STILL HERE

STILL/HERE, a powerful recreation of Bill T. Jones’ 1994 groundbreaking and controversial piece, appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Developed in 1992 in workshop format as a search into the soul and lives of people facing death or dying, the work was one of the first artistic explorations to reveal issues of the AIDS crisis. Developed around the country engaging people from all walks of life telling their stories, it became a dance drama. STILL/HERE explores “birth, death, and life in between.”

Thirty years later, with a new cast and updated media presentation, he attempts to revive the original work.  It is overly long (120 minutes and one long intermission), with almost too much collaboration… contributing to a lack of the passion and investment the earlier cast and designers must have communicated. This viewer learned a lot about the crisis in people’s lives as they wrangled with disease and possible death,  but was unable to feel due to the overload of information. 

A packed house/adoring audience witnessed the entire company of ten on stage in white costumes (Liz Prince) as the curtains rose.  They alternate upper body gestures and whole body shapes, as they speak the name and statements of a past workshop participant, offering a sense of hope and affirmation.  At one point the majority turn their backs to us, pillars in stillness, as two capture and support one who staggers, falls, and rises. 

The musical score by Kenneth Frazelle ends this section with vocal singing “Still…still… (Odetta) as the company departs, leaving one man spotlighted, changing positions, precariously balancing on one leg and then the other. 

Section Two becomes an exploration of “life in between” with stories of struggle and survival captured in photographs and vocal footage of workshop participants describing their realities of illness, treatment, bargains with God. Stage design and media environment by Gretchen Bender presents various screens, colored in blue, pink, red, and black, with faces of regular people. Then dancers fade in and out in slow motion, with the knowledge that a death sentence is ever present.

All of this video information fuels the dancers as they abstractly enact well rehearsed and impeccable movements and interactions that hurry by…perhaps life happening in spite of the other? It’s almost too much to capture. But maybe this is Jones’ intention? The sound text of this piece plays a significant role, allowing us to hear first hand statements of family members or victims: “Her eyes were blank, I was blank. Beyond words.”

Jones writes: “Mortality is an aspect of the human condition that does not follow fashions or aesthetic conversations. It is a powerful fact that we can only stand our ground in the face of…or we fall down and are swept away…”

STILL/HERE stands as a testament to Bill T. Jones’ deep investigation of personal and cultural pain; still here, thirty years later. 

The recreation of STILL/HERE is produced by New York Live Arts with lead support by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef and Arpels.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman