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Over the years, Jones has expanded into opera and musical theater, including the Tony Award ®-winning Fela!, about the life of African musician Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti. His collaborations have included work with artists ranging from artists Keith Haring and Jenny Holzer to jazz drummer Max Roach and novelist Toni Morrison.
Shane Larson, who has been dancing with the company since 2011, sees his role as passing on the tradition.“ Dance is really the only form that is passed through this performative tradition, body to body,” he says.“ The only way you learn this material is literally by someone else showing you.”
Jones is not content to simply preserve the past. Dancer Jacoby Pruitt, who joined the company in 2021, highlights what makes Jones special as a director:“ Bill isn’ t interested in the cookie-cutter, learn-the-steps-and-do-it-right approach. He is interested in making everything work for the individual performer.”
Looking Ahead
While the Jacob’ s Pillow performances offer a retrospective glimpse of the company’ s history, Jones continues to create new work addressing contemporary issues. Recent projects include Deep Blue Sea, featuring a deconstructed text from Martin Luther King Jr.’ s I Have a Dream speech and Herman Melville’ s Moby Dick. The piece was the victim of the pandemic when its work-in-progress performance at the Pillow was canceled in March 2020. It premiered in September 2021 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. Jones’ People, Places, & Things, which explores issues like climate change, mental health, freedom of movement, and authoritarianism, will premiere at NYLA as part of its Home Season on May 15 to 24.
“ Who gets to move freely?” Jones asks in this new work.“ What does it mean to be‘ illegal’? What do people do to actually find a better life?” It’ s another example of Jones’ tapping into the zeitgeist— even before it becomes widely discussed.
“ Bill has this uncanny psychic quality,” Larson says.“ He has this ability to tap into what’ s about to happen in society.”
Jones is now married to Bjorn Amelan,
26 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday May / June 2023 2025