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LINCOLN JONES: Moving Ahead of the Conscious Mind
GAHSP in conversation w/ Lincoln Jones, Director and Choreographer, ACB, Los Angeles.
I’m Lincoln Jones, director of American Contemporary Ballet.
I started ballet at 20. What I know about choreography has largely been
self-taught through analyzing great works, studying music, and trial and error.
On June 27, 2025, GAHSP attended The Euterpides and Serenade, a performance by American Contemporary Ballet at the Television City venue in Los Angeles. The following is a conversation with Lincoln Jones, ACB’s Director and Choreographer, whose vision “to make dance steps that are spiritually fulfilling to dance” was made tangible in this performance, as affirmed by the company's dancers, who also joined the conversation.
QU & A
GAHSP's unifying conversation starter inquiring into fundamentals.
What are 3 values that you wish to mediate through your work?
I don’t think of trying to mediate values through my work, but there are definitely values that inform my work. I believe in the necessity of absorbing tradition in order to do anything new of lasting value. I attempt to find new avenues to beauty and meaning. And I think it is vital to deeply develop craft in ballet in order to be able to create good art.
What are 3 relevant problems that you wish to solve through your work?
I want to be able to make dance steps that are spiritually fulfilling to dance. And I want to fully understand the craft that Balanchine brought to ballet.
THE CONVERSATION
Inspired by ACB's premiere of The Euterprides & Serenade, June 5 - 28, 2025.
From Leadership To Partnership
How do physical and relational dynamics on stage explore different forms of authority and connection? How do the dynamics between male and female roles, and between lead and support positions, challenge conventional ideas of leadership and partnership?
I think for this question it is important to delineate between traditional and conventional ideas. Traditional ideas, though not always right, tend to be time-tested, and so often have value. This is why folk music is often so good. Conventional ideas (meaning, literally, ‘decided by convention’) are subject to contemporary myopia, whims, and biases, and tend to be swept away with their generation. So theoretically, as ideas get passed from generation to generation, the good ideas - because of their inherent value - hopefully get latched onto and carried forward by tradition, while the bad ones, failing the test of time, fall away.
So if anything, what happens on stage often reaffirms the traditional, and challenges the conventional, even if you are trying to do the opposite (a failed attempt to challenge tradition can show its power in relief). This is why the ‘modern’ dance of the past century is dwindling while Swan Lake is still around. It’s why Balanchine’s rep (a firm extension of tradition) is being performed more and more.
Regarding men and women, one of the central dynamics of ballet is a contrast of masculine and feminine, which Balanchine exploited to such beautiful ends. In fact, I would say that contrast is one of the most powerful elements among the material available to ballet, rivaling the importance of major/minor key relationships in music. And what the ballerina is able to achieve with the assistance of a male partner opens up so many avenues of expression, both musically and visually.
Form as Expression
How does movement function as a form of identity? In what ways can physical form give access to the unconscious? What can physical, body-based practices reveal about how we perceive and construct a sense of self?
If ballet is done right, I don’t think it reveals how we perceive or construct our sense of self. I think it is quite the opposite, actually. I think it reveals the soul, which lies beneath our self-perception. That’s why it is so hard to do. I would say the soul is probably more parallel to the unconscious, as you mention. I think getting the body moving ahead of the conscious mind, especially ahead of self-conscious filters, is the necessary condition for real dancing.
Movement Over Narrative
How does Balanchine’s removal of storytelling challenge dancers in their performance and audiences in their interpretation? And how does the emphasis on movement over narrative transform the connection between the performance and the viewer?
Ballet’s medium is musical movement, so Balanchine’s removal of excess storytelling (I say ‘excess’ because I think there is storytelling in many of his ballets, Serenade included) reveals what is at the heart of the medium. It frees it up to come to the forefront. And what storytelling is done is done through movement, not a physical retranslation of verbal language (mime). I think it does transform the connection, because the audience can then be touched viscerally, rather than conceptually, which is a weak way to do art. As Nabokov said, you should read with your spine. As for the dancers, it challenges them to do all the storytelling through the dance, as opposed to relying on the audience seeing through program notes. Although when the choreography is as good as Balanchine’s, it makes it a lot easier.
Athleticism
How does physical performance shape artistic expression, and how does artistic intent, in turn, push the limits of physicality? What does this imply about the limitations - and interplay - of our physical capacity and creative potential?
In ballet, the entire performance is physical. It is the medium through which the expression happens. Or rather, it is the expression. Artistic intent pushes the physical to be a more pure version of the vision, which Balanchine did intensely. The easiest way to understand this is to consider the least physically prepared dancer, just a regular person dancing to music at a nightclub, or a wedding, or whatever. It’s great, but it is unlikely that what they feel about the music is being wholly translated through their body to someone watching it. That is the goal of the ballet dancer, and the choreographer: to make the body such a full expression of the feeling one gets from the music that others can feel it too. And that is really hard. I think today, in many arts, we vastly underestimate how much a lack of control of the medium can diminish expression.
The American Spirit
In what ways do you see the artistic direction of ACB embodying the American spirit? How has American ballet evolved since Balanchine’s emergence, and how might that spirit continue to transcend or transform in the decade ahead?
I think probably in a willingness to absorb tradition, but not being limited by it. And a general against-all-odds, can-do attitude. I started ballet super late, and decided to start a company in the one city where it was supposed to be impossible. And we look for dancers who are really willing to go outside their comfort zone in order to do something that hasn’t been done before. I think that really embodies the American spirit. As for ballet since Balanchine, I don’t think American ballet has evolved, but regressed. It’s almost like everyone looked at the challenge and decided it was just too much to take on. And maybe it is, but I think we have to try.
THE ROUTINE
The company's dancers join the conversation to share the lasting truth or experience revealed through the perfomance.
Hannah Barr
I will never forget dancing Serenade. I will never forget that feeling of standing in the dark, on that iconic stage, waiting for the lights to come up and the music to begin, about to dance a ballet I’d been wanting to dance basically my whole life, and thinking “Wow, remember and truly live in this moment… this isn’t going to last forever.” I also think that something that will stay with me forever, having danced this iconic ballet, is that beauty is such a wonderful combination of so many things fitting together so perfectly (or maybe even not so perfectly, and that's what makes it human). But it's the lights, it’s the space, it’s the costumes. It’s the music, it’s the dancers and how each one of us is so incredibly unique and beautiful in our own way… it’s all of these things coming together. It’s transcendent and it just gives you chills.
Annette Cherkasov
Dancing the role of the Dark Angel was truly a dream come true. It’s a role I had idolized for years, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional depth I experienced once I was actually living it on stage. The combination of the music and choreography especially during the 'Elegy' movement, pushed feelings out of me that I hadn’t accessed before in performance. It was as if the movement itself was unlocking something deeply personal. There’s a quiet power in that section that demands total surrender, and in giving myself over to it, I discovered a new level of emotional vulnerability and presence. The lasting truth that revealed itself to me is how dance, when fully lived, can become a form of emotional transformation. Getting the opportunity to dance in Serenade was so special and reminded me why I dance: not just to move beautifully, but to feel profoundly.
Madeline Houk
This performance, dancing the Pneumē lead in The Euterpides and the Waltz Girl principal in Serenade, was one of the most physically and emotionally demanding experiences I’ve had in my career. It developed a new level of resilience and freedom in my dancing I didn’t have before.
Quincey Smith
Dancing the Russian Girl in Serenade was such a dream. It was a role that asked everything of me – precision, vulnerability, abandon and in return, it gave me one of the most amazing experiences of my life. With every entrance brought a new feeling for me. Some scary and nerve racking and others a feeling of strength and beauty. Out of every role I’ve ever performed, this was the one that fit most. It felt like home. I loved every second of it every rehearsal, every performance, every time I stood under that blue light.
This role will stay with me always a once of a lifetime role, a manifest of hard work, and a piece of myself I’ll carry forward, forever grateful for the opportunity to dance it.
Kristin Steckmann
What really stayed with me from this performance was the reminder that trust is everything: trust in your body, your instincts, your partners, and the moment itself. In The Euterpides, there were many moments that required full commitment without hesitation. That kind of movement only works when you let go of control and really go for things. In Serenade, it was a different kind of trust- quieter and more internal. You have to stay fully present within the music and the group. Both pieces reminded me how much power there is in surrendering to the moment and letting the work carry you.
Maté Szentes
Both a lasting truth and experience was being part of American dance history that is George Balanchine’s Serenade. By now this ballet is about 90 years old and is still being performed all over the world and has tremendous historical significance in our field. Watching this work since childhood I always felt deeply connected to this work and I saw myself easily identifying with the role of Waltz Boy but until now I hadn’t had the chance to perform it. It’s been an honor to experience dancing this timeless masterpiece. A beautiful and emotional memory that will stay with me forever.
#ASK
GAHSP’s principal routine to ask better questions.
What does a loss
of meaningful art do
to the spirit of a society?
Performance Photography: Anastasia Petukhova
Lincoln Jones' Portrait: Victor Demarchelier, Anastasia Petukhova
Dancer Portraits: Norman Jean Roy, Anastasia Petukhova
Special Thanks to Amy Jones
This conversation contributes to a new media format, where Creatives are in full control of their narratives. By exploring alternatives to narrative journalism, GAHSP starts unconventional conversations, emphasizing values and problems that shape our lives collectively.
Conversation Led by Julia Horvath
Unedited. Only Formatted.