The Gifts of Mortality and Movement, According To Dance Legend Bill T. Jones

Notes from America with Kai Wright

Dancers and romantic partners Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane stood out in the modern dance movement of the 1970s and 1980s as they explored a new vocabulary of movement that helped redefine the landscape of dance. Zane died of AIDS-related complications in 1988, and Jones vowed to continue their work with the company they co-founded.

Shortly after, he began convening workshops across America with people who were living with a terminal illness. Jones studied their words, their expressions and their movements, and created a work called “Still/Here,” which debuted on stage in 1994. Journalist Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin produced a documentary about the dance and its making. The stories depicted by the company dancers included inspiration from people with breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV and other diagnoses — and it was both critically acclaimed and controversial.

Jones is returning to this work 30 years on, staging it at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) this fall. In this episode, he talks with host Kai Wright about his reflections of creating such an essential piece of performance art while grieving, what he learned from spending time with the “survivors,” and his response to the criticisms he received. Jones also shares how “Still/Here” has evolved for a new generation of audiences, and discusses his legacy in the world of dance.

For more information about the forthcoming performances of “Still/Here” and to purchase tickets, click here.

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.