and skill. Some types of energy can
dancer might choose to move or pause
be described in words; others spring from
at any specific place in the dancing area.
the movement itself and are difficult to
A skip could be in any direction such as
label with language. Sometimes differ-
diagonally forward and toward one side
ences in the use of energy are easy to
of the room. A twist might be high in the
perceive; other times these differences
air or low to the ground or in between.
TIME “When?” is a question about
can be quite subtle. Variations in move-
A run or turning action could be in place
time or timing. Choices about time in-
ment flow, force, tension, and weight
or perhaps travel a certain distance along
clude such things as duration, speed, di-
can be combined in many ways and may
a particular pathway. The pathway might
visions of time (e.g., beats and intervals),
communicate a wide spectrum of human
be curved, straight, zigzagging, or mean-
timing of accents, and rhythmic patterns.
emotional states.
dering. The dancer’s movements can also
as to be almost invisible, to as large as
trace pathways in the air as in an elbow
UMS 09-10
41
Timing choices are applied to actions.
is based upon a universal experience:
Here are some examples: a twist could
the rhythms and movement of the hu-
be gradual or quick. A stop might be
man body. At a party, at home, or even
suddenly followed by a pause. Leap-
on the street, most of us have felt the
ing might speed up, slow down, or be
urge to dance. Whether it is hip-hop,
paced by even beats. A series of sitting,
swing, salsa, meringue, foxtrot, waltz, or
standing, and stretching actions could
twist, we all know a style of dance.
occur with an even pace taking a short
or a long time. Such actions could be
accented with pauses at regular intervals
or occur sporadically. Bending, jumping,
and shaking actions might be arranged
in a rhythmically patterned sequence.
Rising and curling might ride on the
In dance we take in, synthesize, and
transmit our ideas and feelings about
life through our bodies. Dance is a medium for learning about oneself and one’s
world. It is truly a universal artas all humans relate to body movement and the
DANCE INSTRUMENT The art
of dance takes place through the dancer.
Human beings are both the creators and
the instruments. The physical manifestation of the dancer’s ideas and feelings
is the living, breathing human body. In
dance, the body is the mobile figure or
shape: felt by the dancer, seen by others.
rhythm of breathing.
need to communicate with each other.
The body shape is sometimes relatively
As we dance, we sense our bodies and
still and sometimes changing as the
There are endless possibilities for timing
the world around us. We learn how and
dancer moves in place or travels through
one’s movements; timing variables such as
where our bodies can move, expanding
the dance area. Whether moving or
speed, duration, accents, and rhythmic pat-
our movement possibilities and enjoy-
pausing, dancers are alive with inner
terns, simple to complex, can be applied to
ing our sense experience as we dance.
movement, feelings and thoughts.
actions in many different combinations.
Dance is a vehicle for understanding life
experience giving dynamic form to our
thoughts and feelings. It symbolizes our
thoughts and feelings kinesthetically.
Dance is a unique form for communicating. As we manifest our experience
of life in dance, we send out messages
ARTISTIC MEDIUM Movement
through our bodies. We can appreciate
is the artistic medium of dance, just as
The dancer moves with energy through
these messages ourselves, and others
sound is the artistic medium of music.
time and space. But then, who doesn’t?
can receive them. Dancecommunicates
The movement of human beings includes
Are we always dancing every moment
in ways that words cannot.
a wide range, from large and obvious
IS ALL MOVEMENT DANCE?
we are alive? Or are there some special
to so small and subtle that it appears to
features that lead us to call some of our
be stillness. Periods of relative stillness
movement experiences dance? It does
are as effective and essential in dance
seem that in dance, people tend to be
as are silences or rests within music. The
more consciously involved in their move-
movement vocabulary of modern dance
ment, taking particular enjoyment or
interest in their body.
PRACTICE Sometimes, dance is
crawl, stop, rise, jump, fall, bend, hold,
an audience. In those cases, no matter
shake, stand, walk, twist., turn, bal-
what the style, dancers must train their
ance, roll, stretch, slide, leap, jiggle, pull,
bodies and their imaginations to be
push,kick, hover, reach and hang.
vocabulary of their movement language
through classes, rehearsals, and perfor-
is spoken through the movement of the
mances. The elements of their practice
human body. It tells stories, expresses
are the basic building blocks of dance.
emotions, and creates images. All dance
42
UMS 09-10
of many possible actions are run, hop,
designed to be performed and seen by
more expressive. Dance artists extend the
LANGUAGE Dance is a language. It
is made up of human actions. A few
ABOUT
ELEMENTS OF MOVEMENT
ANOTHER WAY TO THINK about the key elements of movement and dance is to remember the pneumonic “BEST”: body,
energy, space, and time. These components drive all movement: pedestrian (everyday movement), athletic, the movement of
animals, as well as dance in all its variety. These elements are constantly woven together to create an unbroken fabric, but the
threads can be separated for a clearer understanding of the art form.
Photo: Russell Jenkins/Ravinia Festival]
BODY
B O D Y PA R T S :
Head, shoulders, arms, hands, back, rib cage,
hips, legs, feet, muscles, bones, joints, heart,
lungs (breath)
ENERGY
QUALITIES:
Swinging, sustained (smooth), percussive
(sharp), vibratory (shaking)
DYNAMICS:
Strong (powerful), light (delicate)
S PA C E
TIME
SHAPE:
Body design in space
TEMPO:
Fast, slow
LEVEL:
High, middle, low
B E AT:
Underlying pulse, rhythm
DIRECTION:
Forward, backwards, sideways,
diagonal, up, down
A C C E N T:
Emphasis
PAT H W AY:
Curved, straight, jagged,
combinations of these
D U R AT I O N S :
Long, short
FOCUS:
Direction of gaze/focus of eyes
FLOW:
Free-flowing, controlled
UMS 09-10
43
LANGUAGE
VOCABULARY OF DANCE
ART The production of something that
DANCE THEATER A dance-theater work
IMPROVISATION Movement that is cre-
shows a level of skill (or specific inten-
can incorporate elements of both dance
ated spontaneously.
tion) in the chosen medium and an intent
and theater: including dancing, singing,
to communicate meaning. Art may be
dialogue, film, and multimedia.
ISOLATION Movements restricted to one
ENERGY One of the elements of move-
rib cage, or hips.
classified as architecture, dance, music,
theater, visual, literary, technological, etc.
ment; energy propels or initiates move-
area of the body such as the shoulders,
KINESTHETIC SENSE The sense of
BODY SHAPES The design of the body
ment or causes changes in movement or
in stillness; shapes may be curved, angu-
body position.
movement and bodily awareness of
ENSEMBLE A group of dancers who
this sense provides feedback about
perform together.
speed, height, tension/relaxation, force,
lar, twisted, or straight.
CHOREOGRAPHY The process of creating a dance; originating from the Greek
word choros (meaning “to dance”) and
graphos (meaning “to write”). This process includes an understanding of form
and movement development in dance.
CHOREOGRAPHER A person who creates
a dance work and decides how, when, and
where the dancers should move.
EXPRESSION A manner of speaking,
playing music, dancing, writing, or visu-
oneself, others, and the environment;
exertion, direction, etc. to audience and
performers alike.
ally producing something that shows
LEVELS The height of the dancer in
feeling and meaning.
relation to the floor: high, medium, or
GENERAL SPACE The area of space
through which a dancer travels or takes
his/her personal space; it may include a
dance studio, a stage, a classroom, or the
COMPANY A group of dancers who
gymnasium; pathways and directions are
perform together.
defined in this space.
low. When a dancer is low, a part of his/
her torso is touching the floor; when a
dancer is middle level the feet are flat on
the floor; when a dancer is on high level,
he/she is in the air or on the toes.
LOCKING A movement that creates the
illusion that a dancer’s joints are stuck,
DANCE ELEMENTS Dance is an art
GESTURE A movement of the body or
form comprised of the elements of time,
part of the body that a dancer makes in
space, energy and the body; each of
order to express an idea or an emotion;
MODERN BALLET A choreography that
these elements has its own knowledge
everyday gestures include a hand shake,
maintains elements of traditional ballet
base which is interpreted uniquely by
a wave, or a fist; abstract gestures in
created during the 20th century; many
each dance whether it be folk, ballet,
dance are those movements given special
modern ballets are abstract and non-
modern, jazz, or ethnic dance.
emotional or content meaning by a
literal.
choreographer.
almost like a freeze frame in a movie.
DANCE TECHNIQUE The specific vocab-
MODERN DANCE A performance move-
ulary of dance and the physical principles
ment form that evolved at the beginning
for producing efficient and correct body
of the 20th century, modern dance can
movement are called technique.
be contrasted with ballet, tap or jazz.
Creative work on choreography is an
important part of the learning experience
in modern dance.
44
UMS 09-10
NON-LITERAL CHOREOGRAPHY Cho-
RHYTHM The organization of sound
TECHNIQUE The learning of movement
reography that emphasizes movement
in time; rhythm is a pattern of pulses/
skills; the ability to use specific methods
manipulation and design without the
beats with selected accents that can be
to create a dance.
intent of telling a story; non-literal works
repeated or joined with other patterns to
communicate directly through movement
form longer phrases. Rhythm is one of
and need no translation.
the basic elements of music.
PERCUSSIVE Use of energy that is pow-
SECTION A smaller part of a whole work
erful, staccato, and explosive.
that contains many phrases in and of
PERSONAL SPACE The kinesphere that
itself.
one occupies that is defined by the reach
SET How the stage is set up and what
space around the body; it includes all
the stage looks like.
TEMPO The speed of movement.
UNITY A principle of choreographic form
in which phrases fit together, with each
phrase important to the whole.
VIBRATORY Use of energy that involves
shaking or trembling actions.
levels, planes, and directions both near
and far from the body’s center.
SHAPE An interesting and interrelated arrangement of body parts of one
REPERTOIRE Movement phrases or full
dancer; the visible makeup or molding
sections from completed dance works
of the body parts of a single dancer; the
that are taught in order to familiarize
overall visible appearance of a group of
dancers with a specific choreographer’s
dancers; also the overall development or
style and movement vocabulary. Reper-
form of a dance.
toire can also mean the dance pieces a
dance company is prepared to perform.
SOLO A section of a work that is danced
by only one dancer.
PHRASE The smallest and simplest unit
of dance form; usually part of a larger,
SPACE One of the elements of move-
more complex passage. A phrase is
ment. Direction, level, size, focus and
frequently repeated throughout a work in
pathway are the aspects of space.
order to give it continuity.
PROP An object that is separate from the
dancer’s costume but that is a part of the
action or spatial design in the choreog-
STYLE A distinctive manner of moving.
SYMMETRICAL A visually-balanced body
shape or grouping of dancers.
raphy or that contributes to the meaning
of a dance.
UMS 09-10
45
LESSON PLANS
46
UMS 09-10
Photo: Russell Jenkins/Ravinia Festival]
ENGAGE
P R E PA R I N G F O R T H E P E R F O R M A N C E
The following the steps below help audience members understand how to make sense
of all that they are seeing in a live performance
BE QUIET AND ALERT during the
EXPERIENCE each of these elements
CONNECT the elements to one
performance. This allows you and your
with all of your senses, with your emo-
another. Notice how the parts create a
fellow audience members to see and
tions, and with your imagination.
whole work of art.
hear everything that is going on.
IDENTIFY all of the elements that
DESCRIBE these elements and your
RESPOND to the work by reflecting
are present in the performance. These
response to them.
on how it makes you feel and what you
include the components of a live perfor-
think about it.
mance previously listed!
UMS 09-10
47
ENGAGE
P R A C T I C I N G O B S E R VAT I O N
Using the photo on the next page (page 49), practice the skills of observation.
All of the elements of a live performance cannot be captured in a photograph, but focus on the ones that are present.
IDENTIFY EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN THE PHOTO.
How many performers are in the photo?
What are they wearing?
What are the elements of a set on the stage?
EXPERIENCE THE EVENT CAPTURED IN THE PHOTOGRAPH.
Observe what is going on. Notice your thoughts about it.
DESCRIBE THE INDIVIDUAL PARTS AND THE THOUGHTS THAT COME TO YOU.
What words or phrases describe the movement?
What words or phrases describe the costumes?
What words or phrases describe the set and lighting?
How would you describe your response to it?
CONNECT ALL OF THE ELEMENTS
What seems to be going on?
RESPOND TO WHAT YOU SEE
Is this photograph interesting to you?
Does it seem to be communicating a specific feeling?
What story could you create about it?
CREATE AN ARTFUL RESPONSE USING WORDS OR DRAWINGS.
These responses can be anything. Examples of responses include:
48
•
poems inspired by the photo
•
descriptions of what you see in the actions
•
word phrases or sentences that describe your feelings and thoughts about the image
•
action poems or phrases that describe the movement and dynamics
•
drawings inspired by the photo
UMS 09-10
UMS 09-10
Photo: Paul B. Goode
49
WORKSHEET
MAKING A PHOTOGRAPH
COME ALIVE
Look closely at the photograph on the previous page (page 49). Notice everything you can about it and then
use the following questions to help you create your own artful response.
Identify all of the performers. How many are there? Briefly describe one of them.
How would you describe the costumes they are wearing? Do the costumes seem like modern
clothes or clothing from another time?
Look at the environment the dancers are in. Do you notice any elements of a set? What are they?
Notice the movement that the photograph has caught. What words could describe the movement? Examples of descriptive movement words are: energetic, suspended, dramatic, dangerous,
frantic, calm.
Connect everything together. What seems to be going on in this moment? Is there a story you can
imagine goes with this picture?
What do you feel in response to this photo? Does it make you curious? Does it make you want to
see the whole dance?
50
UMS 09-10
Create your own response to the photo. You can do this by filling in the word poem below or
by using the rest of the page to make your own poem, written response, or drawing.
Action cannot be traced, yet it is suspended in this moment.
A man is caught ______________________________
White, white surrounds.
Determined _________________________________
Among many men, one is ______________________________
_________________________________ floats and time is suspended
All movement ______________ in this instance of ________________.
Use the space below for your own poems, drawings, and thoughts.
UMS 09-10
51
ENGAGE
PERFORMANCE NOTES
Review these questions before the performance and reflect on them after.
You can also use these to take notes during the performance if you choose.
DANCE/MOVEMENT
•
How many dancers are there? Do you recognize any of the dancers on the stage as one of the dancers in the
photograph you looked at earlier?
•
How would you describe the kind of dancing they are doing? Is it active, daring, graceful?
•
Look for a moment when the dancing is especially exciting to you. Write down a few words that capture the
essence of this moment.
MUSIC
•
Find the musicians. How many are there and what instruments are they playing?
•
What kind of music styles can you recognize? Are the musicians playing jazz, classical, rock-and-roll, heavy
metal?
•
Does the music surprise you? Why or why not?
•
Listen for an exciting musical moment. Write a few words that describe this moment for you.
THEATER/ACTING
52
•
Find the speakers in the piece. What words describe how they say their lines? Are they energetic, enthusiastic, sad?
•
Do you understand everything that is being said?
UMS 09-10
SET DESIGN
•
Notice the set. Briefly describe some of the parts of the set. Are there hanging objects? Is there a special floor
or stage?
PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
•
What does this performance seem to be about to you?
•
Is the piece telling one story, many stories, or none at all?
•
Performances can also be about ideas. What ideas are talked about or danced about?
•
Did this performance connect to anything in your life? Did the performers move like someone you know or
watch on TV? Did the music remind you of a song you’ve heard before?
UMS 09-10
53
EXPLORE
MORE RESOURCES
LESSON PLANS
ate simple dances in small groups and
PBS
perform them for the class. Students will
www.pbs.org/civilwar
ARTSEDGE
manipulate task cards to comprehend
www.artsedge.org
the elements of dance and then they
PBS offers lesson plans surrounding the
will be tested on their knowledge.
Ken Burns film The Civil War.
infused lesson plans and materials for
CIVIL WAR MUSIC
WALT WHITMAN, PATRIOT POET
educators to use. Below are a few that
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
relate to this performance.
content/2095/
room/lesson_whitman.html
DANCING THROUGH POETRY
Using songs popular during the Civil
Walt Whitman, journalist and poet, cre-
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
War, students will identify songs as ral-
content/3534/
lying songs, recruiting songs, popular
Artsedge offers a wide range of arts-
In this lesson students will look at poetry
as a way to express the art of dance
metaphorically. Students will read two
different poems about break dancing in
which one will show dance visually in
entertainment songs, campfire songs,
sentimental songs, or patriotic songs.
Students will compare and contrast songs
from the North and from the South, then
choose a Civil War song to perform using
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/class-
ated poems that are boldly American in
style and substance. He idealized American leaders and workmen, chronicled
Civil War battles, praised 19th Century
technology, and memorialized Abraham
Lincoln. While his perspective changed as
the nation developed, Whitman’s poems
voice or an instrument.
retained their democratic spirit and faith
and the other using its content to repre-
RELIVING HISTORY THROUGH SLAVE
son, students will have an opportunity
sent dance.
NARRATIVES
to analyze historic events and concepts
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
recorded in Whitman’s poems, examine
content/2358/
conditions in Civil War hospitals and the
the way the words are placed on paper
ELEMENTS OF DANCE
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
content/2338/
How many ways can a person move?
Students will explore and discover the
elements of dance by demonstrating
various simple movements. This exercise
will help the teacher assess the students’
level of experience and ability with
respect to dance. Students will cre-
54
UMS 09-10
After reading narratives from former
slaves that were recorded in the 1930’s
as part of the Federal Writers’ Project,
students conduct research on slavery,
and tell a story based on their findings.
The lesson incorporates an exploration of
storytelling techniques.
in the American experiment. In this les-
poet’s reactions to those conditions, and
evaluate Whitman’s role as poet, historian, and American visionary.
LINCOLN AND RECONSTRUCTION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: LINCOLN
FONDLY DO WE HOPE…FERVENTLY
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/class-
BICENTENNIAL
DO WE PRAY
room/lesson_lincoln.html
www.abrahamlincoln200.org
www.fondlydowehope.com
This lesson focuses on Lincoln’s role
Abrahamlincoln200.org has a “For Teach-
The official website of the dance
as president during the Civil War. After
ers” section with many lesson plans.
work, including a trailer, an extensive
reading a variety of primary sources written by Lincoln or to him, students analyze
under what provisions of the Constitution he acted as president. They then try
to imagine what a week in the life of the
President might have been like by writing
a diary as Lincoln or his secretary. The
lesson then focuses on Lincoln’s role in
reconstructing the nation, which he initiated in his Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction of December 8, 1863.
Students role play members of his cabi-
video diary of the work’s creation,
THE GREAT “WHAT IF” QUESTION
photos, video interviews with Mr.
http://abrahamlincoln200.org/
Jones, and information on the music,
learning-about-lincoln/for-teachers/
set, and costumes.
default.aspx
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: THE
This lesson encourages students to think
CIVIL WAR
about how American history might have
www.civilwar.si.edu
been different had Lincoln lived. Students will discuss the impact of President
The Smithsonian’s Civil War collec-
Lincoln’s assassination on our nation’s
tion, a timeline, and further online
Reconstruction policy.
resources.
UMS
net as they hear from a variety of constituents about the effect this document
is having on the course of the war and
the future of the Freedmen. The cabinet
considers a variety of amendments to
Lincoln’s plan and through debate, either
adopts or rejects them.
ON LINE RESOURCES
www.ums.org
The official website of UMS. Visit the
BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE
Education section (www.ums.org/edu-
COMPANY
cation) for study guides and informa-
www.billtjones.org
tion about community and family
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance
events.
Company’s official website.
UMS 09-10
55
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARTSEDGE: ARTSEDGE Home. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. www.artsedge.org.
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company | Home. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. www.billtjones.org.
The Civil War . PBS. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. www.pbs.org/civilwar.
CivilWar@Smithsonian. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. www.civilwar.si.edu.
Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. www.fondlydowehope.com.
Lihs, Harriet. Appreciating Dance: A Guide to the World’s Liveliest Art. Highstown: Princeton Book Company, 2002.
Lincoln Bicentennial | 1809-2009 | Live the Legacy. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. www.abrahamlincoln200.org.
McGovern, George. Abraham Lincoln. New York: Times Books, 2009.
McPherson, James. Abraham Lincoln. New York: Oxford, 2009.
Morgenroth, Joyce. Speaking of Dance. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Robertson, Allen, and Donald Hutera. The Dance Handbook. New York: GK Hall & Co, 1988.
56
UMS 09-10
ABOUT UMS
UMS 09-10
57
UMS
W H AT I S U M S ?
UMS IS COMMITTED to connecting audiences with performing artists from around the world in uncommon and engaging experiences.
One of the oldest performing arts presenters in the country, the University Musical Society is now in its 131st season. With a
program steeped in music, dance, and theater performed at the highest international standards of quality, UMS contributes to a
vibrant cultural community by presenting approximately 60-75 performances and over 100 free educational and community activities each season.
UMS also commissions new work, sponsors artist residencies, and organizes collaborative projects with local, national, and international partners.
STAFF
INTERNS
DEPARTMENT MAILING ADDRESS
Kenneth C. Fischer
Emily Barkakati
100 Burton Memorial Tower
Claire C. Rice
881 North University Ave
Interim Director
Neal Kelley
Mary Roeder
Michael Michelon
UMS EDUCATION &
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
UMS President
Mark Johnson
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011
Residency Coordinator
Omari Rush
Education Manager
Liz Stover
Programming Coordinator
58
UMS 09-10
Leonard Navarro
Bennett Stein
UMS
U M S Y O U T H E D U C AT I O N P R O G R A M
10 THINGS TO KNOW
QUALITY
Every student deserves access to
ACCESSIBILITY
Eliminating participation barriers
“the best” experiences of world arts
Working directly with schools to
align our programs with classroom
• UMS subsidizes Youth Performance
and culture
K-12 SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS
goals and objectives
tickets to $6/student (average subsidy:
• UMS presents the finest international
$25/ticket)
performing and cultural artists.
Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Washt• When possible, UMS reimburses bus-
• Performances are often exclusive to
• Superintendent of Ann Arbor Public
• UMS Youth Education offers person-
Schools is an ex officio member of the
alized customer service to teachers in
UMS Board of Directors.
• UMS Youth Performances aim to
order to respond to each school’s unique
present to students the same perfor-
needs.
mance that the public audiences see (no
watered-down content).
enaw Intermediate School District.
sing costs.
Ann Arbor or touring to a small number
of cities.
• 13-year official partnerships with the
• UMS has significant relationships with
Detroit Public Schools’ dance and world
• UMS actively seeks out schools with
language programs and is developing
economic and geographic challenges to
relationships with other regional districts.
ensure and facilitate participation.
• UMS is building partnerships with or of-
DIVERSITY
Highlighting the cultural, artistic,
fering specialized services to the region’s
ARTS EDUCATION LEADER
independent and home schools.
and geographic diversity of the world
One of the premier arts education
• Programs represent world cultures and
programs in the country
mirror school/community demographics.
• UMS’s peer arts education programs: Car• Students see a variety of art forms: negie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center.
classical music, dance, theater, jazz, choral, global arts.
• UMS has the largest youth education
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
PARTNERSHIPS
Affecting educators’ teaching practices at the developmental stage
program of its type in the four-state region
• UMS Youth Education is developing
• UMS’s Global Arts program focuses
and has consistent school/teacher participa-
a partnership with the U-M School of
on 4 distinct regions of the world—
tion throughout southeastern Michigan.
Education, which keeps UMS informed
Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Arab
World—with a annual festival featuring
• 20,000 students are engaged each sea-
the arts of one region.
son by daytime performances, workshops
and in-school visits.
• UMS Youth Education was awarded
“Best Practices” by ArtServe Michigan
and The Dana Foundation (2003).
of current research in educational theory
and practice.
• University professors and staff are
active program advisors and workshop
presenters.
UMS 09-10
59
KENNEDY CENTER PARTNERSHIP
TEACHER ADVISORY COMMITTEE
• UMS Youth Education has been a
Meeting the actual needs of today’s
member of the prestigious Kennedy
educators in real time
Center Partners in Education Program
since 1997.
• Partners in Education is a national consortium of arts organization and public
school partnerships.
• UMS Youth Education works with a
50-teacher committee that guides program decision-making.
• The Committee meets throughout
the season in large and small groups
• The program networks over 100 na-
regarding issues that affect teachers and
tional partner teams and helps UMS stay
their participation: ticket/bussing costs,
on top of best practices in education and
programming, future goals, etc.
arts nationwide.
IN-SCHOOL VISITS & CURRICULUM
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
“I find your arts and culture workshops to be one of the ‘Seven Wonders of Ann Arbor’!”
–AAPS Teacher
DEVELOPMENT
Supporting teachers in the classroom
• UMS Youth Education places international artists and local arts educators/
teaching artists in classes to help educa-
• UMS Youth Education provides some
tors teach a particular art form or model
of the region’s most vital and responsive
new/innovative teaching practices.
professional development training.
• UMS develops nationally-recognized
• Over 300 teachers participate in our
teacher curriculum materials to help
educator workshops each season.
teachers incorporate upcoming youth
performances immediately in their daily
• In most workshops, UMS utilizes and
engages resources of the regional community: cultural experts and institutions,
performing and teaching artists.
60
UMS 09-10
classroom instruction.
UMS Youth Education Program
[email protected] | 734-615-0122 |
www.ums.org/education
SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK!
UMS wants to know what teachers and students think about this Youth Performance.
We hope you’ll send us your thoughts, drawings, letters, or reviews.
UMS YOUTH EDUCATION PROGRAM
Burton Memorial Tower • 881 N. University Ave. • Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011
(734) 615-0122 phone • (734) 998-7526 fax • [email protected]
www.ums.org/education
UMS 09-10
61