Bill T. Jones (POZ June/July 1994)

Age: 47

Job: Dancer, choreographer, MacArthur genius, author (Last Night on Earth, 1995)

Number of countries where he’s performed: 30

Most recent gig: Singing with dancing soprano diva Jessye Norman at New York City’s Lincoln Center, in How! Do! We! Do!, “a free exchange of ideas in the artistic realm” conceived by the dynamic duo.

Magic moments of the night: “Walking next to Jessye, standing quietly together, letting the magnificent sounds of her body course through my dancing—all of the above I loved.”

POZ’s magic moment: Jones staying on point with Still/Here, his 1994 visual representation of AIDS, even after it was branded, famously sight unseen, “victim art” by New Yorker critic Arlene Croce.

On creative collaboration: “It demands commitment and a good deal of faith. It reminds me of what it takes to live—with yourself and with others.”