What He Called Yourself By Bill T. Jones Summary

What He Called Himself: Issues of identity in Early Dances Gay Morris is a dance and art critic, historian, and an author of many articles and books. “What He Called Himself: Issues of identity in Early Dances by Bill T. Jones” is an excerpt from one of her many books called A Game for Dancers: Performing Modernism in the Postwar Years, 1945-1960. This specific book previously won the de la Torre Bueno Prize by the Society of Dance History Scholars. Morris also has contributed to many dance journals as well as edited other dance writings. Morris’ A Game for Dancers: Performing Modernism in the Postwar Years, 1945-1960 was published in 2006. Immediately, Morris makes her argument very clear by stating that Bill T. Jones struggled with his identity and this aspect of his life was put in the spotlight. She
addresses how magazines like New York Times Magazine flat-out labeled him as a “gay, black, HIV-positive choreographer” (243).
She then explores Jones’ choreography and how it reflected his personal struggles and questions he continuously asked himself about identity. Throughout his career, Jones was labeled and stereotyped constantly. Therefore, he used dance to fight against the stereotypes and give a voice to those who shared his race, occupation, or sexual-orientation. Morris’ main goal in this article is to give her readers an understanding of who Jones is and how he used dance to spread his message and impact what society identified him as. Morris maps out Jones’s issues he addresses into three categories that are related to him being an African American, being a dancer, and being homosexual. To give her readers more context, she informs them on the typical stereotypes associated with these categories. First, black males were seen as dangerous, primitive, and sexually immoral beings that should be
controlled. In addition, they were seen as less of men in comparison to white males. Second, dancing was deemed an extremely feminine practice, so male dancers were viewed as weaker, lesser men because of the expression and use of the body included in dance that men usually refrained from. Third, Morris a homosexual man again was seen as even less masculine not only because homophobia was increasing, but the fact that they did not reproduce as well. Furthermore, Jones was very involved with the social issues of his time, and his choreography was inspired issues in his life whether they were from his personal past or from problems around him. Jones’s style in addressing his audience, which was most often white, was very straightforward and almost aggressive. For example, there were times in his solos where he would make angry gestures towards the audience or mouth profane language, and his choreography was designed to, in a sense, attack the audiences expectations or beliefs on black male dancers. Morris also touches on how Jones used his performance to reverse the roles of audience and performer by singing people out or commenting on what he could see from his viewpoint. He made it known that while they were observing him and making their own judgments, he too was doing the same thing to them. Overall, Morris’ summarizes Jones’s style and goals and how he used his platform of dance to influence and change the stereotypes surrounding himself and others like him. One quote from Morris’ article I found interesting was when she wrote, “Jone’s aggressive words and gestures toward the audience contested the stereotype of the male dancer as weak and effeminate. Jones actually frightened spectators” (250-251). This quote grabbed my attention because after reading about Jones’s style and strategies for addressing his audience, I was a little scared. Even just reading about it, I felt uncomfortable, and I would definitely not want to attend one of his performances if I knew there was a chance I would be singled out or commented on by the performer himself. However, I have to give Jones credit because his way of getting the audiences attention was definitely unique and would gain him much more attention later on. I found no major issues with Morris’ article “What He Called Himself: Issues of identity in Early Dances by Bill T. Jones”. I felt that Morris’ writing was very clear and straightforward, and she made her argument and topic easy to follow and understand. However, I was confused by Jones’s strategies in engaging his audience like calling people out or rude gestures. To me, it seemed as though his aggressive, angry, and disrespectful behavior on stage would do more harm than good. If he was trying to disprove stereotypes of black men being dangerous, primitive, or needing to be controlled, I am confused as to why he would express such untamed rage so outwardly. On the other hand, I do slightly see the message he was trying to convey by demonstrating qualities viewed as masculine, but I think if I had seen that in person, I would have become more opposed to his message, even if I agreed with it beforehand.