Clarity of Vision in ‘Visibility Was Poor’

Many of the choreographies that introduced the team of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane to local audiences in the 1980s used place names as their titles and, in a sense, Jones’ latest full-evening creation for the Jones/Zane Dance Company can be seen as a journey back through that creative landscape--across “Secret Pastures,” past “Fever Swamp” toward “Blauvelt Mountain”--and on to a homecoming in prime postmodern terrain.

Danced in Royce Hall at UCLA on Saturday, “We Set Out Early . . . Visibility Was Poor” betrays no trace of Jones’ theme- and text-driven theater pieces about race and mortality that left dance strictly marginal but caused their creator to be alternately lionized and demonized in this decade.

Instead, the work luxuriates in the freedom of pure movement, the postmodern birthright to use music any which way except literally and above all, perhaps, the moment-by-moment choice between quoting multiple preexisting movement idioms (including ballet and pop dance) versus conjuring up a brand-new language built on the tension between a fluid torso and limbs wielded like poles.

Propelled by big contrasts between those vocabularies, between stillness and frenzy, between forceful unisons and quasi-improvisational looseness, the three-part work also features major shifts in music and decor. Part 1 (“On the TSII”) uses Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat” and a decorative metal sculpture by Bjorn G. Amelan as an environment for restless but mostly playful extroversion. Linkups that will be structurally important later on begin here, between Germaul Barnes and Eric Bradley in the “Tango,” for example.

Very much a prominent factor in the work’s evolution, Robert Wierzel’s lighting design darkens in Part 2 (“Cape Bardo”) to give maximum impact to a huge, glowing oval moon in its orbit while brief excerpts from scores by John Cage resonate in the gloom. Some of the dancers reassemble the metal sculpture into a flying chariot, others seem to hover in the air on their own.

As the lights come up for Part 3 (“Voiceland”), we notice that Liz Prince’s black-and-white costumes for the opening section have been replaced by simplified versions in soft tones of pale blue, gray and beige. Peteris Vasks’ symphonic “Stimmen” generates a hot orchestral wash as the dancers divide into groups of people compulsively jabbering at one another and lone individuals on private missions.

In the end, Barnes leads a gyrating pop-dance ensemble while Bradley moves to a different, personal impetus. The ensemble disperses and Barnes and Bradley are alone, side by side but dancing in different worlds--until Barnes reaches out to make contact. It’s the final statement of dancer closeness that informs the whole work--not the usual enforced display of “we love to dance” painted smiles but a shared awareness that each fleeting moment with someone on stage is a unique and precious human relationship, as full of possibilities and rewards as any lifelong partnership.

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Some reviewers have seen “We Set Out Early . . . Visibility Was Poor” as an impressionistic odyssey through the 20th century. At times, however, it plays more like a Jones bestiary, with the dancers displaying their expertise at bird-calls, meows, stork-walks and pecking motions. But it also can be interpreted as an abstract autobiography, summarizing a career marked by joyous initial discoveries and achievements (including those of friends and colleagues), a period of darkness following Zane’s death and a current time of isolation in which Jones feels continually over-scrutinized while he dances.

Happily, the joyous interaction of his fine 10-member company and his upbeat ending suggests that dancing gives back to Jones whatever he needs to keep going, a theory also supported by an unscheduled addition to the program: “Etude,” a complex 1998 solo to the third movement of Beethoven String Quartet No. 16, Op. 135. With wide reaches melting into shoulder ripples and torso eddies, this 10-minute showpiece confirms Jones’ prowess as a performer--a master at sustaining the feeling of flow even when motionless and particularly brilliant at reconciling extreme contradictions between sharply defined ballet steps and modern dance liquidity.

In “We Set Out Early . . . Visibility Was Poor,” Barnes and Bradley arguably embody the public flair and private vulnerability of Jones as man and artist. “Etude,” however, shows Jones himself setting out late (age 47) but with no loss of prowess to forge ambitious new connections and resolve daunting old dichotomies--with visibility absolutely perfect.