Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Bill T. Jones first met in 1994, when Gates, then early in his career as a professor at Harvard, who was at the height of his career. Nearly 30 years later, the two have remained friends and continue to set-and then exceed-the pace within artistic and intellectual spaces.
Jones and his partner in life and dance, Arnie Zane, began performing together in the early 1970s. In 1982, they founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, assembling a nontraditional group of dancers of all ethnicities, sizes, and backgrounds to perform their groundbreaking works, which rejected the more restrictive styles of classic modern dance and incorporated film, singing, and spoken dialogue. Shepherding a new type of postmodern dance, they commented on topics like identity, censorship, homophobia, and narratives surrounding the Black male body through raw, emotive choreography that often saw male dancers performing sensual duets.
In 1988, Zane died of AIDS-related lymphoma, and the experience of watching his partner's suffering inspired Jones to choreograph his most well-known piece to date, the controversial Still/Here (1994), which included videotaped interviews with individuals dying from AIDS and cancer. Throughout his career, Jones has also collaborated with a number of other companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and choreographed the Broadway musicals Spring Awakening (2006) and Fela! (2009), for which he won Tony awards.
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A League of Their Own
Emma Corrin, breakout star of The Crown, is Marvel’s newest supervillain. But they are so much more than Deadpool’s latest adversary. They are utterly, completely themselves.
Musicians RHIANNON GIDDENS and BRITTNEY SPENCER on COUNTRY music's BLACK HISTORY and why the genre is at a TURNING POINT
Country music's popularity is at an all-time high in America, with the genre boasting a more diverse audience base than ever before.
BEAUTY
THE BEACH, BOTTLED
TRIBUTE
FAITH RINGGOLD'S ART of LIBERATION
I Love MESS!
In praise of DESIGN that more HONESTLY REFLECTS our COMPLICATED, CHAOTIC, VERY REAL LIVES
My FATHER the SUPERHERO
DASHA NAVALNAYA, the daughter of the late POLITICAL ACTIVIST ALEXEY NAVALNY, on how he dedicated his LIFE to ENDING INJUSTICE in his native RUSSIA—and still always made TIME for HER
BREAKING New GROUND
A DANCE forged at the dawn of HIP-HOP will make its debut this summer at the 2024 OLYMPICS in PARIS. As TEAM USA dancers SUNNY CHOI and VICTOR MONTALVO prepare to take the Games by storm, BREAKING'S PIONEERS recall who and what brought them to this MOMENT.
Main SQUEEZE
CINCHED WAISTS are all over the runways, but the silhouette is less about cutting an HOURGLASS FIGURE (and appealing to the male gaze) than FEELING a sense of POWER and CONTROL
The DYSON Dynasty
How a British VACUUM CLEANER company has almost single-handedly TRANSFORMED the way we DRY our HAIR and become one of the BIGGEST, HOTTEST LUXURY BRANDS in beauty
WONDER Years
For four decades, MARC JACOBS has made fashion that is PERSONAL, URGENT, and ERA-DEFINING. \"Once I knew what I LOVED,\" he says, \"I just COULDN'T GET ENOUGH of IT.\"