Out in the Mountains

   

 

As a gay men of color, dancer/chore-
ographer Bill T. Jones has had more than
his share of experiences with the forces of
oppression. When his life-long lover Arnie
Zane died of AIDS nearly three years ago,
Jones found himself faced with an even
greater number of challenges. Perhaps the
greatest challenge — and, in J ones's case, the
greatest achievement— came from trying to
express in his own work the incredible
number of overwhelming thoughts and
feelings which surrounded the death of his
partner, and of the AIDS crisis in general.

On Thursday night, January 17, Jones
will present two works at the Flynn The-
atre: "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin"
and "Promised Land." Drawing on the tal-
ents of a number of local dancers (and some
non-dancers) and the live music of Julius
Hemphill and his Sax Sextet, Jones hopes
to present a controversial evening of dance
which will haunt the audience long after the
house lights have come back up.

OIT M asked] ones about some of those
questions, and about his life and work in
general.

OITM: What are your thoughts about
the piece, the work, about coming to Ver-
mont and doing it here? There are rumors
that this is one of the few places that's going
to do the piece in its entirety.

Bill T.Jones: Yes, in theNew England
area - it's going to be done fourteen places
across the country. I want the people doing
it to be comfortable doing it, to be really
motivated, because it demands a lot of me,
and as a result I say to each community,
"Help medo it,and I'lldemanda1otof you."

It demands first of all a willingness to
bring a work that attempts to articulate a lot
of marginalized groups. There's a lot of
talking in this piece, but talking that's say-
ing things about slavery as a metaphor for

any host of people, second-class citizen-
ship as being something that we really
understand in the popular mind associated
with slavery and the civil rights movement.
But can we take this philosophy of libera-
tion as was so perfectly espoused by the
early women's movement, the abolitionist
movement, the civil rights movement, Dr.
King...how far does it stretch? Can you see
it in sexual preference? Can you see it in the
deeper struggle women have for equality
and personhood? Can you see it in terms of
biases against age and body type and that
sort of thing? The piece wants to do that.

OITM: So really bringing these issues
in the piece as a microcosm of the bigger
society, raising issues of race, of sexuality,
of clothing, of nudity...

BTJ: Of body, period.

OITM: And putting them out there,
within the constraints of the piece, but also
to say to the community as a whole, "Do
you buy into doing this?"

BTJ: Right. Where do yod stand on
this? You don't have to agree, but first of all,
do youbelieve we have the right to do it —
that's a big one — and where do you stand
on the issues, and maybe the most central
one? They're all central; thay all swirl
around in the way I talk about them. You'll
see that when you see the work. It's a big
work, a sprawling panorama; it visits lots of
countries and then it ends up in this country
called the "promised land."

One central image and question in it is
"What do you believe?" Ican't tell you what
to believe, but do you have any beliefs? Or
are you a late twentieth-century automa-
ton?

I say to my gay brothers, "Guys, who
are we except a bunch of wounded con-
cerns at this point? How human are we?

   

Dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones will
appear at the Flynn on Jarutary 17

struggle? Can you see yourself in this fat
man? Can you see yourself in this depiction
of slavery in 1852? What do you care
about? What do you love?"

There's one section called "Faith" in
the piece in which we use an area minister,
who tells the story of Job, and I dance it, and
then I interview the minister about faith.

The whole thing is a classic bit. Job is
a rich man who gets everything taken away
from him. God lets the devil kill Job's two
kids, a house falls on them, all his cattle are
slaughtered and stolen, and he's pretty
crushed. And then the devil covers him
with welts and sores — sounds familiar,
right? — and he is a miserable sight. And his

Member National
Lesbian and
Gay Law
Association

ROBERT W. ZEUNER

 

 

18

Can you see yourself in this woman's (Continued 0" nextpdge)
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