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
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