Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company to Perform in CFA on April 20

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Center for the Arts will finish the 2001-02 KeyBank Dance Series with a performance by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at 8 p.m. on April 20 in the Mainstage Theatre of the Center for the Arts on UB's North (Amherst) Campus.

Media sponsors for The KeyBank Dance Series are Adelphia Media Services and 96.1, WJYE-FM.

Founded as a multicultural dance company in 1982, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is the product of an 11-year collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. It emerged onto the international scene in 1982 with the world premiere of "Intuitive Momentum" with legendary drummer, Max Roach, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since then the 10-member company has performed its ever-increasing repertoire (currently more than 50 works) in more than 130 American cities and 30 countries. The company has taught and performed under the aegis of the United States Information Agency in Asia and Southeast Asia. Audiences of approximately 100,000 annually see the company perform across the country and around the world.

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's work has been described as a fusion of dance and theater. The repertoire is highly diverse in subject matter, visual imagery and the length of each dance, which range from 15 minutes to two hours. Some of its most celebrated creations are evening-length works, including "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land" (1990), which premiered as part of the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; "Still/Here" (1994), which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Jones' solo production, "The Breathing Show" (1999). The company's current production, "You Walk?," received its world premiere in Hancer Auditorium at the University at Iowa in March.

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will be in residence at UB April 1-20. The dancers are scheduled to offer lecture-demonstrations, workshops for UB dance students, master classes for dancers from UB and the community and performances for school children. The company will perform in several area high schools, as well as present a public dance concert. For more information regarding the residency, call Rob Falgiano at 645-6921.

Bill T. Jones, a 1994 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living in Amsterdam, Jones returned to SUNY, where he became co-founder of the American Dance Asylum in 1973. Before forming Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, Jones choreographed and performed nationally and internationally as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane. In addition to the MacArthur Fellowship, Jones has received several other prestigious awards, including the Creative Artists Public Service Award in Choreography in 1979. He was the recipient of Choreographic Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980, 1981 and 1982.

Arnie Zane (1948-1988) was born in the Bronx and also was educated at the State University of New York at Binghamton. In 1971, Arnie Zane and Bill T. Jones began their long collaboration in choreography and in 1973 formed with Lois Welk the American Dance Asylum in Binghamton. Zane's first recognition in the arts came in photography when he received a Creative Artists Public Service Fellowship in 1973. Zane was the recipient of a second CAPS Fellowship in 1981 for choreography, as well as choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1983 and 1984. In 1980, Zane was co-recipient, with Jones, of the German Critics Award for his work, "Blauvelt Mountain." "Rotary Action," a duet with Jones,was filmed for television, co-produced by WGBH-TV in Boston and Channel 4 in London. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre commissioned a new work from Zane and Jones, "How to Walk an Elephant," which premiered at Wolftrap in August 1985. Zane and Jones received a 1985-86 New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award for choreographer/creator.

Tickets for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company are $20, $16 and $12 for the general public and $10 for UB students. Discount coupons are available at all area KeyBank locations. Tickets are available from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday at the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's and Movies Plus. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call (416) 870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information call 645-ARTS or visit the Center for the Arts Web site at http://www.arts.buffalo.edu.