July 27, 2021 - 6:47 AM
Alvin Ailey and Bill T. Jones may have a generation between them, but the two influential choreographers crossed paths at a few pivotal moments. Ailey was the one who commissioned Jones’ first work, “Fever Swap,” in 1983. A few years later in 1989, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Jones, then famous in his own right, would create one of his most notable works and a response to the crisis: “D-Man in the Waters.” It was also the year Ailey died at age 58 of complications from the disease.