The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company was born in 1982 out of an 11-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948–1988). During this time, they redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance. The Company has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the dance-theater world.
The repertory of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is widely varied in its subject matter, visual imagery and stylistic approach to movement, voice and stagecraft and includes musically-driven works as well as works using a variety of texts. The Company has been acknowledged for its intensely collaborative method of creation that has included artists as diverse as Keith Haring, Cassandra Wilson, The Orion String Quartet, the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, Fred Hersch, Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, Julius Hemphill and Daniel Bernard Roumain, among others. The collaborations of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company with visual artists were the subject ofArt Performs Life (1998), a groundbreaking exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN.
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company continues its exploration of chance as a mechanism for creating work with /Time: Study I, a unique, site‐specific work created at CounterPulse. With this work, Bill T. Jones returns to his roots, creating work in smaller, more intimate spaces. This new work, which relies on the laws of chance, will take place in a venue that is known as a key site in the global network of improvised dance. Inspired by legendary artist and composer John Cage’s Indeterminacy, the company will employ chance procedure to create a new collage of dance and music. Composer, musician, and intermedia artist Ted Coffey’s often minimal and shifting score offers another perspective on Cage’s methods in which time is the unifying element. The experience challenges audience members to find meaning and connection in the sweep of randomized, disparate elements.
Year after year, CounterPulse brings you a little taste of everything that the Bay Area art scene has to offer and this Spring Season is no different! From contemporary dance to nightlife experiences to board game nights, there’s something for everyone coming up at 80 Turk! Want to bring a plus one to the show? […]
2022 marked a historic shift for CounterPulse – we raised the funds we need to buy our building in downtown San Francisco! As we work to make our dream a reality, we’re counting on our supporters who have seen us from the beginning of this campaign to support our work year-round. I want to offer […]
Written By: Alyssa Miller As queer performance art becomes more mainstream nationally and in San Francisco, it is important to recognize and support those queer artists who are eccentric even within their own communities. Drag performance artist Pseuda embodies the essence of unconventionality. They incorporate dark imagery and themes that are not common within the […]
CounterPulse was founded over 30 years ago in an oversized living room by a collective of artists who started producing shows and inviting their friends. They were fortunate enough to have that space to gather, so their community began to grow. We have always maintained the alchemy of those grassroots beginnings: part emergent and iterative, […]
Unsettled/Soiled Group is a group of East, Southeast, and South Asian diasporic movers, makers, and settlers on Ramaytush and Chochenyo Ohlone land. Unsettled/Soiled Group is led by June Yuen Ting, one of CounterPulse’s 2022 ARC Performing Diaspora artists and will debut Dwelling for Unsettling alongside VERA!’s Try, Hye!, Thursday through Saturday, December 8-10 & 15-17, 2022