BECKET — What’s the secret to Bill T. Jones’ success?
The 73-year-old choreographer continues to create outstanding, engaging dances and has shown no signs of slowing down.
His dance company — Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company — remains in demand and still tours four decades after Jones and his late partner, Zane, founded the group in 1985.
Jones has collaborated with many other world-renowned artists throughout his career, from novelist Toni Morrison to artist Keith Haring, plus singer Jessye Norman, and many others.
He created the choreography for Broadway musicals like “Spring Awakening” (2006) and “FELA!” (2009), which earned Jones two Tony Awards.
The inspiration behind his work has ranged from the AIDS epidemic in “Still/Here”; Abraham Lincoln in “Serenade/The Proposition”; the novel “Moby Dick” in “Deep Blue Sea”; and the random beauty of chance as inspired by the modern music composer John Cage in “Story/Time.”
How does Jones do it?
Where does all his energy and inspiration come from?
Maybe it’s the naps.
“You caught me on a good afternoon,” Jones said during a recent interview with The Republican. “I’ve just taken a nap and I’m all positivity.”
Jones’ dance company returns this month to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time since 2012 to perform two of his company’s well-known works — “D-Man In The Waters” and a site-based version of his 2013 work “Story/”.
This month’s performances mark the 11th time the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company has performed at Jacob’s Pillow. It’s also the first time the company has performed at The Pillow since 2012, when they presented a thrilling performance of “Story/Time.”
The first time Jones’ company came to The Pillow was in 1989, shortly after Zane died in 1988.
“Arnie Zane never played Jacob’s Pillow,” Jones said. “I didn’t go to Jacob’s Pillow until I actually called Liz Thompson (artistic director of Jacob’s Pillow at the time) and said, ‘Don’t you think it’s time that you had us?’ at that time. So, she never had the classic Bill and Arnie duets… That’s when we first went and Jacob’s Pillow has been a very important destination for us.”
This month’s program at The Pillow features a work first presented the same year Jones’ company first performed at the iconic dance venue in the Berkshires. Created in 1989, “D-Man In The Waters” was partly inspired by the dancer Demian Acquavella, who was a member of the dance company and died from AIDS in 1990.
“It’s one of our most popular works and the company looks beautiful doing it,” Jones said. “We’ve spent a lot of time bringing it back, so we’re very proud to show it… It’s a good work to introduce people to the work of the company.”
“D-Man In The Waters” also illustrates how poetic Jones’ pieces can be, something people might not immediately associate with some of Jones’ other best-known, dialogue-heavy works like “Still/Here.”
“I don’t think that my company was associated with musical visualization,” Jones said, adding, “something where you take a great piece of music, in this instance, Mendelssohn’s Octet in E Flat Major and you have a go at it, trying to keep up with the structure of the movement, but employing all your best techniques and dance phrases and energetic kicka– performers.”
The other piece on the program this month at The Pillow is “Story/,” featuring a beautiful piece of music: Franz Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden.”
Jones’ company has been extremely busy the past few months.
This past October, the company performed “Still/Here” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in honor of the work’s 30th anniversary. A mixture of dialogue and dance, “Still/Here” remains one of Jones’ best-known works and will be performed along with several other pieces in the coming months as part of the dance company’s national tour.
“It was a very controversial work,” Jones said, referring to “Still/Here.” “Thirty years later, we were invited back by BAM to remount it, and Janet Wong (the dance company’s associate artistic director) did a heroic job of putting it back up on its feet.”
“It was very, very emotional to see this young, new group of dancers give themselves to something that was made at a time when some of them were not yet born and that’s always a privilege to see,” Jones said.
More recently, Jones performed “Memory Piece,” a series of solos reflecting on influential moments and figures throughout his career.
“That really was a shot in the arm,” Jones said, referring to the solo work. “I had had some knee problems, arthritis in the right leg, right knee, and I had an accident in the left knee, which tore my quad ligament. Took me almost two and a half years, and the question was, would I ever be able to be on my legs again? And lo and behold, I was able to, and I was able to really glide, and I can’t jump, but I can move in an expressive way and that’s all I want from this body.”
This past May, Jones’ company performed “Curriculum III,” which is part of an ongoing series of pieces primarily inspired by questions Jones has about the world and how dance can make sense of it.
“The curriculum cycle is a way of looking at the world and asking, what do we make of this world? What can contemporary dance do in general? How can it express itself? How can it make arguments? How can it entertain and what can dance do?” Jones said.
Through pieces like “Curriculum,“ Jones has addressed topics like immigration, global warming, population growth, women’s rights and mental health. Jones added he hopes to make a fourth installment of ”Curriculum” but is still working out what the piece will be about.
“I believe it’s going to be about the future but I’m not quite sure,” Jones said.
Jones added that he doesn’t see a division between everyday life and making works of art like the dance pieces he creates. That’s why he still feels passionate about creating new works every year.
“I think that’s what’s kept me going,” Jones said. “It’s a way of understanding the world through the act of maintaining a dance company and making movement.”
The Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company performs Aug. 6–10 at Jacob’s Pillow, which is located at 358 George Carter Road, Becket. For tickets or for more information about these upcoming performances and others at Jacob’s Pillow, visit The Pillow’s website: www.jacobspillow.org
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