Ishmael Houston-Jones
Ishmael Houston-Jones (born 1951)[1] is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, curator, and arts advocate known for his improvisational dance and language work.
Houston-Jones was able to take just one dance class that entire year; the African-American choreographer and dancer Gene Hill Sagan was teaching on a nearby kibbutz.
He also studied with Joan Kerr, Les Ditson, Contact Improvisation with John Gamble and "African" at Ile Ife, the Arthur Hall Afro American Dance Ensemble .
[8] It was during this time that he formed a strong comradeship with the visual artist Fred Holland who he met through their mutual involvement with the Painted Bride Art Center.
That year, in collaboration with fellow ex-Group Motion dancer Michael Biello & musician Dan Martin, he formed the gay-men's performance collective Two Men Dancing.
The East Village community at that time was infused with punk, new wave, drag, drugs and the mixing of a hipper, younger gay population with the modern dance and experimental theater milieux.
Dancers and choreographers would go to 8 BC, Limbo Lounge, the Pyramid Club, or King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut to see shows and also to perform.
There was a palpable excitement and eagerness to see what was happening at venues such as PS 122, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop and Danspace Project at Saint Mark's Church.
It was during this time that Houston-Jones first heard Dennis Cooper read from his book The Tenderness of the Wolves, and knew that he wanted to work with him.
Dance contemporaries of Houston-Jones (John Bernd, Arnie Zane, Harry Sheppard, et al.) died at this time.
In addition to his own choreography, Houston-Jones has performed in the work of John Bernd, Ping Chong, Dancenoise, Terry Fox, Beth Gill, Miguel Gutierrez (choreographer), Lionel Popkin, Mike Taylor, and Yvonne Meier.
He is a subject of the chapter "Speech as Act" in the book Dances that Describe Themselves by Susan Leigh Foster (Wesleyan University Press, 2002).
and the chapter "Crossing the Great Divides" in the book Taken by Surprise by Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere, (Wesleyan University Press, 2003).
Houston-Jones curated eight weeks of performances, panel discussions, video screenings and special events that included a diverse range of African, Caribbean and African-American experimental dance artists.
[17] Some participating artists both in 1982 and 2012 were Bondell Cummings, Fred Holland, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.
In choosing those who may become the next generation of Black dance makers Houston-Jones curated works by Will Rawls, Kyle Abraham, Okwui Okpokwasili, Marjani Forté, Darrell Jones, Zimbabwe-born Nora Chipaumire, and approximately 30 other artists.
PLATFORM 2012: Parallels also included evenings curated by Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Will Rawls, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Dean Moss.
Film clips of the original 1982 Parallels Series as well as of an historic 1983 debate between choreographers Bill T. Jones and Steve Paxton verbally sparring over the place of Blacks within the "postmoderns."
In this capacity he spearheaded and structured a program that awarded unrestricted, multi-year grants to individual visual and performing artists in metropolitan New York.
A partial list of artists funded through this program overseen by Ishmael Houston-Jones includes: Sanford Biggers, Patty Chang, Miguel Gutierrez, Emily Jacir, John Jasperse, Noémie Lafrance, Julie Atlas Muz, Sekou Sundiata, Swoon (artist), Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga, Elana Herzog, Deborah Grant, Mary Ting, Nicolas Dumit Estevez, Clifford Owens, Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, Yoko Inoue, Cathy Weis, Yvonne Meier, RoseAnne Spradlin, Ivan Monforte, Judi Werthein and Jennifer Monson.
