The Graduate School

Analogy/Form: Finding Meaning in Confusing Times

Tues. Jan. 30, 2018      7:30 p.m.

Kane Hall 130

Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director, Choreographer, Co-founder Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Jones discusses the four-year creation of the Analogy Trilogy — examining the hidden unities, poetry and universal connectivity in creating art during this fractious political era. Hear from the artist as he explores the heroism found in hope and a belief in the future.

Admission is free. Advance registration is required.

Part of the Jessie and John Danz lecture series. Produced in partnership with the University of Washington Graduate School.

Bill T. Jones 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. 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 the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The book “Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane” (1989), which the two men co-wrote, 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). In 2011 the company merged with Dance Theater Workshop to form New York Live Arts, for which Jones served as executive artistic director. In 2007 Jones earned a Tony Award for best choreographed for his work in the musical Spring Awakening.