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.

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Watch Mythili Prakash on Jacob’s Pillow Dance interactive:

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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.

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

• Sonata (We Are What We Were) from 2004

• Folk Dances for the Future (Traditional Methods/Postmodern Techniques) from 2004

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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.

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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.

This performance took place July 12, 2023.

A leading contemporary dance company in the global arts and social justice movement, Ananya Dance Theatre is composed of cultural activists and BIPOC women, womxn, and femme artists who believe in the transformative power of dance. Their artistic work unfolds through Yorchhā™, a unique movement aesthetic of contemporary dance that draws on traditional Odissi, the martial art Chhau, and Vinyāsa Yoga, and a social justice choreographic methodology, to celebrate a transnational feminist practice. In dancing stories where the lives and dreams of typically marginalized communities occupy the center, they build understanding about arts and social justice and empower artistic voices. At Jacob’s Pillow, the company performed the work Nün Gherāo: Surrounded by Salt, a historical and political work developed in a Pillow Lab residency about the 1978-79 massacre on the Marichjhapi Island in West Bengal, India. The work encompasses the spirit of unwavering resistance, tremendous love, and promise of transformation, together.

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Watch Ananya Dance Theatre on Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive:

• Nūn Gherāo (surrounded by salt) from 2022

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This performance took place July 8, 2023.

A dance collective of fierce young performers from different dance backgrounds, MasterZ at Work ignites the stage with jazz, hip-hop, street jazz, house, African, vogue, and contemporary dance. Led by Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington Balenciaga—a legend in the ballroom community—the company creates dances that represent resilience, and which foster community in under-resourced areas of Brooklyn.

This performance took place July 7, 2023.

Tommie-Waheed Evans merges urban street dance and contemporary dance through movement propelled by gospel music and polyrhythmic sounds. He established waheedworks in Philadelphia in 2006 with a mission to create a radically collaborative body of work that speaks to human life through movement. At the Pillow, Evans and his company presented Bodies as Site of Faith and Protest, a work that explored the idea of bodies uniting in protest, moving alongside and within Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech “We Shall Overcome.” This performance directly followed a free onsite PillowTalk, presented with Great Barrington’s Du Bois Freedom Center and the Du Bois Forum, titled “Legacies of the Black Berkshires: An Evening with David Levering Lewis.”

This performance took place July 6, 2023.

Latin dance rounded out week two of the Festival as Boston salsa troupe Querencia Dance Company performed on the outdoor stage, with high-energy dances by performance teams as well as a duet by company leaders Michelle Garcia and Julian De Las Nieves. The performance included audience engagement and a mini social dance at the end of the performance, where audience members were invited to salsa dance together.