A Q&A with Bill T. Jones

dancers practice — Dancer Shaneeka Harrell of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company visits a class at COCA, the Center of Creative Arts, Sept. 23, 2016. The class was led by Kirven Douthit-Boyd, COCA’s co-artistic director of dance as well as a faculty member in the Dance program in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences. (Photo: Sid Hastings/Washington University)

Bill T. Jones is a world-renowned choreographer and dancer. At 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, Jones will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2016-17 International Humanities Prize. The ceremony, which will take place in Edison Theatre, will include a lecture by Jones titled “A Talk on Art, Love and History.”

Few have shaped contemporary American dance as profoundly as Bill T. Jones. Beginning in the 1970s, Jones and his late partner, Arnie Zane, tackled issues of racism, sexism and sexual identity while also experimenting with video, spoken narrative and other multimedia elements. Works such as “Still/Here” and “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land” — which Jones created in the wake of Zane’s death, in 1988 — captured both the emotional toll of the AIDS crisis and a stubborn refusal to succumb. This fall, Jones will receive the 2016 International Humanities Medal from Washington University in St. Louis. Granted biennially, the medal honors the lifetime work of a noted scholar, writer or artist who has made a significant and sustained contribution to the world of letters or the arts. Previous winners include Orhan Pamuk (2006), Michael Pollan (2008), Francine Prose (2010), Ken Burns (2012) and Marjorie Perloff (2014). “Our core mission in the humanities is to explore the human condition across time and space,” said Jean Allman, the J.H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities and director of the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, which administers the award. “Through humanistic inquiry we excavate, we discover, we reflect upon, and we analyze that condition whether in all of its horror or in all of its beauty and wonder. “Bill T. Jones, by any measure, is one of the most influential humanists of our time,” Allman said. “His works have not only inspired generations of dancers and choreographers — they have shaped the ways we think about the arts and the complexity of issues they engage.” Jones, artistic director of New York Live Arts, will receive the medal, which is accompanied by a $25,000 prize, during a public ceremony in the university’s Edison Theatre Sept. 29. In addition, Dance St. Louis will present the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in concert Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. (Photo: Lois Greenfield) Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. (Photo: Lois Greenfield) “Bill T. Jones is without question one of our greatest living choreographers,” said Paige McGinley, assistant professor of performing arts in Arts & Sciences, who nominated Jones for the award. “So much more than a social comment ‘about’ sexuality, blackness, or AIDS, Jones’ dances marry a formally brilliant movement vocabulary to images, texts and sounds. “The resulting works push audiences to rethink the relationship between the intimate and the political, between bodies and histories,” McGinley said. “Jones’ choreography has shone new light on historical figures that we thought we knew (such as Fela Kuti and Abraham Lincoln) as well as on marginalized people who are not often made the subject of art.” The International Humanities Medal is generously supported by Dr. David and Phyllis Wilson Grossman. For more information, visit cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. (Photo: Lois Greenfield) Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. (Photo: Lois Greenfield) Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. (Photo: Lois Greenfield) “Analogy/Dora: Tramontane” (Photo: Paul B. Goode) “Analogy/Dora: Tramontane” (Photo: Paul B. Goode) From “Body Against Body” (Photo: Paul B. Goode) “Spent Days out Yonder” (Photo: Paul B. Goode) “Story/” (Photo: Paul B. Goode) About Bill T. Jones Jones was born in Florida in 1952, the child of migrant farm workers. Raised in upstate New York, he was a high school track star but discovered a talent for performance while at the State University of New York at Binghamton. “When I took classes in West African and African-Caribbean dancing,” he told PBS’s American Masters, “I started skipping track practice.” It was there that Jones met Zane. Though physically a study in contrasts — Jones tall, powerful and African-American; Zane shorter, wiry and white — they were soon inseparable. In 1973, the pair began presenting choreography at New York’s famed Dance Theater Workshop and, in 1982, launched the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Over the years, Jones has created more than 140 dances for the acclaimed multicultural troupe, which he continues to lead, as well as commissions for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and many others. He also has choreographed extensively for theater, including the Broadway hits “Spring Awakening” (2006) and “Fela!” (2009). Jones’ many honors include a MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish prize, a pair of Tony Awards and numerous New York Dance and Performance (a.k.a. “Bessie”) Awards. His memoir, “Last Night on Earth,” was published in 1995. “Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane,” which the two men wrote together, was released in 1989. “I think the passion and honesty in Jones’ work speaks not only to the African-American experience, but to human experiences across the global spectrum,” said Cecil Slaughter, professor of the practice in dance. “Through his process and movement vocabulary, Jones has developed a finely tuned kinesthetic awareness that embodies the very nature of human emotion. “Like a beautiful poem, his choreography moves the soul.” Editor’s note: Jones is available for interviews both before and during his visit to St. Louis. To arrange an interview, contact Liam Otten at 314-935-8494 or Liam_Otten@wustl.edu. ARTS & SCIENCES Media Contact: Liam Otten POPULAR STORIES Washington University to host presidential debate Oct. 9, 2016Washington University to host presidential debate Oct. 9, 2016 When lava erupted in the MidwestWhen lava erupted in the Midwest Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIVNanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV New immunotherapy for leukemia shows promise in small clinical trialNew immunotherapy for leukemia shows promise in small clinical trial — Jones

In this Q&A, Joanna Dee Das, assistant professor of dance in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, talks with Jones about his career, his choreographic process and the new works that his Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will present for Dance St. Louis Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

One paradox of dance is that many people see dance as this “exotic” form … and yet it’s ultimately the most familiar thing to a person: moving your body.

It is. When you see “So You Think You Can Dance” or you see a Beyoncé concert, sex is very big. We all think we understand that, but we also think, ‘Oh, well that is not for me. That is for them. That’s for me to look.’ My dance is not about someone trying to seduce you or sell you a product. It’s asking you to look at this instrument that we all share. We all share these same arms and legs. But look at the way those arms and legs are organized. Why would that be done? We all know that there are big people and small people. But look — there’s a small person lifting a big person in this world of dance.

And, yes, dancing can be exotic. It can be balletic, with double turns and amazing feats. Or it can be walking across the floor, sitting down, standing up. Pedestrian activities. This is the hallmark of the generation that I come from. Pedestrian activities are on the same continuum of a grand jété. But the choreographer makes the language out of them. That’s where the question comes in. What is this language at the service of? Now that’s what makes me fascinated with dance. There are all sorts of bodies and all sorts of movement, but what is the language that I can make that speaks to something that is beyond words?

For the full Q&A, visit the Center for the Humanities site.

From left: Paige McGinley, assistant professor of performing arts, and Joanna Dee Das, assistant professor of dance, lead a dialogue about “Performing the Political in American Dance” with Germaul Barnes, master teaching artist with the Bill T. Jones / Arny Zanes Dance Company, in Umrath Lounge Monday, Sept. 26. (Photo: Sid Hastings/Washington University) — (From left) Paige McGinley, assistant professor of performing arts, and Joanna Dee Das, assistant professor of dance, lead a dialogue about “Performing the Political in American Dance” with Germaul Barnes, master teaching artist with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, in Umrath Lounge Sept. 26. (Photo: Sid Hastings/Washington University)

Comments and respectful dialogue are encouraged, but content will be moderated. Please, no personal attacks, obscenity or profanity, selling of commercial products, or endorsements of political candidates or positions. We reserve the right to remove any inappropriate comments. We also cannot address individual medical concerns or provide medical advice in this forum.

Latest from the Newsroom

Recent Stories

WashU Experts

WashU in the News