Jones is tapped for new piece

Choreographer Bill T. Jones, whose postmodern takes on social issues often spark controversy, has been commissioned by the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago to create a work on the life of Abraham Lincoln.

The piece, tentatively titled “A Good Man,” is scheduled to be premiered by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in September 2009 as the centerpiece of the music festival’s “Mystic Chords of Memory” commemoration of the 16th president’s bicentennial.

“The image of Abraham Lincoln’s long, broken body stretched across what was to become his deathbed will be at the heart of the work,” said Jones, who is African American.

“I live with the uneasy feeling that society has shaped me as a result of something that was stolen from us when Abraham Lincoln was killed.”

Jones’ recent works have included “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land,” “Still/Here” and “Blind Date,” which was danced last weekend at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

For its 2009 season, Ravinia also plans to commission up to 10 chamber music works that will be funded partly by a $70,000 grant from the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

-- Chris Pasles