The Phantom Project
Evoking A Phantom
In the early eighties, the future was a theoretical, poetic proposition for Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. Although Bill kept a journal, he and Arnie had no interest in maintaining repertory. They were interested in the next piece. And, the piece after that. Every piece should be made fresh and new, they believed. When a work outlived its usefulness, it should be allowed to fall away. Luckily for the dance world, however, an anniversary necessitates looking back as well as looking forward. Today, having arrived at the Twentieth Anniversary Season, the Company finds itself reviving old works, while creating anew; questioning the ephemeral nature of dance itself, while celebrating the lasting reputation they have earned within the dance community.
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's 20th Anniversary Celebration, The Phantom Project, is the first of a multi-year effort. It is an attempt to come to grips with the daunting task of representing this Company's creative output over 20 plus years.
"Because our choreographic and theatrical investigation has been broad and evolutionary, any attempt to retrieve a work from the past is like trying to evoke a phantom," says Jones.
Recollection is a constantly elusive process. So much depends on where the choreographer's mind was and what questions were being asked at the time.
"Revival involves even more questions--putting something on and trying it out until one finds a facsimile or place that is personal and representative of what was inside oneself."
Zane and Jones were trying to build something then. Is it ever the same thing now?
Season Highlights
The Phantom Project - 20th Anniversary Season
The season kicks off with 10 performances at The Kitchen in New York City, September 9 - 20, 2003. The Kitchen provides an opportunity to recall Bill and Arnie's seminal early duets and solos, involving extreme intimacy in partnering and talking. Much of the revival work has never been performed by anyone other than Bill and Arnie. Today, the casting ranges from two tall blond women, to two short African American women, to an African American man and a Chinese man. The new readings of these early works make them fresh again and offers the opportunity for a new generation of viewers to experience them. Bill T. Jones will participate in the programs as narrator/performer as he screens and contextualizes various works.
Our Kitchen season also boasts two events in conjunction with the live performances. On Thursday, September 18, journey through the company's vibrant 20-year history with Bill T. Jones and long-time collaborators and supporters at a TV Dinner panel discussion including video screenings and a vegetarian dinner prior to the evening's performance. Fellow panelists include Gregory Bain, Production Manager and Archivist (1982-2003), Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Elizabeth Zimmer, dance critic, The Village Voice; and Robert Longo, artist. Plus, throughout the month of September The Kitchen Art Gallery will be exhibiting remastered video documentation of Bill and Arnie's early works including Monkey Run Road, Floating the Tongue, and Four Duets found in The Kitchen's prestigious archive.
Then, on February 3 - 7, 2004, four performances at the esteemed Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) represent a different itinerary -- remembering Bill and Arnie's initial invitation there in 1984 when they became part of the first generation of Next Wave Artists. Included on the program at BAM will be The Phantom Project: Still/Here Looking On, a re-examination of Bill's highly controversial Still/Here from 1994 in the context of 30 years of creation, Reading, Mercy and the Artificial Nigger, our latest work, Another Another History of Collage, a reworking of Bill and Arnie's last collaboration, and The Gift/No God Logic, a requiem for four dancers that was one of Arnie's last works.
The celebration expands outside of New York throughout the year, as the Company tours across the country and abroad, including performances in Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Texas, Florida, and Ohio.
The anniversary season also pays homage to Arnie's photography with an exhibition of his photographic and magic lantern work at the Paula Cooper Gallery in downtown New York.
