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Searching for Answers in Art
Dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones sheds light on working in the arts
Charles Scott, Wen-Chung Lin and Leah Cox World in the 2006 premiere performance of Chapel/Chapter at Harlem Stage – The Gatehouse (Photo: Paul B. Goode)
Bill T. Jones is primarily known as choreographer, dancer and co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. But he is so much more. His artistic impact reaches far beyond the dance world and into a range of cultural, artistic, political and racial realms. Jones, whose dance piece Chapel/Chapter holds its closing run at Harlem Stage June 10–14, recently shed light on working in the arts:
How do you identify as an artist?
I appreciate your referring to me as an artist, not a dancer or choreographer. I am an artist who is very interested in real time and space and sometimes the result of this looks like a dance, sometimes theater, sometimes performance art. Artists use anything they can to express themselves. Even this interview will inform someone’s opinion about my work.
How does lecturing within the New Museum’s Visionary Series, which you did in April, relate to your own creative output?
This is what I call participating in a cultural discourse; about history, race, power, etc. I feel very privileged to be a part of this. They say we’re in an era where people are exhausted. People want inspiration, they want hope. I’m not pompous enough to think I’m a visionary. But I do think I can come forward and say why I have chosen to live a life in the arts.
And why have you chosen a life in the arts?
That’s like asking why you fell in love. A great sculpture once said she starting doing her work to find out more about herself. That may sound narcissistic, but I don’t think it is. It’s a spiritual investigation beyond yourself. I come from a very contenscious time. I was born in 1952, Brown v. Board of Education was in 1954, the beat era was out there. It was a time when many questions were asked about cultural and political hierarchy. I was asking these questions too, in my own way, and found a world that was open to them: the world of art and culture.
What questions led you to Chapel/Chapter?
It came from the moral and ethical dilemma I felt in being a voyeur in the face of media tragedy. This was during a time when there were several, high profile moments in the media – terrorism, the murder of a child. I read the paper every day to find out what’s happening to other people’s lives and am sitting there with my metaphorical bag of popcorn. I realized that voyeurism comes from a sense of helplessness and searching for the answer. I think poetry and art can enable us to look into ourselves for answers. It was also a way of asking what can dance do that I need to be doing?