New York dance companies merge

Posted on February 23, 2011

The Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company has signed an agreement with performing arts centre Dance Theater Workshop, creating a new company called “New York Live Arts”.

The new company will be based at DTW’s headquarters in Manhattan, New York. Jones will be executive artistic director, with DTW’s Carla Peterson continuing in her role as artistic director. Jean Davidson, formerly of the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, will be the company’s chief executive officer and executive director.

The two organisations discussed collaboration last year, explained Andrea Sholler, DTW’s executive director. “Very quickly, though, we saw a bigger and better opportunity than collaboration. We could embrace the need for change in our field and merge into something new, of great potential value to artists and audiences: a movement-based centre organised around performances, creative residencies and multidisciplinary explorations.”

The organisation will continue to present a performance season in DTW’s Bessie Schönberg Theater, while the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zande Dance Company will continue to create new work and to perform as an operating programme of New York Live Arts. It will present a two-week season in the theatre every other year, while continuing to tour in the US and internationally. The merger of the two organisations will become effective once it has been approved by the New York State Attorney General. See www.billtjones.org for more details.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.