Pillow 2018 By the numbers
Thank you for a wonderful 2018! During the Festival season, we welcomed over 18,000 people at our free outdoor performances; sold over 40,000 tickets to performances in our theaters; hosted 10 international companies, 16 world premieres, and 33 Pillow debuts; awarded scholarships to 70% of participants of The School at Jacob’s Pillow; and welcomed back over 40 alumni. Throughout the year, we hosted 4 Dance Education Laboratory workshops, introducing dance educators, college dance students, classroom teachers, and professional dancers to the DEL model of dance education; more than 200 people danced with us during our Pillow Party Series; we welcomed 9 artists to the Pillow Lab, giving them the time and space to research and develop new work; and we shared our archival dance footage with visitors from over 191 countries on Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive.
Whether you attended the Festival, joined a dance class, visited Blake’s Barn, enjoyed one of our 500+ free and ticketed events, or engaged with us from afar, we could not be more grateful for your support and appreciation of Jacob’s Pillow.
Enjoy a look back at an unforgettable year!
- 540 dancers graced our 3 stages during the 10 weeks of the Festival
- 56 dance companies from 10 countries, in 204 performances
- 14 performances with live music, including Sonya Tayeh’s collaboration with Jo Lampert & indie folk duo The Bengsons
- 7 Pillow Pop-Up performances including a special contemporary ice-skating pop-up performance of Le Patin Libre at the Boy’s & Girls Club of the Berkshires
- 9 In Process Series showings at the Pillow Lab, with multiple performances by Princess Grace Award winner Zoe Scofield
- 1 special historic reconstruction by Adam H. Weinert of Ted Shawn’s Dance of the Ages, transforming the Pillow grounds to reflect the original experience as first performed in 1938
- 2 co-presented dance performances with MASS MoCA through the Irene Hunter Fund for Dance
- 1 extraordinary artist, Faye Driscoll, honored with the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and a $25,000 cash prize
Sonya Tayeh; photo Christopher Duggan
- 119 exceptional professional-track dancers from 21 different countries trained in The School’s 5 conservatory-style programs
- 8 Choreography Fellows chosen for the inaugural Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows Program
- 7 out of 10 participants received financial aid
- 44 internationally renowned artists served as faculty, such as Ballet program Guest Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa & contemporary program guest artist Cayetano Soto
- 13 workshop participants had unmatched photographing opportunities and instruction by 3 leading dance photographers
The School at Jacob’s Pillow Gaga Program; photo Noor Eemaan
- 300 public school students and 20 classroom teachers choreographed 13 academic subjects such as Environmental science, Math, Spanish, and U.S. History, led by 5 Pillow Artist Educators during Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion residences
- 3,801 dancing bodies in 110 community dance classes, including Morning Classes, Families Dance Together classes, Sunday Master Classes, Classes with Inside/Out Artists, Free Fun Friday, Day at the Pillow visit classes, and special workshops and events in Pittsfield
- 34 community performers danced and performed with our Doris Duke Theatre artists Compañia Sharon Fridman and Faye Driscoll
- 40 Pittsfield Moves! participants from around Berkshire County consistently organized over the course of 2 weeks to premiere a work-in-progress performance on the Inside/Out stage and at Berkshire NAACP’s 45th annual Gather-In Festival in Pittsfield
- Participated in 5 Third Thursday performances in Pittsfield with over 2,400 attendees
- 10 Pittsfield-Pillow Express Bus Trips
- 1,399 participants in this year’s Free Fun Friday
- 2,900 individual engagements tracked in almost 60 off-site events
- 8,716 total participants engaged with Pillow community events
Pittsfield Moves! Community dancers performing at Harvest of Hope; photo Noor Eemaan
- 164 talks and film showings, 42 tours of the historic grounds, and 3 exhibits with 1 collaborative exhibition at Williams College Museum of Art
- 40 Inside/Out performances, witnessed by 18,877 people
- More than 1 million Virtual Pillow pages viewed online by visitors in 191 different countries
2018 Musical Theatre performer, Timothy Eidman; photo Noor Eemaan
- 21,156 visitors to Blake’s Barn and the Norton Owen Reading Room
- Contents of 33 trunks cataloged, labeled, and rehoused in 7 months with over 2,350 costumes and prop items worn by Ted Shawn, Martha Graham, Louise Brooks, and others (the earliest costume worn in 1906 by Ruth St. Denis in The Cobras.
- 83 costume items were shown on 30 individually carved mannequins in Dance We Must at the Williams College Museum of Art
- 20 essays on dance commissioned from 8 Scholars-in-Residence
- 6 Research Fellows hosted to research independent projects
- 8 terabytes of digital HD video and hi-resolution photos produced this year alone
- 50+ video excerpts added to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive
The Archives; photo Noor Eemaan
- 40 buildings, 5 dating from the 18th century
- 5 dance studios and 3 performance venues
- 6 gardens and 1 wetlands nature trail
- 1st and only dance presenter named a National Historic Landmark and awarded the National Medal of Honor
Dance Of The Ages; photo Christopher Duggan
- 117,000 fans on social media
- 3,908 first-time ticket buyers
- 2,564 donors and 319 people joined our member community
- 536 visitors from 6 out of the 7 continents with over 40 states represented participated in our 5-week interactive map with the goal of showcasing the geographical diversity of our audiences
- 63 Pillow Staff Members and 6 Administrative Fellows
- 33 Festival interns and 1 non-Festival intern were mentored in arts administration, technical theater, video, and photography
- Won the Community Internship Sponsor High Honor Award for our work with 4 interns through a new partnership with Berkshire-based College Internship Program.
Pillow People; photo Hayim Heron
- Over 365,000 people viewed our top 5 Facebook videos
- 110,000+ Festival experiences
- 40,104 tickets sold
- More than 200 people danced at 3 social dance parties as part of the Pillow Party Series
- 9,418 items sold at the Pillow store, including books, clothes, bags, and more
- 96 Chance to Dance: Viewers’ Choice contest submissions
Pillow People; photo Hayim Heron
All figures approximate.