Bill T. Jones, celebrated American modern dance choreographer

Bill T. Jones
Originally uploaded by deSingel International Arts Campus

In 1994, Bill T Jones, American artistic director, choreographer and dancer, received a MacArthur “Genius” Award.[6]

Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida, in 1952. His family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York. He began his dance training at Binghamton University, where he studied classical ballet and modern dance.

He choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with Arnie Zane before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982.

He has choreographed works for almost every possible dance opportunity,including PBS, the BBC, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, among others.

Jones is the co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical Fela!, which ran Off-Broadway in 2008 and opened on Broadway in October 2009. Jones won the Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Choreographer for his work as well as the Tony Award for Best Choreography.[4][5]

In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Jones has received honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College, and Yale University.

In 2003 Jones was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”[7] In 2005 he received the Wexner Prize at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.

In 2007, he won the Tony award for Best Choreography for Spring Awakening.[8]

Bill T Jones was the recipient of the 2011 Young Arts Arison Award which is given annually to an individual who has had a significant influence on the development of young American artists.