Bill T. Jones is a truly free spirit. Choreographer, dancer and author (“Last Night on Earth”), Mr. Jones has performed worldwide and created more than 100 works for his own company, including “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land.” He has choreographed works for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet, and the Boston Ballet and has collaborated with the likes of jazz legend Max Roach and opera great Jessye Norman. Jones is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Award,” an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards for Best Choreography as well as a Kennedy Center Honoree.

Jones says he performs and composes “because art does for me what religion does. It organizes a singularly chaotic world because it is my way of making sense of the world and its changes.”

The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage recently conducted a conversation with Mr. Jones, dance legend Susan Renthorst, and Dance USA/Philadelphia Director Lois Welk. The entire seven-part video conversation can be accessed here. Below are highlights from this encounter with genius:

Part I: The Boundaries of Practice
Part II: The Artist and the Audience
Part IV: On the Nature of Collaboration