Ishmael Houston-Jones
Ishmael Houston-Jones is a choreographer, performer, author, and curator whose work has reshaped contemporary performance through radical experimentation, collaboration, and advocacy.
Biography
A four-time New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award winner, Houston-Jones is renowned for groundbreaking collaborations with Dennis Cooper, Miguel Gutierrez, Fred Holland, Chris Cochrane, and Nick Hallett. His curatorial leadership includes Platform 2012: Parallelsand Platform 2016: Lost & Found (co-curated with Will Rawls), both landmark programs exploring Black postmodernism and the legacy of HIV/AIDS in dance. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Houston-Jones was awarded the 2024 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Chair for Distinguished Teaching by the American Dance Festival. His essays, fiction, and performance texts have been widely published, and his book Fat and Other Stories was released in 2018. His work has been supported by the Doris Duke, Rauschenberg, Herb Alpert, and Hewlett Foundations, reflecting his enduring impact on the arts and cultural discourse.
Houston-Jones is a visiting faculty member in the Low-Residency MFA in Dance program at Bennington for Summer 2025.