Brand new Bill T. ballet bows in Lyons.

LYONS, France--"I don't like assignments, but I think that this has actually turned out to be a pleasant assignment," says choreographer Bill T. Jones of his latest Lyon Opera Ballet commission, for which he was instructed to use the music of Mozart. Both Jones and French choreographer Herve Robbe have created premieres, which with Jiri Kylian's 1991 Petite Mort will comprise "Ballets Mozart," bowing March 8 to 15 at the Lyon Opera House.

Jones picked music from a list provided by the Lyon artistic staff. "A lot of the things on their list were the warhorses, the old chestnuts that we know, that quite frankly I have difficulty even listening to, they are so well-known," he says. "The slow movements were where I could most settle in with my own feelings and with my appreciation of his form, which is what this piece hopefully will be about." For the dance, which at press time was called Green and Blue, Jones chose the andante of the Quartet in F Major, K. 590 and the adagio of the Divertimento in E Flat, K. 563.

"There are going to be two parts," says Jones, "maybe with one section in the middle that connects the two, that will be in silence or maybe it will be a radio with Mozart playing in the distance."

For Jones, who says he usually relies on his emotional reaction to the music to guide the movement, the creative process for this piece has been a departure. "For the first time ever, I am really forcing myself to work with the score," he says, "which is kind of fun, actually--just counting measures and looking at the very simple games that you play creating themes." Jones created the work for seven dancers using just his own body, rehearsal director Janet Wong, and a video camera.

Lyon Opera Ballet artistic director Yorgos Loukos cites multiple reasons for offering an evening of dance to Mozart. "The fact that we have one composer adds an element of unity, first," says Loukos. "Second, I know that asking a very specific thing of a choreographer--and I am doing the opposite very often as well-can help him into channeling his forces and energies and inspiration; and, third, it is interesting to see how three people of different generations, styles, and techniques will work and be inspired by one of the major composers."

U.S. audiences may see this program, Loukos indicated, when the Lyon Opera Ballet tours the country later this year, beginning with stops at Jacob's Pillow and the American Dance Festival in the summer, and extending into the fall.

Jones is also working on a musical theater treatment of Euripides's The Bacchae, which he intends to be "my attempt at a new Broadway; hopefully it will be a popular thing with complexity." He is developing a work for his company called We Set Out Early. . . Visibility was Poor, set to the music of Stravinsky and Estonian composer Petris Bask.

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performs in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 5-7; Knoxville, Tennessee, March 11; Iowa City, Iowa, March 14-15; Boston, March 18-22; and Austin, Texas, March 31-April 1.