Ishmael Houston-Jones

Ishmael Houston-Jones is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, and curator whose improvised dance and text work has been performed world-wide. In 1984 Houston-Jones and Fred Holland shared a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie Award” for their Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders. His second “Bessie” was won in 2011 for the reimagining of THEM, his 1986 collaboration with composer Chris Cochrane and author Dennis Cooper. Houston-Jones shared his third “Bessie” with Miguel Gutierrez, Nick Hallett, and Jennifer Monson in 2017 for Variations on Themes from Lost and Found and Other Works by John Bernd. Houston-Jones curated Platform 2012: Parallels that examined Black dance makers and Postmodernism. Four years later he co-curated Platform 2016: Lost and Found – Dance, New York, HIV/AIDS, Then and Now with choreographer Will Rawls. Both platforms were held at Danspace Project in New York. Ishmael Houston-Jones’ essays, interviews, and performance texts have been anthologized in numerous books, magazines, and journals. His first book, FAT and Other Stories was published in 2018 by Yonkers International Press. Houston-Jones teaches at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and at University of the Arts in Philadelphia and is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. www.ishmaelhouston-jones.com