Bill Chats  

Bill T. Jones in conversation with Judith Butler

Wednesday, February 5th at 7pm

Runtime: 90 mins

BIOGRAPHIES

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Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley where they have taught in Critical Theory and Comparative Literature for several years. They received their Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University in 1984. They are  the author of several books on gender, sexuality, moral and political philosophy, war,  nonviolence, social justice, and the future of  cohabitation. Their books have been translated into more than twenty-seven languages and she has received 15 honorary degrees. They have been since 2015 a principal investigator of three  Mellon Foundation grants for the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs Butler has been  active in several human rights organizations, having served on the board of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and presently on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. They also serve on the boards of several journals, including Critical Times. They were the recipient of the Andrew Mellon Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in the Humanities (2009-13), were elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2018, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. In 2020, they served as President of the Modern Language Association. They were a visiting scholar at the Centre Pompidou in 2023-24.  In 2024, they published Who’s Afraid of Gender? with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Bill T. Jones (Artistic Director: New York Live Arts) was the Associate Artist of the 2020 Holland Festival and recipient of the 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award; the 2013 National Medal of Arts; the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography of the critically acclaimed Fela!; a 2007 Tony Award, 2007 Obie Award, and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award; 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; 2005 Harlem Renaissance Award; 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and a 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2010, Jones was recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Bill has been nominated for the 2022 Tony Awards for his work on Paradise Square.

Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. He has created more than 140 works for his company. Jones is Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, an organization that strives to create a robust framework in support of the nation’s dance and movement-based artists through new approaches to producing, presenting, and educating.

FUNDING

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Support for New York Live Arts is provided by the Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Dance/NYC, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, The Poss Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, The Semel Charitable Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Tides Foundation, Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation. Corporate support for New York Live Arts includes Google and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.

Public support for New York Live Arts is from National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by Mellon Foundation.

The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the company’s Partners in Creation: Anonymous, Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker. 

We thank our Partners for New Performance for supporting Live Feed, Fresh Tracks, Live Ideas, Bill Chats, and humanities programming: Alexes Hazen, Linda Hirschson, Julie Orlando, John Robinson, Andrea Rosen, Nina Stricker, Robyn Trani.

LIVE ARTS CONTRIBUTORS

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New York Live Arts is deeply grateful to all the individuals listed below for their vital gifts to New York Live Arts over the last year:

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