I knew that there was a power I had when I stripped off my shirt and looked you in the eye as I moved my hips. But I also knew the other side of that attraction to me was the impulse to kill me.

Legendary dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones has made a career of engaging his audience with brutal, unapologetic honesty. His seductive work has grappled with provocative political issues ranging from sexuality, race, and censorship to power and the AIDS epidemic — while also innovating in the expressive possibilities of movement itself. 
In this episode, Jones talks about what it meant to grow up as a “Black Yankee” in the 1950s and 1960s and as one of 12 children. He also reflects on the adjacency of violence to the power of seduction, and how, after decades as a performing artist, the body may retire but the mind never will. 
References:
Alvin Ailey
Percival Borde
Pearl Primus
Sammy Davis Jr.
Bojangles
Shirley Temple
Sydney Poitier
Charles Weideman
Doris Humphrey
Arnie Zane
Lois Welk
Rod Rogers
Louise Roberts
Arthur Aviles
Marcel Proust
Merce Cunningham
George Balanchine
Hannah Arendt
Max Roach
Freda Rosen