Jacob Jonas formed his company in 2014 and in just two years has managed to move Jacob Jonas The Company into the forefront of the Los Angeles dance scene. He was nominated by Dance Magazine as “Best Emerging Choreographer” and named “Best New Force in L.A. Dance” by LA Weekly in 2016. At the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Jonas proved that he is an emerging artistic force nationally, and Los Angeles should be proud that he has chosen to base his company here. The work is rich, moving, athletic, still and thoughtful. And, the dancers are very good.
There is a photograph on the company’s website of Jonas standing on his head against a concrete wall, his hands in his jacket pockets and looking extremely relaxed. If you rotate the photo, he appears to be peacefully standing there observing the world around him. Jonas’s work has that same serenity and observant quality, while at times also reflecting society’s turmoil. In his dance photography, his subjects emit that same quality of quiet action. As with all good artists, Jonas’ creations reflect how he sees the world, the people in it, and their interactions with and upon each other.
People walking at different paces and in opposing directions give the feel of urban life, and a few folding chairs help evoke multiple spaces for In A Room on Broad St. The work had its 2014 première in New York and via his choreography people interact, argue and make up. Groups convene and leaders take charge. In one haunting section, the cast moves across the stage and back while mixing and stirring together like a pulsating sea of humanity in Dante’s Inferno. Dancers moving in and out of a single light focused centerstage creates a microscope for Jonas to zoom in on how people depend on, support or control one another. A reflective duet with Jonas and Anibal Sandova examines the strong, somewhat intimate bond between two men who are almost always connected back-against-back. They support and struggle with tensions that rise between them, but what endures is their strong affection for one another. Lamonte “Tales” Goode gives a powerful performance as his supple limbs project emotions while moving like string being knotted and untied. Jonas understands the power in stillness and he uses it wisely to strengthen this work. It only suffers from an occasional unnecessary backflip.
Fly was inspired by the pulsating lines on a heart monitor. For the entire work, dancers move across the front of the stage, then use movement phrases to represent the familiar heart monitor spikes. They travel off stage, around backstage to appear again from the original side; always in a counter clockwise direction. They start off walking, then running; periodically bursting into a forward moving phrase. They keep repeating the path and the same similar movements as the heartbeat quickens, flutters, stops, resumes and finally flatlines. Fly is minimalist in its structure, but filled with tension, anxiety and exhaustion created by its repetitiveness and drive.