Bill T. Jones

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Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones in Springfield, Illinois
Born
William Tass Jones

(1952-02-15) February 15, 1952 (age 72)
EducationBinghamton University
Occupation(s)Choreographer, dancer
Spouse(s)Arnie Zane; Bjorn G. Amelan[1]

Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952) is an American choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Jones is Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, the company's home in Manhattan, whose activities encompass an annual presenting season together with allied education programming and services for artists. Independently of New York Live Arts and his dance company, Jones has choreographed for major performing arts ensembles, contributed to Broadway and other theatrical productions, and collaborated on projects with a range of fellow artists. Jones has been called, "one of the most notable, recognized modern-dance choreographers and directors of our time."[2]

Early life and education

Bill T. Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida, the tenth of 12 children born to Estella (née Edwards) and Augustus Jones.[3] His parents were migrant farm workers and later worked in factories.[4] In 1955, when Jones was three, the family relocated to Wayland, New York. Jones was a track star in high school and also participated in drama and debate. After his high school graduation in 1970, he began to attend Binghamton University via a special admissions program for underprivileged students.[5] At Binghamton, he shifted his focus to dance. In an interview, Jones noted, "[Binghamton] was where I first took classes in west African and African-Caribbean dancing. Soon I started skipping track practice to go to those classes. It immediately appealed to me. It was an environment that was not about competition."[5] Jones's dance studies at Binghamton also encompassed ballet and modern dance.[6]

Career

Bill T. Jones Arnie Zane Dance Company

Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982.[7]

Still/Here controversy

Jones's Still/Here (1994) is an evening-length work exploring the experience of receiving and living with a life-threatening medical diagnosis, rooted in Jones’s responses to being diagnosed HIV-positive.[8] It features a video score by artist Gretchen Bender based on excerpts from interviews with people who had received such diagnoses, together with a commissioned musical score, spoken text and movement.[8] Still/Here was well received on its 1994 international tour. Newsweek called it "a work so original and profound that its place among the landmarks of 20th-century dance seems ensured."[9] In late 1994, Arlene Croce, a leading dance critic of the period[10], published an article in the New Yorker saying she would not see or review Still/Here. Croce called the piece "victim art" and observed: "By working dying people into his act, Jones is putting himself beyond the reach of criticism.... Jones has crossed the line between theatre and reality—he thinks that victimhood in and of itself is sufficient to the creation of an art spectacle."[11]

Croce's essay generated considerable discussion, pro and con. The next issue of the New Yorker (January 30, 1995) featured four pages of letters about the article from prominent cultural figures such as Robert Brustein, bell hooks, Hilton Kramer, Camille Paglia and Tony Kushner. In dissent, critic bell hooks observed, "To write so contemptuously about a work one has not seen is an awesome flaunting of privilege—a testimony to the reality that there is no marginalized group or individual powerful enough to silence or suppress reactionary voices. Ms. Croce's article is not courageous or daring, precisely because it merely mirrors the ruling political mood of our time."[12]

The debate broadened to the national press. Author Joyce Carol Oates noted in the New York Times that, "As with the Mapplethorpe obscenity trial of several years ago, the article has raised crucial questions about esthetics and morality, about the role of politics in art and about the role of the professional critic in assessing art that integrates "real" people and events in an esthetic framework.[13] In the magazine Commentary, Terry Teachout expressed his sense that the conflict arose from Croce's arguing for the idea of "art for art's sake" in a time of highly political art.[10] The coverage brought Jones to wider attention. In 2016, Newsweek wrote, "Jones is probably best known outside of dance circles for his 1994 work Still/Here."[14]

Other Collaborators

Creating more than 100 works for his own company, Jones has also choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, AXIS Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and Diversions Dance Company, among others. In 1995, Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, at Alice Tully Hall, commissioned by Lincoln Center’s "Serious Fun" Festival. His collaboration with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do!, premiered at New York’s City Center in 1999.

In 1990, Jones choreographed Sir Michael Tippett’s New Year under the direction of Sir Peter Hall for the Houston Grand Opera and the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. He conceived, co-directed and choreographed Mother of Three Sons, which was performed at the Munich Biennale, New York City Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. He also directed Lost in the Stars for the Boston Lyric Opera. Jones’ theater involvement includes co-directing Perfect Courage with his sister and prolific performance artist, Rhodessa Jones for Festival 2000, in 1990. In 1994, he directed Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.

Jones also collaborated with artist Keith Haring in 1982 to create a series of both performance and visual arts together.

Broadway and off-Broadway

In 2005, Jones choreograped the New York Theater Workshop production of The Seven, a musical by Will Power based on Seven Against Thebes by the classical Greek playwright Aeschylus. The Seven transposed the original work to a modern urban setting and employed a range of musical styles to create what one reviewer called, "a strange new hybrid: a hip-hop musical comedy-tragedy."[15] The play was recognized with three Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Choreography, given to Jones.[16]

Jones was choreographer for the Broadway premiere of the 2006 rock musical Spring Awakening, developed by composer Duncan Sheik and lyricist Steven Sater, and directed by Michael Mayer. The play is based on an 1891 German work that explores the tumult of teenage sexuality. Spring Awakening was widely acclaimed at its premiere and later won eight 2007 Tony Awards, in addition to a range of other recognitions. Jones was recipient of the 2007 Tony Award for Best Choreography.[17]

Jones is co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical Fela!, which ran off-Broadway in 2008 and opened on Broadway in 2009. Jones's collaborators on the project were Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel. The play is based on events in the life of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti and is inspired by Fela: This Bitch of a Life, a 1982 authorized biography of Kuti by Carlos Moore.[18] The Broadway presentation won three Tony Awards, including Best Choreography.[19]

Personal life

Jones is married to Bjorn Amelan, a French national who was raised in Haifa, Israel and several countries in Europe.[20] The two have been together since 1993.[20] Amelan was the romantic and business partner of noted fashion designer Patrick Kelly from 1983 until Kelly’s death from AIDS complications in 1990.[21] In addition to pursuing his own work as a visual artist, Amelan is Creative Director of the Bill T. Jones Arnie/Zane Dance Company and has designed many of the company’s sets since the mid-1990s.[22] The World War II experiences of Amelan's mother, Dora Amelan, are the focus of Jones's work Analogy/Dora: Tramontane (2015).[1]

Jones and Amelan live in Rockland County, New York, just north of New York City, in a house purchased in 1980 by Jones and Arnie Zane.[23] Despite Jones’s long association with New York's performing arts and cultural life, he has never resided in the city.[24]

One of Jones’s sisters, Rhodessa Jones, is a noted San Francisco performance artist, prison-arts educator and Co-Artistic Director of the performance ensemble Cultural Odyssey.[25] Jones’s nephew, Lance Briggs, is the subject of two works performed by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Analogy/Lance (2016) and Letter to My Nephew (2017). Both explore the trajectory of Briggs's life, which descended from promise as a dancer, model and songwriter to involvement with drugs and prostitution, an AIDS diagnosis and becoming paraplegic.[26]

Selected works

Jones has choreographed more than 120 documented works. The following is a representative selection highlighting collaborations with or commissions from notable companies or artists.[27]

Bill T. Jones & Arnie Zane

  • Pas de Deux for Two (1973)
  • Across the Street (1975)
  • Monkey Run Road (1979)
  • Blauvelt Mountain (1980)
  • Valley Cottage (1981)
  • Rotary Action (1982)
  • Intuitive Momentum (1983) [Music, Max Roach; decor, Robert Longo]
  • Secret Pastures (1984) [Decor, Keith Haring; costumes, Willi Smith]
  • The Animal Trilogy (1986)
  • The History of Collage (1988)

Bill T. Jones

  • Everybody Works/All Beasts Count (1975)
  • Holzer Duet... Truisms (1985) [Text by Jenny Holzer]
  • Virgil Thompson Etudes (1986) [Costumes, Bill Katz & Louise Nevelson]
  • D-Man in the Waters (1989)
  • It Takes Two (1989)
  • Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land (1990)
  • Absence (1990)
  • Broken Wedding (1992)
  • Still/Here (1994)
  • We Set Out Early...Visibility Was Poor (1997)
  • Black Suzanne (2002)
  • Chapel/Chapter (2006)
  • A Quarreling Pair (2006)
  • Serenade/The Proposition (2008)
  • Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray (2009)
  • Story/Time (2014)

Commissions & Collaborations

Major awards and honors

Filmography

Film appearances

References

  1. ^ a b Johnson, Robert (June 13, 2015). "Bill T. Jones's Slow Dance Through History". Forward. Retrieved 9 October 2017. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  2. ^ John, Rockwell. "Bill T. Jones/A Good Man: Biographical Essay and Tribute". PBS. Archived from the original on July 23, 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  3. ^ "Jones, Bill T." The Black Past.org. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  4. ^ Small, Michael (July 31, 1989). "Bill T. Jones Choreographs An Anguished Tribute to His Late Partner, a Victim of AIDS". People. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  5. ^ a b O'Mahony, John (June 11, 2004). "Body Artist". Retrieved 3 October 2017. {{cite news}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  6. ^ "About/Bill T. Jones". New York Live Arts. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  7. ^ Julinda Lewis-Ferguson (2 February 2007). "Bill T. Jones". Queer Cultural Center. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
  8. ^ a b Kisselgoff, Anna (December 2, 1994). "Dance Review: Bill T. Jones's Lyrical Look At Survivors". Archived from the original on November 28, 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  9. ^ Shapiro, Laura (November 7, 1994). "Dancing in death's house". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 19, 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  10. ^ a b Teachout, Terry (March 1, 1995). "Victim Art". Commentary Magazine. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  11. ^ Croce, Arlene (December 26, 1994). "Discussing the Undiscussible". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on April 23, 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  12. ^ Various Authors (January 30, 1995). "In The Mail: Who's the Victim? Dissenting Voices Answer Arlene Croce's Critique of Victim Art". The New Yorker. pp. 10–13. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  13. ^ Oates, Joyce Carol (February 19, 1995). "Confronting Head On the Face of the Afflicted". New York Times. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  14. ^ Elder, Sean. "A French Jewish Nurse's Harrowing Holocaust Tale, Brought to Life by Dance". Newsweek. Archived from the original on August 18, 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  15. ^ Isherwood, Charles (February 13, 2006). "Riffing and Scratching and Remixing Aeschylus". New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  16. ^ "2006 Nominations & Recipients". Lucille Lortel Awards. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  17. ^ "Spring Awakening". Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  18. ^ "Settlement reached in long-running Fela Kuti dispute". The Latest. March 4, 2012. Archived from the original on June 16, 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  19. ^ "Fela!". Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  20. ^ a b Traiger, Lisa. "Story of survival and resilience". Washington Jewish Week. Archived from the original on December 18, 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  21. ^ "I Do Thee Wed". Out Magazine. January 18, 2012. Archived from the original on June 14, 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  22. ^ Corbett, Rachel (April 27, 2016). "In a Secluded New York Garage, Bjorn Amelan Makes a High-Profile Debut". Blouin Artinfo. Archived from the original on July 20, 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  23. ^ Kaye, Elizabeth (March 6, 1994). "Bill T. Jones". New York Times. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  24. ^ Jones, Bill T., with Peggy Gillespie (1995). Last Night on Earth. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 144. ISBN 9780679439264.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ Hurwitt, Robert (February 21, 2010). "Rhodessa Jones' life a cultural odyssey". SF Gate. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  26. ^ Siebert, Brian (October 4, 2017). "Review: A Message-Heavy Bill T. Jones Dance-Theater Collage". New York Times. Retrieved 9 October 2017. {{cite news}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  27. ^ Information in this section from: Jones, Bill T. (Summer 2005). "Chronology of Works". TDR: The Drama Review. 49 (2): 39–44.. Information on Jones's work is also available at: "Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company/Past Repertory". New York Live Arts. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  28. ^ a b c d e "Bessie Awards Archive". The Bessies. Archived from the original on August 23, 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  29. ^ Snow, Shauna (June 8, 1991). "Dorothy Chandler Awards Scale Down Scope". L.A. Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  30. ^ "Bill T. Jones". The Dorothy & Lillian Gish Prize. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  31. ^ "The Wexner Prize". Wexner Center for the Arts. Archived from the original on September 10, 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  32. ^ "2006 Nominations & Recipients". Lortell Award. Archived from the original on February 25, 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  33. ^ "07 Obie Awards". Obie Awards. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  34. ^ "2009 Nominations & Recipients". Lortell Award. Archived from the original on September 30, 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  35. ^ "Past Arison Awardees". Young Arts Foundation. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  36. ^ "News & Stories". Creative Capital. April 22, 2014. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017.
  37. ^ Bill T. Jones: Dancing to The Promised Land. VIEW Video.

External links

Further reading

By Bill T. Jones

  • Bill T. Jones with Peggy Gillespie. Last Night on Earth. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995. ISBN 9780679439264.
  • Bill T. Jones and Susan Kuklin. Dance. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 1997. ISBN 9780786803620.
  • Bill T. Jones. Story/Time: The Life of an Idea. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691162706.

By other authors

  • Jonathan, Green, editor. Continuous Replay: The Photographs of Arnie Zane. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN 9780262571272.
  • Walker Art Center. Art Performs Life : Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1998. ISBN 9780935640564.
  • Elizabeth Zimmer and Susan Quasha, editors. Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones & Arnie Zane. Barrytown, N.Y.: Station Hill Press. ISBN 9780882680644.