Jones, Bill T.

orig. William Tass Jones

born Feb. 15, 1952, Bunnell, Fla., U.S.

U.S. dancer and choreographer.

He trained in dance and theatre at the State University of New York, Binghamton. In 1982, with his companion, Arnie Zane (1948

88), he cofounded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. All his performances have been in works he has choreographed alone or with a collaborator; they include Runner Dreams (1978) and Open Spaces (1980). His works often make explicit reference to social issues; his controversial Still/Here (1995) deals with the sufferings caused by HIV, with which Jones is infected and which was the cause of Zane's death.

* * *

▪ 2008

William Tass Jones 

born Feb. 15, 1952, Steuben county, N.Y.

 At the Tony Awards in 2007, choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones made an impressive entrance, jumping up on the stage to receive an award for best choreography for his work in the musical Spring Awakening. Based on Frühlings Erwachen (1891), a tragedy by German dramatist Frank Wedekind, the new musical dealt with adolescent sexual awakening and the damage that can be caused by a repressive and hypocritical society. Its adaptation as a Broadway musical made the producer's selection of Jones, an intellectual who had established himself early on as a postmodern dance innovator, in many ways a surprising choice for choreographer. He acknowledged as much as he accepted the applause of the audience with a broad smile, thanking them for “taking a snob like me into their hearts.”

      Jones was the 9th of 12 children of migrant farm workers. His parents moved from rural Florida when he was three years old, and he grew up just south of Rochester, N.Y., in a small community known as Wayland. In high school he became involved in athletics, especially track, and in theatre. His thirst for performance was slaked when he took a secondary role in a school production of The Music Man. After graduation he attended the State University of New York at Binghamton. There he rejected the ethos of college athletics and became interested in movement and dance. There, too, he met Arnie Zane, who became his partner in business and in life. With Lois Welk and Jill Becker, the two men formed American Dance Asylum in 1973 and started choreographing works that tested the boundaries of modern dance. Jones and Zane scandalized some by incorporating partnering between men and addressed subjects such as racism and AIDS. Much of their work incorporated multimedia elements such as spoken narrative and videotape, and they examined through movement autobiographical elements of their lives.

      In 1982 Jones and Zane formed Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company, now the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. (The company's name continued as it was despite Zane's death from AIDS in 1988.) The book Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane examined their work together. In the wake of Zane's death and the death of another member of the company, Jones (who himself is HIV-positive) created some of his most powerful works, including Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land (1990) and Still/Here (1994). Jones received a MacArthur fellowship (1994) and a number of additional awards in the performing arts. His memoir, Last Night on Earth (1995; with Peggy Gillespie), was a compelling narrative of his life that revealed the issues that animated and motivated him.

Kathleen Kuiper

* * *

▪ American choreographer and dancer

byname of  William Tass Jones 

born Feb. 15, 1952, Steuben county, N.Y., U.S.

 

 American choreographer and dancer who, with Arnie Zane, created the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

      Jones was the 9th of 12 children of migrant farmworkers. His parents moved from rural Florida when he was three years old, and he grew up in Wayland, N.Y., just south of Rochester. He attended the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he became interested in movement and dance. There he met Arnie Zane, who became his partner in business and in life. With Lois Welk and Jill Becker, the two men formed the American Dance Asylum in 1973 and started choreographing works that tested the boundaries of modern dance. They scandalized some audiences by partnering male dancers, and they addressed subjects such as racism and AIDS. Much of their work incorporated multimedia elements such as spoken narrative and videotape, and they examined through movement autobiographical elements of their lives.

      In 1982 Jones and Zane formed Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company, later called the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. (The company's name remained the same even after Zane's death from AIDS in 1988.) The book Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1989), which the two men cowrote, examines their work together. In the wake of Zane's death and the death of another member of the company, Jones (who was also diagnosed as HIV-positive) created some of his most powerful works, including Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land (1990) and Still/Here (1994).

      Jones received a number of honours, including a MacArthur fellowship (1994) and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2003). In 2007 he earned a Tony Award for best choreography for his work in the musical Spring Awakening. Based on Frühlings Erwachen (1891), a tragedy by German dramatist Frank Wedekind (Wedekind, Frank), the musical dealt with adolescent sexual awakening and the damage that can be caused by a repressive and hypocritical society. Jones's memoir, Last Night on Earth (1995; with Peggy Gillespie), is a compelling narrative of his life that reveals issues that animated and motivated him.

* * *