What's Blooming in Festival 2026

Based in Boston, Anubhava Dance Company is a Bharatanatyam ensemble that champions Indian classical dance as a living, evolving art form.

“Releasing its fragrance for a few fleeting hours in the quiet of night, night-blooming jasmine reveals its presence in the uncertainty of darkness rather than the certainty of daylight. Its soft, lingering scent suggests that transformation is not always seen, but can be felt, emerging within moments of uncertainty. Our production Anatomy of Fear explores this journey—finding not an escape from fear, but the transformation within it—where moments of doubt give way to clarity, faith, and a deeper sense of self.”

A world champion Jingle Dancer, Acosia Red Elk returns to perform an evening-length work featuring Native violinist Geneviève Gros-Louis.

“Wiwnu (huckleberry) is a sacred food to the Umatilla Tribe, where Acosia comes from. Huckleberry is a cousin to Blueberry which is a sacred food to the Huran-Wendat Nation, where Genevieve comes from. Stories tell of a time long ago when our Ancestors shared these berry bushes with whole families of Sasquatch.”

Award-winning tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman leads an ensemble of tap dancers and musicians in Steppin’ with "The Kid": A Celebration of Betty Carter, honoring the iconic vocalist and one of Lerman's greatest inspirations, Betty Carter.

“For this summer at Jacob’s Pillow, I return to the rose—familiar, yet endlessly profound. My grandmother, Theresa, had a rose bush that arched over a trellis in her backyard, and though my time with her was brief, I remember being captivated by its quiet magic—the softness of the petals alongside the sharp, protective thorns. Even then, I felt something profound in that duality. Roses have continued to appear in my life as spiritual symbols, especially through my connection to Saint Theresa—sharing the name of both my grandmother and my mother, Theresa—who is said to send them as signs of presence and grace, something I experienced deeply during a difficult chapter of my life. Yellow roses hold special meaning as well, as the official flower of the Copasetics, the legendary tap dance fraternity devoted to preserving and honoring the art form—a lineage I’m honored to be part of as its only female lifetime honorary member.

In the piece I’ll be presenting at Jacob’s Pillow, Steppin’ with the Kid: A Celebration of Betty Carter, I find myself returning to the rose as a guiding metaphor; I think of Betty Carter as a rose blooming boldly among thorns, her brilliance and resilience cutting through a male-dominated jazz landscape with unmistakable beauty and force.”

"Parable of Portals: The Acorn Archives" is an artist installation and part of an ongoing transmedia “performance constellation” developed in long-term collaboration between d. Sabela grimes and Meena Murugesan. This work integrates dance, sound, video, sculpture, and emerging technologies to explore the prophetic insights of the Parable series by Black science fiction author Octavia E. Butler.

"California oak trees have been central to our work over the past decade as we’ve developed Parable of Portals, an ongoing multimedia series inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, which began while we were living in Pasadena. In the novel, acorns symbolize renewal and survival within a landscape shaped by loss, serving as both sustenance and a ritual of regeneration when survivors plant them to transform scorched earth into a sanctuary. The community names their settlement Acorn to honor this cycle of life emerging from death, reflecting the EarthSeed belief in adapting to change.

In 2025, as part of our EarthSeed Frequency exhibit within the Parable of Portals constellation in Pasadena, we gathered acorns and oak leaves from the home of friends in Altadena. Meena used them to create a tannin-rich natural dye for textiles, while Sabela choreographed a performance in which acorns were shared with the audience. A week later, our friends’ home was lost in the Eaton Canyon fires, and the acorn’s symbolism of survival and renewal now resonates with us more deeply than ever."

A former Alvin Ailey principal dancer, Yusha-Marie Sorzano creates where lineages meet—where identity, migration, and memory move through the body as lived experience.

“The protea feels deeply connected to the world of the works I’m bringing to Jacob’s Pillow this season—including Ember, Sister, Soldier; THREAT; World Anew; and To All Our Ends. It’s an ancient flower that has survived across centuries of harsh conditions and change—its bloom resembling a flame. Across these pieces I return to questions of memory, resilience, and the quiet strategies of survival carried through generations of women—the protea is a living symbol of that survival, an enduring fire.”

New York Theatre Ballet returns to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time since 2016, celebrating their 47th season. They will present a mixed program, including Antony Tudor's Trio Con Brio, a revival of a piece premiered at Jacob’s Pillow in 1952, and City Scenes, a neo-classical ballet set to music by Allen Shawn.

“Walking through New York City, I was struck by a formidable daisy, sending herself into beauty. It stood upright, proud, and stark in its assertion of color, making a place of grace and strength amid the skyscrapers.”