African-American choreographer Bill T. Jones (b. 1952) discovered dance while on a sports scholarship at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he met photographer Arnie Zane, who became his lover and collaborator. In 1973, they formed American Dance Asylum and then in 1982 the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Their first big success was Secret Pastures (1984), which featured settings by gay artist Keith Haring. Zane died of AIDS in 1988 and Jones is HIV-positive; hence, disease and aging (as well as homosexuality and racism) have been important themes in Jones' works.

Jones has become a dominant figure on the contemporary dance scene and continues to work with major collaborators. His compassionate ballet about terminal illness, Still/Here (1994), became the center of controversy when the New Yorker's dance critic Arlene Croce branded it "victim art" without even having seen it. The controversy served only to bring the work greater attention.

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Another important figure in contemporary dance is Mark Morris (b. 1956), whose works typically mix elements of Eastern and Western cultures and the traditional and the avant-garde. They are set to a wide range of musical styles, from classical baroque to rock, and frequently explore sexual ambiguities.

From 1988 to1991, Morris served as Director of Dance for the Belgian National Opera in Brussels. He brought European audiences dances with a distinctly American flair. In 2001, the Mark Morris Dance Center opened in Brooklyn, providing Morris and his company a permanent space in which to create, rehearse, and teach.

Joe Goode (b. 1951) often explores gay and gender issues in his work. Formed in 1986, the Joe Goode Performance Group quickly became a significant San Francisco cultural institution. Goode's work frequently challenges traditional assumptions about gender roles. Women often lift men and both sexes can appear strong and vulnerable. Goode also forthrightly approaches topics such as the plight of sex workers and the devastation wrought by AIDS.

The enduring and persistent connection between ballet and male homosexuality is undeniable and may be related to the art's remarkably masculine provenance.

Circuit Parties refer to an ongoing series of gay-themed events that take place in major metropolitan areas throughout the year.

Set and costume design for stage and film are fields that have attracted a large number of talented gay men and lesbians.

African-American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey celebrated his heritage and translated his pain into art.

Sir Frederick Ashton may be described as the choreographer who most fully defined British ballet in the twentieth century.

Entertainer Josephine Baker achieved acclaim as the twentieth century's first international black female sex symbol, but kept carefully hidden her many sexual liaisons with women, which continued from adolescence to the end of her life.

The Ballets Russes represents not only a crucial turning point in dance history, but as one of the earliest gay-identified multinational enterprises, it is a milestone in gay history as well.

Combining dance, cross-dressing, and comedy, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo both parodies and celebrates classical ballet.

Maurice Béjart was a significant presence in late twentieth-century dance as a result of his reinvigoration of classical ballet and his creation of palpably homoerotic dances that celebrate male beauty.

Bisexual choreographer and director Michael Bennett, winner of eight Tony Awards, developed a fluid, cinematic style of choreography and staging.

Expressionist exotic dancer and actress in German silent movies, Anita Berber epitomized for many the decadence of Weimar-era Berlin.

Perhaps the most acclaimed British choreographer working today, Matthew Bourne is best known for his homoerotic updatings and deconstructions of classic ballets.

The premier male dancer of the 1950s, Erik Bruhn epitomized the ethereally handsome prince of the decade's ballet stage, but was later able to re-make his career by performing vividly realized character parts.

American painter Paul Cadmus is best known for the satiric innocence of his frequently censored paintings of burly men in skin-tight clothes, but he also created works that celebrate same-sex domesticity.

The music of controversial American composer John Cage contains little autobiographical or gay content, but his ironic emphasis on the importance of silence in music may comment on the imposed silence of the closet.

One of the twentieth-century's most influential dancers and choreographers, Merce Cunningham avoids political statement and self-expression in his work, but his collaborative model may be said to represent a queering of the creative process.

For Russian nobleman Sergei Diaghilev, who revolutionized music, the visual arts, theater, and dance, homosexuality may have been integral to his creativity.

Emily Dickinson's poems and letters to her sister-in-law Susan are both passionate and elusive in their homoeroticism.

The mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan brought her feminist consciousness to the stage; and in her bohemian private life, she constantly challenged society's rules.

The most original contribution of the work of choreographer Joe Goode, which frequently confronts issues of being gay in the age of AIDS, is its challenge to traditional assumptions involving gender.

In his all-too-brief lifetime, gay American artist Keith Haring produced simple yet sophisticated images that reached a worldwide audience and transcended differences of race, nationality, gender, age, and sexual orientation.

Actor, dancer, and choreographer, Sir Robert Helpmann was present at the creation of premier ballet companies in both Great Britain and Australia.

A charismatic performer, gifted choreographer, and long-term survivor of AIDS, Bill T. Jones has created an impressive body of dance that frequently merges the private and the public.

Although best known for his contributions to the development of American ballet, Lincoln Kirstein was an important figure in the shaping of twentieth-century American culture generally.

Fiercely ambitious, Serge Lifar used his extraordinary looks and charismatic personality to rise to the ranks of leading international ballet dancers and choreographers of the twentieth century.

American photographer George Platt Lynes made his fame as a fashion and portrait photographer, but his greatest work may have been his dance images and male nudes.

American choreographer Mark Morris creates works that typically mix elements of Eastern and Western cultures and frequently explore sexual ambiguities.

One of the greatest dancers and most innovative choreographers in the history of ballet, Vaslav Nijinsky embodied the sensuality and sexual ambiguity associated with the distinctive new art of the twentieth century.

The greatest dancer of his time, Rudolf Nureyev also gave the world a new and glamorous image of a sexually active gay man.

One of the most prolific and innovative artists of the late twentieth century, Robert Rauschenberg was at the core of a group of interdisciplinary artists who revolutionized American art.

Bisexual choreographer and director Jerome Robbins was both a great choreographer of classical ballet and a Broadway innovator, but he was fearful that he might be outed.

Dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor has been an important presence in American dance since the 1950s.

The first person to have won Tonys in four different categories, dancer, director, and choreographer Tommy Tune is known for his choreographic sense of humor and for his celebration of the chorus line.

As artistic director and resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet from 1971 to 1991, Rudi van Dantzig brought his company to international attention and created a body of choreographic work that explores such issues as the place of homosexuality in our time.