Ishmael Houston-Jones

Ishmael Houston-Jones is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, and curator. His improvised dance and text work has been performed world-wide. He and Fred Holland shared a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders. He was awarded his second “Bessie” Award for the revival of THEM, his 1985/86 collaboration with writer Dennis Cooper and composer Chris Cochrane and a third for Variations on Themes from Lost and Found… He curated Platform 2012: Parallels and co-curated with Will Rawls Platform 2016: Lost & Found, both at Danspace Project. Houston-Jones’ work has been supported by a 2013 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Artists Award, a 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award, a 2016 Herb Alpert Award, a 2021 USA Artist Award and a 2022 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.