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The Daily Tar Heel

Lincoln-inspired work deserves a tip of the hat

Bill T. Jones presented a modern dance inspired byAbraham Lincoln without top hats, big beards or pennies Friday night at Memorial Hall.

It was called “Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray” and presented by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

The performance, rich with music, dance and dialogue, demands several views from the audience so they may focus on each element composing the piece. The many elements make it a different trip for every viewer.

The work presented profiles of historical figure Lincoln and his controversial first lady Mary Todd, as well as hypothetical slaves and people alive during the past few decades or the future who could have been impacted by Lincoln’s assassination.

The music, dancing and stage setting were beautiful in and of themselves but were seemingly just vehicles for Jones to narrate on America’s twisted history as a result of Lincoln not creating his utopia through his Reconstruction.

Dancers artistically threw their bodies of achieved perfection, which only exercising for a living produces, around the stage acting as their characters.

The movements of the 11 dancers and sounds of the four musicians presented an emotional trip void of the clichés that would seem unavoidable in a work based on such an icon in history.

“Writing music about Abraham Lincoln is not the easiest thing I’ve had to do,” the band leader Christopher Lancaster said jokingly in the Q-and-A after the performance.

Despite the difficult task, the musicians performed original pieces as well as works by other great composers, including Mendelssohn, that displayed the diversity of the musicians and set the serious mood.

Narration, by a man whose strong voice could compete with Morgan Freeman, was rich with well-researched history about Lincoln and America’s long fight against slavery.

The story was nonlinear and inconclusive, therefore not for the individual looking for thoughtless entertainment. The holistic performance provides more meaning to the viewers after they have time to let it settle in their heads.

A history buff would get more out of the performance, but simply being familiar with the civil rights movement and the Civil War was enough background to perceive the emotion of it.

Jones presented a unique work that manages to entertain even those who think sitting through a 90-minute dance an arduous task, and that makes one want to shake a fist at John Wilkes Booth.

Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.

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