BILL T. JONES AT TED2015 - A COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE

From one of the most popular TED Talks, legendary dance choreographer Bill T. Jones and musician friends Joshua Roman and Somi didn't know exactly what was going to happen when they performed at TED2015. They just wanted to offer the audience an opportunity to witness creative collaboration in action. The result was this improvised piece they call "The Red Circle and the Blue Curtain” (YouTube - Bill T. Jones: The dancer, the singer, the cellist ... and a moment of creative magic).

The combined talents of dancer Bill T., cellist Josh, and singer Somi beautifully weave music and dance history into the present. Bill T. begins by describing Isadora Duncan. Angela Isadora Duncan was an American dancer. Born in San Francisco, California, but moved to Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50 in Nice, France. She performed dance to acclaim throughout Europe. Her free-flowing style was revolutionary around 1908.

During Bill T.’s explanation of Duncan’s style, Josh is playing baroque music from 1722 (i.e. Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I by Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged for cello). His exquisite background music is supported by Somi holding long diatonic notes over 4 measures. Bill T. begins to dance in the same style as Duncan with free-flowing movements interpreting the music.

They stop two minutes into their performance and change their twentieth century collaborative interpretation to a current collaboration of improvised synergy. Working together, they ad-lib contemporary rhythmic expressions from both Josh’s cello and Somi’s voice. Sometimes dissonant embellishments drizzle over and thrust into their creative artistry. Then, four minutes and 45 seconds into their performance, they come back to Bach’s diatonic prelude and Bill T. ends flat on the floor, on his back, in the same position as he began.

This was clearly a celebration of collaboration between three skillful artists. But perhaps this was also an appreciative commemorative of the creative courage found in Isadora Duncan. Bill T.’s introduction of Duncan starting her dances with her hands on her chest, then to end on the floor with his hands on his chest, suggests to me that Bill T. was giving tribute to Duncan’s art from her life to her death.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the teeming of young and old, black and white, baroque and contemporary, music and dance. Each individual performance was nothing spectacular or sensational on it’s own. Yet together, it was moving, meaningful, and an excellent example of what art is all about: taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.