Bill T. Jones, Paul Mellon Distinguished Fellow Lecture 1997

Dancer, performance artist and choreographer Bill T. Jones gives a lecture at Skowhegan. Jones talks about the importance of choreography for him as an artist that allows actions to dissipate into moments of stillness when dance simply ends. For Jones, dance is the movement of persons and things in space and time, where he can also become interested in ideas of how to create beauty and gesture. For Jones, the greatest politics as an artist is if he can resist irony to find something authentic, urging the viewers to also do this by pushing the boundaries and wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Jones ends the lecture with the question for the participants, asking them to contemplate if there is anything that can connect us at any given moment.