Bill t. Jones: Keeping it relevant and real

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company performed "Collage Revisited" at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park on Saturday night. (Photo by Theo Cote)

It’s been 37 years since Arnie Zane’s death. But for choreographer Bill T. Jones, his relationship to the choreographer – both personal and artistic – remains vibrant.
 
That was evidence on Saturday night at the Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in a program that returned to a work the two created just before Zane’s death – “The History of Collage.” As danced by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, the new version was recast as “Collage Revisited,” yet it held the same message – the assemblage of different parts create a beautiful whole.
 
What was amazing as the world gets more fractured, this work’s relevance only grows. Certainly, that is a surprise as we should be beyond dehumanizing and scapegoating our neighbors because they do not fit into what we deem to be the norm. Sadly, this could be embedded in human nature.
 
In the recast, Jones demonstrates how these differences bubble up, struggle to find freedom of expression and how a united front, unbothered by differences, nurtures a peaceful world.
 
The piece centers on a lone figured dressed in a suit, danced by Barrington Hinds. It begins with a voice talking about Freud and dreams. Over and over, the words are repeated as the figure sees what seems to be a biography – from childhood to relationships to striving adulthood. He simmers motionless in thought or moves through the world presented by the eight other dancers – that he watches or tries to discard.
 
As this is happening, the sound grows distorted, fades to a roar, that cannot be ignored, and then into a warped sound. Then the dancers are in full-blown rebellion. Sirens, shouts and screams blare as they push forward and are thrown back – again and again.
 
Finally, the piece moves to silence. The dancers line up, with the figure, touching gently each shoulder before them. Love and acceptance is finally achieved – a important statement for our time.
 
The evening also included “Story//(2013),” a work conceived and directed by Jones. Here, the stage is laid out like a sports arena – a court or track – in which nine dancers sprint, toss green apples and launch themselves into the air to Franz Schubert’s “String Quartet No. 14” or “Death and the Maiden.”
 
For a brief second at the start of the piece, one gets a glimpse of Jones’ inspiration – an office setting in which a man polished an apple. But after the initial, brief pose, the dance explodes into endless rushing that showed off the dancers’ strengths and sheer vigor. The dancers appeared to take as much enjoyment in dancing the work as the audience did watching it as they couldn’t hold back smiles as they engaged with each other – flinging themselves into each other’s arms – in a mad dash over unseen hurdles.
 
This is Jones at his most delightful.
 
This program will be repeat at 2 p.m. today at Kaatsbaan Culture Park in Tivoli.