Bill T. Jones

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Introduction
The world has significant celebrities who have prowess in their line of talents. Individuals display various talents usually artistic in entertainment such as music, games, and drama. It is important to focus on the life and the artistry of various personnel in the entertainment field. The recognition is to help motivate others and celebrate them even after the artists are long gone. Some of the artists remembered until today include Michael Jackson the pop singer and dancer, whose success in the music industry bewildered many. The essay reflects on the life of Bill T. Jones
Who is Bill T. Jones?
On February 15, 1952, Jones was born in Florida, Bunnel1, in a family of twelve. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, were peasants who were emigrants from the Southeast and settled in the Wayland working in horticulture and complimenting with some restaurant works. From the low state of his family, Jones realized that the world was a survival for the fittest place in which everyone had to negotiate a place. While in school, he performed well in the school team landing him a scholarship in a State University of New York (Gates and Higginbotham, 470).

Bill T. Jones

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While at the University, Jones encountered Arnie Zane, a drama and photographer student from a university in Queens with whom they got into a relationship. He would later shift his interest to dance from the initial track. He enrolled for West African and Afro-Caribbean dance classes alongside ballet. He also participated contact improvisation workshop that made him a significant in his choreographic skills (Gates and Higginbotham, 470-471).                                                 At his early life, Jones and the partner, Zane lived in Amsterdam then moved on to San Francisco eventually returning to his hometown, Binghamton. The couple lived on dancing.  Jones started gaining influence and recognition on the dance platform, receiving his first Creative Artist Public Service Award after performing while spinning around half-nude shouting to the heavens in Central Park. The performance was entitled ‘Everybody Works/ All Beasts Count’ in commemoration of his late aunties (Gates and Higginbotham, 471). With the determination to establish the own unique dancing style, the couple developed an Avant-garde approach attributed to Yvonne Rainier, a skilled filmmaker, and choreographer. They also, as a way of experiment, performed in innovative places and recruited inferior dancers to train them. The couple left the American Dance Asylum in 1980 to start own company, Bill T. Jones/ ArnieZane and Company. In the company established in 1982, Jones featured as the primary dance while the wife majored on managing and directing the dance (Gates and Higginbotham, 471).

Bill T. Jones

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The company attained its first award, the New York Dance, and Performance Award, after performing the Bessie in 1986 and progressed to be among the most renowned and competitive dance troupes in modern dance. Unfortunately, Zane died of AIDS-associated lymphoma in 1988 while Jones tested HIV positive though asymptomatic (Gates and Higginbotham, 471).  Even after the death of Zane, the company’s reputation continued to grow upholding the vision of the founders of embracing racial diversity, body shapes, and sexual orientation; winning different awards in the many performances, it conducted (Gates and Higginbotham, 471).
Works as a choreographer and dancer
The career of Bill T. Jones in choreography and dancing is attributed to his eloquence as an artist. He used dances to communicate passionate issues of life concerning political and social affairs of the society. He was a charismatic and confrontational orator making his private affections evident. Jones performed various artwork and chorographical performances in his career life (Bremser and Sanders, 186). Some of the works he choreographed and performed are as stated below.
Spring awakening (2007) piece of work and choreography, musical in nature expressing sexuality in adolescents in Germany in the 19th century. In addition, it created vivid gestural vocabularies relating to a real life situation including the physical drive of the characters at teenage. This was a masterpiece as it clearly showed Jones’s technique in the use of gesture, sexual identity, and storytelling. It won the 2007 Tony and Obie Awards for the Best Choreography (Kremer, 97).

Bill T. Jones

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Still here (1994), is Jones explorations and contemplations of survival, grief, life, art, and loss by way of music and dance. It applies a visual score attained from previous interviews with people facing illnesses that are life threatening. It is a controversial dance, as some critics believed that Jones took advantage of victims suffering from terminal illnesses for self-artistic gains (Gates and Higginbotham, 471).
In (2006), he choreographed Chapel/chapter a depicting the uneasy rift separating the passive observer and the irritating ‘new items’ in the current culture that is saturated by the media. The piece involves a dancer’s early homosexual experience and incorporates two crimes of court transcripts.
A quarreling of 2007 explores a duality between any pair and the strife to live and cohabitate prevailing against all odds of live. The piece is partially base on a puppet concert attributed to Jane Bowles. Jones uses his dance to reflect on how individuals stay and relate to one another (Bremser and Sanders, 191).
Blind date of 2005, is a lengthy work in which Jones explores honor, patriotism, service and sacrifice to a course greater than an individual ego. He avoids the use of liberal mindset and applies moral questions (Bremser and Sanders, 190).
In another work, Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We (2009), Jones commemorates the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial celebrations by exploring his legacy and life. It points out the relevance of Lincoln today, and the future hopes (Bremser and Sanders 191).

Bill T. Jones

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Other works Include, Body Against Body (2011), Between Us (2010), Another Evening: Venice/Arsenale (2010), 100 Migrations (2008), Another Evening: I Bow Down (2006), As I Was Saying (2005), Another Evening (2005), World War Ii (2002), There Were (2002), Monkey Run Road (1979), Circle In Dance (1979), Valley Cottage (1980), among others (Bremser and Sanders, 193).                                         Alongside over 100 works that his company produced, Jones also choreographed various performances in schools and other institutions such as the Axis Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Lyon Opera Ballet, among other. Moreover, he collaborated with various media. He created a variety of works by artists including Jessye Norman, Toni Morrison, Max Roach, Keith Haring, Robert Wilson and The Orion String Quartet (Kreemer, 97).
Some of the television credits such as “Great Performance” Series of the PBS (The Promised Land/Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Fever Swamp) and “Alive from Off Centre” (Untitled). The dance Still Here got on television with Jones as a co-director alongside David Grubin and Bill Moyers (Kreemer, 97-98).
Conclusion

Bill T. Jones

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Bill T. Jones is an irreplaceable dance that choreographed much music and dance together with his wife Zane under their company, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane and Company. His works have been reproduced by various media and has received numerous awards for his creativity and innovation. Most of the works were from personal feelings and influence from the environment. He currently stays in Rockland County of New York.

Works cited
Bremser, Martha, and Lorna Sanders. Fifty Contemporary Choreographers. London: Rutledge, 2011; 186.
Gates, Henry L, and Evelyn B. Higginbotham. African American Lives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004: 470-71. Print.
Kreemer, Connie. Further Steps 2: Fourteen Choreographers on What’s the Rage in Dance?, 2014;97-98. Print.

Bill T. Jones

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By admin in Essays on February 11, 2017