Philadelphia Dance Projects

Dance Talk: Q&A with Ishmael Houston-Jones

This week, curatorial advisor Anna Drozdowski interviews Local Dance History Project artist Ishmael Houston-Jones, offering an inside peek into the creative development of the artist’s work.

Anna Drozdowski: Tell me about DEAD, in two sentences.
Ishmael Houston-Jones: When my late mother saw DEAD for the first time her only comment was, “Bess Truman isn’t dead.” My reply was, “But she will be one day.”

What was happening in 1980 (or thereabouts) that was important to your artistic growth? Ishmael: By 1980 I had left Philadelphia. I moved to New York on Thanksgiving Day 1979. During the 1970s when I lived here, besides the Ballet, the main players on the dance scene were Group Motion, Zero Moving Co., Philadanco, Juba, Arthur Hall’s Afro American Dance Ensemble, South Street Dance Company, Joan Kerr Dance Company, Sybil Dance Company and Ann Vachon/Dance Conduit. Toward the end of the decade there was a movement of independent choreographers many gathered around Terry Fox’s studio in Old City. I taught and rehearsed there, as did Terry, of course. Jano Cohen, Wendy Hammerstrom, Anne Marie Mulgrew and others were part of a core of artists centered on the Church Street Loft. Terry lived there with composer Jeff Cain so there were always many musicians on the scene as well. At this time Old City was transitioning from being a rather desolate district of light manufacturing and warehouses to an artists’ neighborhood. It was still possible to find really cheap live/work spaces so there were a lot of visual artists living and making work in the area.

Ishmael Houston-Jones and Michael Biello today; image by Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net

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