TV REVIEW : Jones/Zane Dancers on PBS

PBS’ “Dance in America” undertakes a bizarre mission tonight (at 9 on KVCR Channel 24 and at 10 on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15): presenting an hourlong promotion for a performance project that no longer exists.

In form and content, “Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Company” looks exactly like one of those behind-the-scenes profiles of upcoming motion pictures that can be seen everywhere from “Entertainment Tonight” to MTV. We’re shown rehearsal footage and a few short production clips from Jones’ dance epic “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land” intercut with cast interviews and Jones’ comments on how his personal history shaped the piece.

Jones makes a thoughtful, ingratiating host. Speaking from theaters, rehearsal halls and the home he shared with Zane before losing him to AIDS, he clarifies the issues of fragmentation, dissonance and irony in his choreography and provides lecture-demonstrations on his creative responses to racism, sexism, homophobia and fear of nudity.

For those who saw “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land” last March at UCLA, such belated insights prove fascinating. Indeed, Jones’ constant involvement and commentary provide precisely what was missing on stage most of the time: his presence, his voice.

But the production’s 22-city tour is long since over and, by itself, this telecast can’t hope to satisfy the interest it generates. There’s less sustained dancing to be seen here than in perhaps any episode in the “Dance in America” series.

At one point, Jones provides detailed explanations of solos in the “Eliza” sequence, but the solos themselves are cut to mere snippets--as if talk about dance were more important than dance itself. The nude finale gets a few uninterrupted minutes, but director Mischa Scorer is so discreet about camera angles that he keeps cutting from close-ups of Arthur Aviles’ upper torso to long shots so distant they seem to have been taken from a weather satellite.

In a better world, PBS would be telecasting the complete “Last Supper . . . The Promised Land” with this hour serving as prologue. By itself, it’s too little and too late.