Bill T Jones born 15 February 1952Bill T Jones is an American artistic director, choreographer and dancer based in New York City.
He is the recipient of the 2007 Tony Award, the 2005 Wexner Prize, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement and the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, as well as a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship. Jones began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), studying classical ballet and modern dance.
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.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, and many others.
In 1995, Pantheon Books published Jones’ memoirs, Last Night on Earth. In 1989, Station Hill Press published an in-depth look at the work of Bill T Jones and Arnie Zane, Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T Jones and Arnie Zane. Hyperion Books published Dance, a children’s book written by Bill T Jones and photographer Susan Kuklin, in 1998.Jones is the co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical Fela!, which ran Off-Broadway in 2008 and opened on Broadway in previews in October 2009. Jones won the Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Choreographer for his work as well as the Tony Award for Best Choreography. He has been nominated for an Olivier for Best Choreography now Fela! has opened in London's West End.
billtjones.org Official Website
Images: centre - Bill T Jones by Arnie Zane; bottom - Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane in Rotary Action (1982)