The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company was established in 1982 by dancers Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948–1988). Prior to founding the Company, they had collaborated for eleven years, refining the duet form and adressing issues of identity, form and social commentary. The Company they created has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 40 countries on every major continent, and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the dance-theater world.

The repertory of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is widely varied in its subject matter; visual imagery; and stylistic approach to movement, voice, and stagecraft. The Company is noted for its collaborative method of creation with such artists as Keith Haring, Cassandra Wilson, The Orion String Quartet, the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, Fred Hersch, Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, Julius Hemphill, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. The collaborations between the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and visual artists were the subject of "Art Performs Life" (1998), an exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. Prominent dancers who performed with the Company include Arthur Aviles, Janet Lilly, and Lawrence Goldhuber.

The Company's notable evening-length works include Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land (1990, Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music); Still/Here (1994, Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, France); We Set Out Early… Visibility Was Poor (1996, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City, IA); You Walk? (2000, European Capital of Culture 2000, Bolgna, Italy); Blind Date (2006, Peak Performances at Montclair State University); Chapel/Chapter (2006, Harlem Stage Gatehouse); and Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray (2009, Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL). The ongoing, site-specific piece, Another Evening was last performed in its seventh incarnation as Another Evening: Venice/Arsenale (2010, La Biennale di Venezia).

Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised LandStill/HereWe Set Out Early… Visibility Was PoorYou Walk?Blind DateChapel/ChapterFondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We PrayAnother EveningAnother Evening: Venice/Arsenale

The Company has also produced two evenings of Bill T. Jones's solo performances: The Breathing Show (1999, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City, IA) and As I Was Saying… (2005, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN). An in-depth examinations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane's collaborations can be found in Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, (1989, Station Hill Press) edited by Elizabeth Zimmer.

The Breathing ShowAs I Was Saying…Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane

The Company has received numerous awards, including New York Dance and Performance Awards ("Bessie") for Chapel/Chapter at Harlem Stage (2006), The Table Project (2001), D-Man in the Waters (1989 and 2001), musical scoring and costume design for Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land, (1990) and for the groundbreaking Joyce Theater season (1986). The Company was nominated for the 1999 Laurence Olivier Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Dance and Best New Dance Production" for We Set Out Early… Visibility was Poor.

Chapel/ChapterThe Table ProjectD-Man in the WatersLast Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised LandWe Set Out Early… Visibility was Poor

During the Company's 25th anniversary season in 2007, Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, IL commisioned the Company to create a work to honor the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The three new productions created in response were 100 Migrations (2008), a site-specific community performance project; Serenade/The Proposition (2008), examining the nature of history; and Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray (2009), the making of which is the subject of a feature-length documentary by Kartemquin Films entitled A Good Man, which was broadcast on PBS American Masters in 2011.

100 MigrationsSerenade/The PropositionFondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We PrayA Good Man

The Company has distinguished itself through extensive community outreach and educational programs, including partnerships with Bard College, where company members teach an innovative curriculum rooted in the Company's creative model and highly collaborative methods; and with Lincoln Center Institute, which uses Company works in its educator-training and in-school repertory programs. University and college dance programs throughout the U.S. work with the Company to reconstruct significant works for their students. The Company also conducts intensive workshops for professional and pre-professional dancers and produces a broad range of discussion events at home and on the road.

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