If you missed “Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party” (at SF Playhouse last month) you can still experience a big, (incidentally gay) dance spectacle on the topic of President Lincoln when Bill  T. Jones stages his new work about Abraham Lincoln called “Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray” in October.

Before that, on May 9, the director and choreographer, (who won a Tony for his choreography of “Spring Awakening”) will discuss Abraham Lincoln’s legacy and the creative process of his new work in a community conversation at the Yerba Buena Center.

Both Lincoln and Jones are having a very good year. The nation has been celebrating the 16th president’s bicentennial since Lincoln’s birthday on February 12 and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Lincoln’s name has been popping up a lot lately in regard to Obama’s political approach (Lincoln’s bible was even dusted off for Obama’s swearing in.) And, what’s more, last week, Bill T. Jones was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography in for the off-Broadway play “Fela! A New Musical”! The parallels continue to amaze.

Bill T. Jones will bridge past and present in this new dance theatre work which promises to be a highly personal rumination on the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. By envisioning the America that might have been had Lincoln completed the Reconstruction, Mr. Jones will expose the great distance between what is and what could have been.

And, like the slaves Lincoln emancipated, the May 9 Arts Forum is free! (RSVP required.)