Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Who is Bill T Jones?

A dancer, choreographer and artistic director, to begin.  Bill T Jones began discovered dance at Binghamton University, while there on a sports scholarship, where he studied both classical ballet as well as modern dance.  In 1973, he became co-founder of the American Dance Asylum with Luis Welk after returning to Binghamton University.  Two years earlier, he met Arnie Zane who became his partner as well as long-time companion.  Together, they choreographed pioneering solos and duets in the 1970's that often employed openly gay choreography.  One of his most famous works, Still/Here (1995) dealt with the sufferings caused by HIV, with which Jones is infected and which was the cause of Zane’s death.   


Currently, he has created more than 140 works for his own company, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.  Jones has a great interest in new media and technology and often mixes video, text, and autobiographical material with his compositions.  Beyond his own works, Jones had also choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet and Lyon Opera Ballet, among numerous others.  He has won several awards for his innovative choreography, including the 1994 MacArthur "Genius" Award as well as a Tony Award for his work on Broadway.  He also was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2009 and named "An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure" by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2000.  Outside of dance, Jones, who has been HIV-positive since 1985, held a series of workshops with other HIV- and AIDS-infected people.  Furthermore, Jones' memoir, Last Night on Earth, was published by Pantheon Books in 1995.
 


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3 comments:

  1. JacobMarch 12, 2011 at 6:47 PM

    I found it really interesting that he worked on Broadway. Do u happen to know what kind of shows or specific shows he worked on and which he won a Tony for. He has that in common with my choreographer, George Balanchine. They both have a little bit of a history with broadway, as well as a history in work with Ballet companies. I was also really interested in his work with Arnie Zane, more specifically his pieces that pioneered solos and duets dealing with openly LGBT issues. I am currently working in a piece for Summerdances that is focused on a lot of those same issues, so I was quickly interested in that while reading this post.

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  2. Tina CMarch 13, 2011 at 7:49 PM

    Jones won a Tony for his work on Fela! for which he was the co-creator, director and choreographer. It originally ran Off-Broadway in 2008 then opened on Broadway in 2009. He also won a Tony for his choreography in Spring Awakening.

    Because he partnered with Zane in many of his works, that alone was a huge example of his choreography dealing with homosexuality. He currently is working to put some of his old works back together, many of which have not been seen since, and most of which include the duos of Zane and Jones himself. Some of the dances which are said to be included in this revival of dance are "Blauvelt Mountain" (1980) and "Valley Cottage" (1981), part of the trilogy that began with "Monkey Run Road". All of these employ employ choreography that for its time, were somewhat shocking and unaccepted. One newspaper write refused to see his show because of the topics Jones tackled in the performance (but this critic still reviewed it, even without seeing it, so you can imagine the opinion of the review!).

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  3. JacobMarch 15, 2011 at 4:25 PM

    Very cool. You found some really good information on his work and it's really interesting to know that his old works are potentially breaking through the surface once again. Be interesting to see how they'd be reviewed in today's time.

    I feel dumb for not connecting him with Spring Awakening. I love that musical and could have slapped myself on the head while reading that bit of info, haha. Thanks for your reply tina, really cool!

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