Lincoln Jones Founder of the American Contemporary Ballet Talks About His Latest Production “The Nutcracker Suite”
Hi Lincoln, first of all, congratulations on your amazing production of The Nutcracker Suite, which you directed. I had the chance to check it out this past Sunday and it was amazing!
Hello, nice to meet you and thank you!
How much planning went into the production?
Quite a bit. It is challenging to produce theater in spaces that weren’t designed for it, especially an immersive production like this with live music and interactive elements.
The set decoration was also very beautiful yet simple, as well as the orchestra, who were playing some very challenging pieces. Regarding the wonderfully talented dancers, how does the process work for auditioning and picking the best dancers for each show and what do you look for?
Thank you. Our company dancers are with us year-round, so I usually have a pretty good idea ahead of time who will do which roles. We take on a few new dancers each year, though. Each of the roles has its own particular technical challenges, like Tea, which requires a dancer who can hop on one toe in various positions, or Hot Chocolate, which has a difficult turn. And the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy requires a lot of refinement and stamina.
We do around 25 shows a year, so some of the roles will have as many as five or six dancers rotating through it, to avoid exhaustion. And sometimes I’ll change the choreography a bit to suit a particular dancer, so depending on the night you come, you might see differences. But generally, I look for dancers who are technically capable of executing the choreography and also bring something extra of their own to the part. That extra bit is usually the most interesting thing to watch.
You founded the American Contemporary Ballet back in 2011 along with Theresa Farrell. Is this something you both always dreamed of doing? Also, you picked Los Angeles as the city to do that in. Do you feel there was more of a need for this in a place like LA?
I was always fascinated by ballet and ballerinas, but I wasn’t really introduced to dance until I was 19 or 20 when I started. But right away I was interested in creating choreography, and the more I got to know ballet, I saw there were things I wanted to do that were different. Maybe that comes partially from being introduced to it as an adult, rather than growing up in it. I grew up in Southern California. Despite living in New York for a while, I always loved LA and wanted to be back here. LA also didn’t have the advantage of having an established ballet company, so it was an opportunity to introduce people to the art and to do it differently.
Who were some of your influences growing up in the world of dance?
George Balanchine, the founder of New York City Ballet. He was not only perhaps the greatest ballet choreographer in history, but one of the most innovative artists of any medium. I don’t know if I would have gone into ballet if it weren’t for him. I also love Fred Astaire.
What is another production you would like to bring to the American Contemporary Ballet? Can we expect to see some other productions in the new year?
Yes, we have some of my favorite productions coming up. ACB Jazz, which is like a night in a New Orleans jazz club, and Homecoming, which is pretty influenced by 1980’s cinema. Both are quite a party.
If you could name 3 movies that influenced and changed your life. What would they be?
I could do this for probably every decade of my life. For today I’ll pick childhood and say Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, and ET. But as an adult, filmmakers David Lynch and Nicholas Refn have been a huge influence.
What is your best piece of advice for other dancers trying to make a career out of dance?
Find a place you love to dance, where you are being pushed to develop all throughout your career. It’s hard to be choosy, because ballet jobs are so hard to get in the first place. But having work you believe in, and people around you that you love doing it with really helps you do your best in a challenging career. That’s what I love about ACB. Also, never forget why you started: that desire to dance. Ballet is so technically challenging it can be easy to forget to dance, take chances, and show the audience who you are.
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