“Movement begins to negotiate the distance between the brain and the body.”⏤Bill T. Jones

For a class in my MFA program in which we explored our identities as artists, we were asked to choose an art form we’d never tried before and practice it as a means to gain insight into our own art. This is how I became acquainted with Bill T. Jones.

Although there is a photo of me in a pink tutu as a three-year-old and I look quite happy in it, I have never considered myself graceful in movement or anything remotely close to a dancer. The idea of dancing in front of others made me so uncomfortable, I think it was the enormity of my fear that goaded me into trying it for this class. In the process, I found a story muse in Bill T. Jones.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/02/11/bill-t-jones-analogy-trilogy-ica

Born in 1952, Jones is an acclaimed choreographer, director, author, and dancer. In the early 1980s, he and his partner (in dance and life) Arnie Zane created their own dance company. Through their groundbreaking work together, they “redefined the duet form and foreshadowed issues of identity, form, and social commentary,” as noted by their dance company’s website. After Zane’s death in 1988, Jones brought his work to New York Arts Live and became its artistic director.

Still/Here, a 1995 dance created by Jones about people living with terminal illness, illustrates everything I love about his approach to story: he is astute at distilling complex narratives to their essence without losing the nuances of the details; he is brilliant at channeling emotion through his performances and his choreography; and he builds story by listening deeply to those with experiences relevant to his subject.

In an interview with Bill Moyers about Still/Here, Jones is shown working with the volunteers he recruited to help him create the dance. All were people living with terminal illness. With Jones’ tender and intuitive guidance, each person in the group was nurtured and encouraged to reflect on their life, even envisionoing their own deaths, and to translate their feelings into body movements. The experience is cathartic and transformative for all involved. These movements became the building blocks from which Jones choreographed the dance.

Jones’ work opened a world to me that I had ignored⏤the idea that we hold so much of our life story within our bodies; that our felt experiences leave residues within us which can linger long after we think we’ve moved on; that movement can unlock and express memory, emotion, and identity in ways not available in other art forms; and that dance is a healing story form every bit as powerful and maybe moreso than writing or any other form of story expression.

That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something.

MEREDITH MONK