GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE February 13, 2004

even

Gotta dance

Bill T. Jones returns for a retrospective of early works

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Columbus-Bill T. Jones, out black dancer and choreographer, is one of the most important names in contemporary American dance. Over the past 20 years, he has created a prolific body of works, both important in terms of choreography, and also in terms of social, cultural, and political relevance.

Ohio audiences have been privileged to see Jones's evolution over the last decade, since he has been a regular fixture in the Wexner Center's dance series year after year. He returns to Columbus February 17 for his fifth appearance at Wexner.

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company made its Columbus debut in 1991 with a performance of Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin (The Promised Land). The company received the Wexner Center Residency Award in the 1994-95 season to complete the landmark work Still/Here during an intensive month-long creative residency. Since then, they have been back with We Set Out Early... Visibility Was Poor in 1998 and the evening-length work You Walk? in 2001.

This year the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will perform The Phantom Project—20th Anniversary Season, an evening that revisits some of the company's landmark works and features a new piece in celebration of its anniversary.

The pieces for the upcoming Wexner Center program were selected from the earlier years made with his partner in life and art, Arnie Zane. The evening will also feature a brand new work that reveals the direction of Jones's current explorations and how this springs from an evolutionary process of Jones the man, the dancer, the social observer.

One of the hallmarks of Jones's works is that he has challenged the dance world and society at large about what it takes to be a dancer. He has often used performers with non-traditional dancer's bodies and people with varying levels of physical ability. He has in essence, focused on the humanity of the dance world over the usual obsessions with body and type.

This evening will feature Blauvelt Mountain (A Fiction). This is one of the duets that first signaled arrival of Jones and Zane in the dance world. In Another Another History of Collage, Jones reimagines Another History of Collage, the last piece Zane contributed to prior to his death from AIDS. The program concludes with Mercy 10 x 8 on a Circle, the companion piece to Jones's most recent dance theater epic.

Immediately preceding this commemorative performance, Bill T. Jones will discuss the journey of his 20-year career with the audience. The free "Bill T. Jones in Conversation" will be held at 7 pm in the Wexner Center's Film/Video Theater, 1871 North High St.

The performance of The Phantom Project—20th Anniversary Season is Tuesday, February 17 at 8 pm in Mershon Auditorium, 1871 North High St, and is presented in association with the King Arts Complex of Columbus.

Tickets can be obtained from the Wexner Center box office, 614-292-3535, and from Ticketmaster, 614-431-3600.

Bill T. Jones

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