Dr. Ariel Nereson Publishes New Book on Dance Pioneer Bill T. Jones

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Ariel Nereson, PhD, on the publication of her most recent book Democracy Moving: Bill T. Jones, Contemporary American Performance, and the Racial Past.

https://www.press.umich.edu/12084466/democracy_moving

On the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, renowned choreographer and director Bill T. Jones developed three tributes: Serenade/The Proposition, 100 Migrations, and Fondly Do We Hope . . . Fervently Do We Pray. These widely acclaimed dance works incorporated video and audio text from Lincoln’s writings as they examined key moments in his life and his enduring legacy. Democracy Moving explores how these works provided both an occasion and a method by which democracy and history might be reconceived through movement, positioning dance as a form of both history and historiography.

A related guest blog by Dr. Nereson has been provided by the publisher:
https://blog.press.umich.edu/2022/01/lets-make-dances-not-monuments/

"Confederate General Robert E. Lee, rallying icon of the Lost Cause and contemporary white supremacists, is melting. Or more precisely, his notorious monument, Lee on horseback cast in bronze and looming over Charlottesville, VA, will soon be melted down and turned over to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Echoing the thoughts of many US Americans committed to confronting this nation’s racist past and present, the Center’s executive director, Andrea Douglas, shared that the museum would be guided by the question, 'What can you generate out of trauma, so you end up with something that is reflective of our contemporary moment?'"

Nereson is Associate Director of Graduate Studies and Director of Graduate Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.