Choreographer Bill T. Jones

A conversation with modern dance great Bill T. Jones on the human body in motion.

Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones is a force of nature.  Artist.  Exhibitionist.  Contrarian.  Crowd-pleaser. He’s been denounced and picketed – and hailed as a genius.

If you saw the Kennedy Center awards in December, you could not miss Bill T. Jones.  In the honorees gallery.  Next to the President and First Lady.  Next to Paul McCartney and Merle Haggard and Oprah.

The super-intense, super-lean black man watching his dance troupe on the stage below with near-atomic intensity.  You could see every move of their dance in the muscles of his face.

Dance master, Bill T. Jones.
- Tom Ashbrook

See photos of Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray World Premiere on Flickr.

Guest:

Bill T. Jones, award-winning choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer. He formed the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, which just merged with the Dance Theater Workshop to become New York Live Arts, where Bill T. Jones will become Executive Artistic Director. He is the winner of the Kennedy Center’s 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the winner of a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography in the critically acclaimed Broadway musical FELA!, which he also co-wrote and directed.