Bill T. Jones: A Life in Dance

Bill T. Jones was born February 15, 1952, in Bunnell, Florida, the 10th child of migrant farmworkers. He found dance at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and there began the partnership with Arnie Zane that grew into the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company — one of the defining companies of modern dance.

Jones mixes modern and traditional dance forms and asks audiences to sit with hard subjects. His choreography reaches past steps alone, folding in spoken narrative, multimedia, and his own life. "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land" takes on race, sexuality, and faith — territory Jones has wrestled with himself. The cast included performers who broke with conventional gender norms, and the piece used nudity not to degrade anyone but as a sign of acceptance and beauty.

Then came "Still/Here" in 1994, built around people living with life-threatening illnesses like AIDS and cancer. The piece drew both acclaim and controversy, and it set off a real fight over what art is allowed to do: some critics praised its emotional depth, others attacked it as too nakedly political. Jones did not back off. That refusal is his reputation.

His reach goes well past his own company. He has made work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Lyon Opera Ballet, and the Berlin Opera Ballet. On television, his credits include PBS's "Great Performances" and the Emmy-winning documentary "Free to Dance."

The honors run long: a 2007 Tony Award for his choreography in "Spring Awakening," the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, a MacArthur "Genius" Award in 1994, and the 2013 National Medal of Arts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyTDgqOM1m8

In 1982, Jones co-founded the American Dance Asylum with Lois Welk, working alongside Arnie Zane, his partner in dance and in life. Together they put same-sex couples on stage and broke up the old male/female partnering rules, making dances about gender, sexuality, racism, and HIV/AIDS when few others would. After Zane died in 1988, Jones's work turned toward grief — "D-Man in the Waters" stands as his tribute to those lost to AIDS, Zane among them.

Four decades in, Jones keeps proving that dance can carry an argument. The work is art and activism at the same time, and it still unsettles audiences. That has always been the point.