Dance With Meaning
Jones/Zane Dance Company makes dance multimedia movement
Monday, March 17, 2008
print
|
email
|
digg
|
del.icio.us
Durham, NC -- Last year, Aaron Greenwald, director of Duke Performances, saw the premiere of Chapel/Chapter by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in New York City and was incredibly moved by the multimedia dance performance.
“He was somehow able to demonstrate in the piece the brutality of imprisoning folks and then raise questions about our complicity in that,” Greenwald says.
At the same time, Greenwald says, the performance itself was beautiful. “Bill is always working with very, very beautiful, athletic dancers. And his choreography is gorgeous,” he says. “So he is able to address some of the provocative issues you might be able to address in theater while still maintaining the highest levels of dance performance.”
After seeing the premiere, Greenwald invited the company to perform Chapel/Chapter at Duke. “It’s really important that we have the opportunity to show it here,” he says, “because he is one of the great artists of this time.”
The dance company, founded by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, who died in 1988, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Jones, 55, has received numerous awards over the years, including the MacArthur “genius” award in 1994 and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005.
Chapel/Chapter tells and retells three true stories using dance, spoken word, live instrumental and vocal music, as well as a carefully designed set and video images projected on the floor and wall. Two of the stories, drawn from the news media, involve murder. The third story is a childhood experience of the dancers. An actor on stage and the singers tell or sing the stories, in some cases reciting actual court transcripts.
Janet Wong has been with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane since 1996, and is now the associate artistic director and video designer. She says the entire company participates in creating a piece. piece.
“There is an idea to begin with when you go into the studio but it’s a little vague,” she says. “You find ingredients, you find text, you put it together. It’s a collaborative effort and everyone is required to think hard.”
Wong found working on Chapel/Chapter particularly satisfying.
“There is a very strong marriage of everything from movement to visual to sound and music to text,” says Wong. “When you lay all these very potent ingredients together, something else gets revealed.”
That “something else” can vary for people. Says Wong, “It’s up to each individual person — whether an audience member, dancer, choreographer or myself — to catch that and absorb it.”
The Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, in Page Auditorium. Tickets are $25-$46 for the public, $5 for Duke students. For more information, call 660-3356 or click here.
