Andrea Smith carrying Erick Montes in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s “Chapel/Chapter.” Photo by Paul B. Goode
On July 16, Andrea Edwin Smith, a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, died of AIDS-related illnesses. He was 41 years old.
It is terrible any time death finds someone so young, and Andrea’s passing has a particular poignancy: Arnie Zane died of AIDS-related lymphoma in 1988, age 39, and Bill T. Jones has been living with HIV since the 1980s. On July 11, I attended a performance by the company and afterward, the dancer Leah Cox came on stage to ask that audience members give to the Dancers Responding to AIDS fund. This is a routine occurrence, but there was nothing routine about the emotion that thickened and made raw her voice. Andrea would have performed with the company had he not fallen ill shortly before; instead the work shown that night, “Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition,” has been formally dedicated to him. The disease, Leah told us, “has affected this company in ways you’ll never know.”
I didn’t know Andrea very well. I remember him, both in rehearsals and performances, as a humorous, quick-witted and strong presence. He will be - he is - missed.
Download Title
July 29th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Oh how sad, how tragic. AIDS HAS really affected that company. Thank you for this nice tribute. I’ve seen far too little of Bill T. Jones’s work.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Yeah, it really is … given how catastrophically AIDS initially hit the arts world, we (or at least I) tend to forget that it’s still having an impact.
I hope everyone will take a look at the video tribute Janet Wong, the company’s associate artistic director, made - it’s lovely.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Wow, I am shocked. I went to school with Andrea and just saw him when Bill T was in VA a few months ago. I had no idea he was sick.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:42 am
I am so fortunate to have seen him in Chapter/Chapel when the company came through Chicago in the spring. It was a thrilling and moving performance. So sad and sorry to hear–what a huge loss.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
In rehearsals a few months ago he looked great - seems it was a shock for everyone. Thanks so much for writing in, Boris and Elizabeth.
August 16th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Dear Claudia,
Thank you for posting this. I too was at the July 11 performance at ADF and moderated the post-performance discussion after the show, with Janet, Chris Lancaster (composer) and also Meredith Monk. Knowing that Andrea died only 5 days later has had an extra tragic impact.
I thought I’d respond to your specific comment of July 29 “…given how catastrophically AIDS initially hit the arts world, we (or at least I) tend to forget that it’s still having an impact.” So true…
Lar Lubovitch’s well-known, 1986 “Concerto Six Twenty-Two” was shown at ADF in late-June, particularly re-conjuring and re-connecting many of us to those years of constant loss, and the male duet that came to symbolize that time. Twenty years later, some of us sat in the audience and cried again. During the summer, many of us discussed several times how the younger dance/art world generation has little knowledge or understanding of how devastating the on-going AIDS crisis was, on a daily basis, and I think this is partially due to our own lack remembering/of giving voice. It was only a short while ago, and yet, we rarely talk about it…even the list of names I kept adding to in the 1980’s and 90’s, I can’t recall where I’ve kept it.
This is a larger topic of concern. I have begun to work on a new piece, to be seen next summer at ADF, based on these issues, but mostly to remember. To remember those we lost, and to remember, as you pointed out, that it is very much still with us.
August 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Thank you for writing, Janis. I’m curious what you think is the best/most effective way to give voice to this ongoing issue, and remember - for artists and others? Or will the answer lie in this new work?
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Claudia, I am grappling with just that question you’ve raised. That’s why I mentioned my feeling that it really is a larger topic of concern. I don’t think my new, brief work will find answers exactly; it is only one work, but it does intend to lay bare “the list”–the faces, names, dancing bodies– as they disappear and more importantly re-appear, on video, into Rothko’s transcendent late paintings; the “floating rectangles”, as the dance itself continues. For me, and for many others, these Rothko works are the essence of presence and absence, deep space and shallow space, past and present, and a longing to be “within the picture”, as Rothko also wished for his audience. It will be an attempt, in aesthetic terms, at re-igniting the dialogue, at least re-igniting the need to remember. Organizations such as BC/EFA and DRA still go on valiantly, but even they seem to be less present somehow. Perhaps as one male friend said, we were so completely exhausted and bereft emotionally and psychically, and that it was too painful to keep constantly remembering, that we needed to rest. To put them in a more personal, quiet place, “on a higher shelf–a little out of reach”, he said. But also, “sometimes they revisit, they invade…”
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
That’s a beautiful description of Rothko’s paintings.
What you’re describing sounds awfully similar to the wider cultural waning of interest in AIDS, doesn’t it? Would you say it’s the same thing, or somehow different? Too painful for those who were hit hardest, maybe, and for those who weren’t, the feeling that the disease is no longer a life-sentence due to improvements in treatment .. obviously I’m way oversimplifying.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Thank you for remembering Andrea. I am so blessed to have known such an incredible man. I will love you always, Poochie.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I am delighted to read the responses of those who knew Andrea. I was able to spend an evening on the stage in Durham North Carolina as Andre performed graciously in Chapel/Chapter. I will always cherish those last moments that we shared just a few months before he passed. Andrea grew up with my daughter in the same community, the same school, became a part of our family, our lives; and has always loved, respected and praised me as his Mom; as I did him a son. I am proud to have shared the joys of his many accomplishments and most of all the love that he, Kim and I shared for many, many years.