Choreographer Bill T. Jones on the violence within seduction

I knew that there was a power I had when I stripped off my shirt and looked you in the eye as I moved my hips. But I also knew the other side of that attraction to me was the impulse to kill me.

Legendary dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones has made a career of engaging his audience with brutal, unapologetic honesty. His seductive work has grappled with provocative political issues ranging from sexuality, race, and censorship to power and the AIDS epidemic — while also innovating in the expressive possibilities of movement itself. 

In this episode, Jones talks about what it meant to grow up as a “Black Yankee” in the 1950s and 1960s and as one of 12 children. He also reflects on the adjacency of violence to the power of seduction, and how, after decades as a performing artist, the body may retire but the mind never will. 

References:

Alvin Ailey

Percival Borde

Pearl Primus

Sammy Davis Jr.

Bojangles

Shirley Temple

Sydney Poitier

Charles Weideman

Doris Humphrey

Arnie Zane

Lois Welk

Rod Rogers

Louise Roberts

Arthur Aviles

Marcel Proust

Merce Cunningham

George Balanchine

Hannah Arendt

Max Roach

Freda Rosen