Bill T. Jones on his groundbreaking work with the late Keith Haring
‘We believed in beauty. We believed in protest,’ says the renowned dancer and choreographer
In 1983, the artist Keith Haring made his first and most famous body painting in collaboration with choreographer Bill T. Jones and photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. Borrowing Jones's body as a canvas, Haring painted the choreographer from head to toe in his signature graffiti-inspired markings.
"I remember it being cold as hell," Jones quips about the experience in a recent conversation with Q's Tom Power. "But more than that was the sense that I'm free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, I'm free at last."
Quoting Martin Luther King Jr., Jones explains that his sense of freedom came from using his body — "a body of slaves" — to storm the ivory tower.
"It was controversial just to be in a Black body with a Jewish Italian companion holding hands and walking down the street," says Jones, referring to his late artistic and romantic partner, Arnie Zane, with whom he co-founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1983.
"It was provocative to do Secret Pastures — our other collaboration [with] Keith — at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, packed out with Andy Warhol and Madonna in the audience. At the end of the show, in a fit of joy, my companion and I kissed full on the lips. You could hear audible [gasps]."
Throughout Jones's renowned career in dance (his many accolades include two Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, the National Medal of Arts and a MacArthur "genius grant") he's created boundary-pushing productions that explore subjects such as race, death, mortality, grief and sexuality.
"We believed in beauty," he says. "We believed in protest. And I think we believed in change — as I get older, I don't know how much I still believe in change because I do believe there's a thing called white supremacy. The last 500 years has brought us to this point. Can we tell the truth about it?
"There are whole laws being written against certain things being taught about history. So when Keith and I were joining hands metaphorically and doing this thing where we're saying, 'Look at us, we are who we are. This is what we think is beautiful.' It was, in a way, still fighting the revolution."
WATCH | Bill T. Jones's interview with Tom Power:
The full interview with Bill T. Jones is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. He talks more about his work Keith Haring and his incredible life in dance. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Bill T. Jones produced by Ben Edwards.
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