Outdoor Archives

This performance took place August 16, 2023.

Âs Nupumukômun (We Still Dance) is a theatrical composition created in close collaboration between Danza Orgánica and members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe. Adhering to Indigenous storytelling, dance, song, and installation, Âs Nupumukômun explores what it means to be Native today by highlighting traditional and contemporary stories of the Aquinnah Wampanoag People. This collaboration, which started in Winter 2018, was made possible through a partnership between the Aquinnah Cultural Center, The Yard, and Danza Orgánica.

About Danza Orgánica
Founded in 2007 by Taíno Afroboricua artist Mar Parrilla, Danza Orgánica is a Boston-based dance theater company whose work is centered around equity, social justice, and decolonization. With dancers from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Spain, Danza Orgánica brings forth a multiplicity of experiences with the common themes of migration, decolonization, and the embodiment of a liberated future. The company’s programming includes performance, education (Dance for Social Justice™), and the annual We Create Festival. Members of Danza Orgánica “honor our right to express our BIPOC experience, joyfully reimagine ourselves in liberated BIPOC bodies, and leave a legacy that sheds light upon an untold side of history.” This year, Danza Orgánica celebrates its 16th anniversary, and 10 years of the We Create Festival.

This performance took place August 4, 2023.

KR3TS Dance Company (Keep Rising to the Top), based in New York City, and The Hood Lockers, based in Philadelphia, performed on the Henry J. Leir Stage for one night only, as part of our “Hip Hop Across the Pillow” week-long mini-festival celebrating 50 years of hip hop.

KR3TS Dance Company strives to broaden the notion of what a dancer is, and to promote the preservation of ethnic and cultural dances based in Spanish Harlem. The dance company provides a positive alternative to social and street pressures among children and young adults in lower and middle-income families in Latino communities of New York City, mainly by providing dance classes and support programs in a non-discriminating atmosphere. KR3TS Dance Company also carries out its mission through its core-performance group that fosters pre-professional dancers.

The Hood Lockers formed in 2005 as a “group of brothers united in funk” who have devoted their lives to the cultural preservation and progression of Locking. Although the group’s members perform a variety of styles of street dance, their common purpose is an enthusiasm for the iconic early 1970s street dance created by Don “Campbellock” Campbell. Inspired by Don and the Lockers—the pioneers of this style—The Hood Lockers serve as educators and influencers of this culture, always inspired by the hunger for a deeper understanding of “the true essence of getting down.”

This performance took place August 3, 2023.

This wide-ranging collective of empowering female dancers lit up the Henry J. Leir Stage for one night only, as part of our “Hip Hop Across the Pillow” week-long mini-festival celebrating 50 years of hip hop. The members of Nefer gather to build meaningful relationships and sisterhood through connection and collaboration, creating a passionate shared platform to empower and celebrate women and girls of color within dance, music, art, and fashion. “Nefer,” which means “beautiful on the inside and out” in ancient Kemet (Egypt), marks the group’s commitment to sharing histories and opening up opportunities for expression.

This performance took place August 2, 2023.

In this evening of dance with live music, tap dancer and choreographer Brinae Ali put her “invigorating, inspirational, progressive” imaginings into a performance alongside her band members. A tap dancer and a vocalist, Ali led the audience on a journey through the rich sound textures of jazz and tap culture. Born and raised in Flint, Mich., she is an interdisciplinary artist who believes in using the power of the arts to transform the conditions of the human spirit. Among her many roles as an educator and grassroots organizer, Ali has worked as the artistic director of Tapology, Inc., a youth based outreach program in Flint that believes in preserving the art of tap and jazz culture through education and performance.

Among her many roles as an educator and grassroots organizer, Ali is currently touring a show in collaboration with trumpeter Sean Jones called Dizzy Spellz while scaffolding a new work in progress supported by NEFA National Dance Projects and Johns Hopkins University Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts called the Baby Laurence Legacy Project, which is an archival/performative process to create an integrated work of jazz tap dance and jazz music that investigates and celebrates the artistic and social influences that “Baby Laurence” Donald Jackson had on the culture of Tap Dance and Jazz Music.

This performance took place July 28, 2023.

Oyu Oro is a New York City-based Afro-Cuban dance company founded by the 2019 Dance/USA Doris Duke Fellow Danys “La Mora” Pérez, who is originally from Santiago de Cuba. The company is committed to building bridges among African diaspora and Hispanic cultures, as well as between the traditional and unconventional dance forms of the modern age, while preserving Afro-Cuban culture through dance, song, and music. Oyu Oro’s traditional repertoire pays tribute to African lineages derived from the Yoruba, Congo, Carabali, Arara, and Dahomean cultures of West Africa and Haiti. These popular dance choreographies celebrate the national Cuban heritage. Oyu Oro has performed at national and international cultural festivals, aspiring to create works that audiences of all ages can enjoy, and that multicultural educators can bring into their classrooms and their work, all in service of developing “art among people.”

This performance took place July 27, 2023.

Almanac Dance Circus Theatre is an award-winning contemporary circus company dedicated to original, genre-defying works. Based in Philadelphia, Almanac’s multidisciplinary ensemble comes from a range of backgrounds including theater, dance, circus, gymnastics, education, event production, and advocacy. The result is a company that combines the storytelling of theater, the movement of dance, and the acrobatics of circus to create brand-new, virtuosic works of art. Since its founding, Almanac has premiered 11 full-length shows, touring across the United States and internationally in Mexico and the United Kingdom. At Jacob’s Pillow, the company performed Communitas, a work in which human sculptures and acrobatic encounters animate the tale of the founding of a civilization. An original musical score by award-winning composer Jordan McCree intensifies the relationship between performers at the edge of their abilities and an audience witnessing genuine risk.

This performance took place July 26, 2023.

This physically inclusive company, based in Taiwan’s rural south, performs works that explore the human condition and the possibilities of an inclusive world. With fresh and inventive kinetic explorations of space, time, action, and gesture, Resident Island Dance Theatre’s emotionally charged and socially engaged works disrupt limitations and challenge society’s expectations. Founded and directed by maverick choreographer Chung-An Chang, Resident Island Dance Theatre is one of the few professional theaters outside of Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, to tour abroad, collaborating internationally with contemporary dance makers and integrating dancers of differing abilities into its company. At Jacob’s Pillow the company will perform Ice Age, a physically integrated quartet co-choreographed by Chang with French dance maker Maylis Arrabit.

This performance took place July 21, 2023.

A second-generation Indian and American artist, Prakash is one of the most celebrated and respected young Bharatanatyam dancer/choreographers today. At the Pillow this summer, Prakash along with her cast of female musicians will perform She’s Auspicious, a work she developed at the Pillow Lab in 2022. She’s Auspicious blurs the lines between Goddess and Woman to examine the paradox of femininity. The piece references mythological and cultural practices surrounding the Goddess as well as societal expectations of femininity. In this piece, Prakash re-examines her femininity and the way she performs it in her various identities as a woman, a mother, and a classical Indian dancer. Prakash was most recently seen onstage at Jacob’s Pillow in her work AR | DHA, commissioned by the Pillow and presented as part of America(na) to Me, which premiered at the Pillow in June 2022.

Watch Mythili Prakash on Jacob’s Pillow Dance interactive:

AR | DHA (“Half”) from 2022

Watch Mythili Prakash on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand

Inside the Pillow Lab: Mythili Prakash

The presentation of Mythili Prakash was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

The presentation of Mythili Prakash was made possible in part by YoungArts, The National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists.

This performance took place July 19-20, 2023.

Seán Curran and Darrah Carr evoke the spirit, life, and celebration of the Irish céilí in a work that merges contemporary choreography and modern Irish form into a vibrant transformation of social dance. In Céilí, the award-winning choreographers explore the idea of coming together for a social gathering that simultaneously embraces tradition and innovation. Curran and Carr are joined by a multigenerational cast of performers from both of their companies, as well as musicians Dana Lyn and Kyle Sanna on fiddle and guitar, whose score connects the dots between their experience as composers/improvisers in New York City and their deep admiration for Irish music. Céilí was originally commissioned and produced by Irish Arts Center.

Watch Seán Curran Company on Jacob’s Pillow Dance interactive”

This performance took place July 13, 2023.

Versa-Style returned to the Pillow for one night only! Founded in 2005 by Los Angeles natives and co-artistic directors Jackie “Miss Funk” Lopez and Leigh “Breeze-Lee” Foaad, Versa-Style Dance Company was created to promote, empower and celebrate the artistry of hip hop and street dance culture. The company performed Box of Hope, a work that fuses the vintage sounds of R&B and Motown and uses authentic, expressive Hip Hop dance to explore the root of the inequalities and hardships in today’s volatile social climate, specifically within underserved African American and Latinx communities. Consisting of committed, highly skilled street dance artists and educators representative of the diversity and beautiful complexity of Los Angeles, Versa-Style Dance Company harnesses the exhilarating energy of street dance onto the concert stage for an unforgettable evening of dance.

The presentation of Versa-Style Dance was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.