MANY TALENTS IN ONE VENUE Margot Jones calls herself an independent film maker, director and choreographer, but ask if she’s anything else and she reels off a long list: Singer. Dancer. Clothing designer. And executive director of the West Coast Arts Foundation, which recently opened a studio, classroom and
performance venue in a former icehouse, between E and F Streets in San Rafael. Jones, a resident of Tiburon,
has her hands full, and “When she sets her mind to it, she can do anything,” says Larry Kline, a longtime friend who remodeled the once-funky icehouse into a white-walled, high-tech performance space where cutting-edge artists are expected to appear. Jones, who had her own dance company in Marin in the `60s and `70s, envisions the new space, dubbed
West End, The ideas keep flowing from Jones, a lean and handsome woman. Her new venture She had a number of careers thereafter: “I gave dance classes in my studio on Fourth Street. Some of my students were Robin Williams, Sterling Silliphant, Suzanne Somers and Jon Hendricks.” She performed with Hendricks in his music-drama “Evolution of the Blues,” and became good friends with Silliphant, who enticed her to leave Marin in l978 to work with him in Hollywood. Silliphant, who died earlier this year, wrote and/or produced such films as “Towering Inferno” and “In the Heat of the Night”; Jones did choreography for his films and performed in one called “The Master." She began writing scripts herself and dabbled in filmmaking. She stayed in Los Angeles for 17 years, returning here five years ago to care for her dying father. The creative Urge was still strong: She made a documentary, “Encore for Ruby,” honoring Ruby Christensen, a former principal dancer of the San Francisco Ballet and one of Jones’ favorite teachers. The documentary, completed in 1998, is now a staple on public television. (Christensen, a longtime resident of Sleepy Hollow, died shortly after the film was completed.) Jones is already at work on a second documentary, “The Evolution of Black Dance In America." She is also consulting with piano artist Gini Wilson about a collaborative cabaret act for which Jones would sing. But much other energy is going into the arts foundation and West End studio. “I have a few dreams I'm still working on,” she says — some for herself, some for others. She wanted a space where she could be involved in "anything having to do with the creative process." She laughs at the space she found — and the shape it was in when she found it. “It had no walls, no plumbing. The floor was lopsided cement. The place was up to the ceiling with stuff that was stored in it.” She got help fixing it up from Larry Klein, now assistant technical director of the San Francisco Opera. Jones had known Klein from her dance studio days, when he did lights, sound and set design for company performances. Among their joint efforts was a dance eulogy for Bishop James Pike at the altar of Grace Cathedral. Klein says he was inspired from the first by Jones’ can-do spirit. “I came from a very straight laced family in Kansas and was told all my life I would never make it in the theater. But Margot had overcome her own trials to make things happen in her life, and I thought, ‘If she can do it, I can do it, too.’” He named his daughter for her; Jones is her godmother. Jones and Klein reconnected recently when he heard she was remodeling West End as a dance studio: The Klein Trio, specializing in light jazz, gave the debut show at the West End last month. The trio plays regularly at Savanna Grill, offering jazz standards, but for their West End concert they played original tunes, all written by Mike. “We want to showcase young talent,” says Jones. She also wants to give aspiring stagehands a hands-on experience: she has visited high-school drama classes throughout Mann, offering students the chance to work on lights, sound, and other technical arts. ”The lighting crew for our opening show was from Drake High. School.” The foundation will also award scholarships to gifted young artists, although Jones says the money for a full-fledged program ha yet to be raised. The West End will offer a women’s ballet class, a jazz dance class for adults and children, and a belly dance class. Buffy Ford of Novato, who heads the foundation board and is a longtime friend of Jones, will teach yoga, and she and husband John Stewart, a former member of the Kingston Trio, will give a songwriting work shop. Jones plans once-a-month jazz workshops, with a morning clinic, an afternoon performance for family and friends, and an evening concert for the general public. She says workshops will be given by nationally known jazz artists already in the Bay Area for high-profile performances. “We plan to book performance artists that will be nationally recognized, and attract people of quality in all the arts." She and Ford, who first knew each other through Ford's involvement with her mother, Nancy, in San Anselmo's Festival Theater, talk over each other as they try to explain to the IJ multiple ways in which the foundation and West End will affect the local scene. Ford envisions performing some of her poetry, with cello, flute and violin accompaniment, or a one-woman show at which she will sing. Ford, like Jones, is multi-talented; she sang with Johnny Mathis, wrote TV scripts, and dances in Viva Les Girls. The two cemented their friendship when both worked in Los Angeles, and began designing a line of sports clothes on the side. Dressy Sweats were sold at their own store in Venice and to major stores in the Los Angeles area; the clothes are still manufactured at a large clothing factory in Los Angeles, and while neither woman is actively involved, Ford calls Jones "an amazing dress maker and designer." Jones is "one of the most talented people I know," Ford says, "and in this venture, she will be able to use all her talents in one little space." For Jones, creatively is just who she is. And the West End is a necessary part of her existence: "I needed a place where I could do my work and offer it to other people." Beth Ashley can be reached by email at: bashley@marinij.com
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something to teach. West End will double as a performing-arts classroom and
a studio for aspiring filmmakers who not only need a place to film their work but also to show it to audiences
once it’s done.
