Inside the Pillow Lab:
A.I.M by Kyle Abraham

November 12, 2020 at 7pm Eastern | Screened on YouTube

Kyle Abraham, the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama” (OUT Magazine), and his company, A.I.M, will build two new works during their residency. An Untitled Love was originally set to premiere during summer 2020 as an evening-length work set to the music of D’Angelo and The Vanguard; Abraham will also develop an untitled work scheduled to premiere in summer 2021. “The Pillow evokes a natural sense of camaraderie and inspiration,” says Abraham. “This residency couldn’t have come at a better time. With the realities and fears surrounding COVID-19 and the vast uncertainties faced in the performing arts, this residency gives my dancers and me an opportunity to create, to build and find each other again.”

The mission of A.I.M is to create an evocative interdisciplinary body of work with a sincere provocation of cultural pride and history. Born into hip-hop culture in the late 1970s and grounded in Artistic Director Kyle Abraham’s artistic vision, the goal of the work is to delve into dance-based storytelling that addresses personal history through movement hybridity and abstraction. Through live and pre-recorded performances, education, and community-based workshops, A.I.M is a righteous representation of black art and culture. As an organization, community and artistry work in tandem as a way to lift and highlight our voices while making the space to see and recognize voices beyond our own.

Artistic Director Kyle Abraham is a recipient of the Princess Grace Statue Award (2018), Doris Duke Artist Award (2016), MacArthur “Genius” Grant (2013), and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award (2012). In addition to his own company, Abraham has set work on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland, among others.

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“This residency gives my dancers and me an opportunity to create, to build and find each other again within a language that is so near and dear to us: Dance. The Pillow evokes a natural sense of camaraderie and inspiration. And during our 10 days on the grounds, we will revel in that.“
—Kyle Abraham

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This event is produced in collaboration with 

Inside the Pillow Lab: Brian Brooks/Moving Company

October 29, 2020 at 7pm Eastern | Screened on YouTube

In a residency originally slated for March 2020 and cancelled due to the pandemic, Brian Brooks and his group of dancers, The Moving Company, return to the studio for the first time anywhere since March 13. Brooks will revisit Closing Distance, which premiered in January 2020 and is a prescient exploration of the human desire to connect physically and emotionally, with dancers in close contact, often arranging and rearranging one another’s bodies. Closing Distance is set to Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning suite “Partita for 8 Voices,” recorded by Williamstown, MA-based vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Shaw, who wrote the suite during the ensemble’s annual residency at MASS MoCA, has cited Sol Lewitt’s line drawings as an influence.

Brooks and The Moving Company will also develop a new, outdoor site-based performance for audiences to experience while indoor venues remain restricted.

The Moving Company, based in New York City, creates and performs new work by founding choreographer Brian Brooks. Since 2002 the group has toured internationally, with presentations and residencies provided by The Joyce Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, NY City Center’s Fall for Dance, The Guggenheim Museum, Lumberyard Performing Arts, the American Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and the 92nd Street Y Harkness Festival. A Guggenheim Fellow, Brooks recently completed a Mellon Foundation Creative Artist Fellowship at University of Washington, researching the intersection of performance and augmented reality technologies. He has collaborated with New York City Ballet Associate Artistic Director and former principal dancer Wendy Whelan since 2012, including the Jacob’s Pillow co-commissioned project Restless Creature.

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“It’s challenging to find a more prescient institution seemingly so well designed for this moment. With already scarce resources for the arts now demolished, the opportunity to participate in a quarantined residency will allow my company and me to survive this year.”
—Brian Brooks

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This event is produced in collaboration with 

The Land on Which We Dance: One-Year Anniversary Celebration

This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

Read the show program (PDF)

In 2019, Jacob’s Pillow hosted a week-long landmark celebration where the campus was illuminated with an exchange of song, dance, and storytelling—bringing together local Indigenous peoples with contemporary artists based in the U.S. and Canada. Sandra Laronde, of the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water) and Artistic Director of Red Sky Performance, worked with Jacob’s Pillow to curate this week-long celebration, in association with Christopher K. Morgan and with support from Larry Spotted Crow Mann. See excerpts of performances and story-telling on the one-year anniversary of this momentous gathering. 

Last year’s celebration marked the beginning of Jacob’s Pillow’s commitment to present Indigenous work in each Festival moving forward and practice of its institutional land acknowledgment. Read about the history of Native American connections at Jacob’s Pillow here. Learn about the celebration last year here.

Jacob’s Pillow rests on the traditional lands of the Agawam, the Nipmuc, the Pocumtuc, and the Mohican and we honor their elders past, present, and future.

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This event is produced in collaboration with 

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

Royal Danish Ballet | Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 7pm

This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

Revered as the world’s third oldest ballet company, the Royal Danish Ballet most recently returned to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time in over a decade to open Festival 2018 in the Ted Shawn Theatre. The company’s Virtual Festival stream features highlights from their 2018 Pillow performance including excerpts from A Folk Tale (pas de sept), La Sylphide (pas de deux), Kermesse in Bruges (1st act, pas de deux), Giselle (2nd Act), and Napoli (pas de six and tarantella).

While the distinctive repertoire of Danish choreographer August Bournonville remains a cornerstone for the Royal Danish Ballet, in his ten plus years as Artistic Director, Nikolaj Hübbe has brought the company to an impressive technical level which masters a wide range of modern and classical ballets.

Pre-Show Talk by Jacob’s Pillow Director of Preservation Norton Owen; Post-Show Talk with Artistic Director Nikolaj Hübbe.

Royal Danish Ballet

Founded in 1748 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Royal Danish Ballet is the world’s third oldest ballet company with a school among the oldest of its kind which originated in 1771. The distinctive repertoire of Danish choreographer August Bournonville remains a technical cornerstone for the Royal Danish Ballet today. Emphasizing lightness and filigree footwork against a quiet upper body, Bournonville created a venerable tradition for Danish male dancing of the highest virtuosity, which raised the Royal Danish Ballet to an international ability and gave it the unique national quality which remains its distinctive characteristic to this day. In his ten years as Artistic Director, Nikolaj Hübbe, former student of The School at Jacob’s Pillow, has brought the company to an impressive technical level which masters a wide range of modern and classical ballets. Current repertory includes ballet by important choreographers including Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon.

WATCH Royal Danish Ballet ON JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE:

• A Folk Tale from 2018

Additional Royal Danish Ballet VIDEO:

• Festival 2018 promo video
• Post-Show Talk

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This event is produced in collaboration with

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

CIRCA | Thursday, July 16, 2020 at 7pm

This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

“Circus at its purest and most thrilling” (Daily Review), Brisbane-based Circa is at the forefront of a new wave of contemporary Australian circus, creating awe-inspiring performance from extreme physicality. Founded by visionary Yaron Lifschitz, the ensemble blurs the lines between movement, dance, theater, and circus and has toured to 40 countries across six continents since 2004.

Circa’s Virtual Festival stream features an excerpt from S, originally performed in the Ted Shawn Theatre in 2014. Lifschitz was inspired to create an abstract work of power and joy inspired by the curves, symmetries and plurality that are all attributes of this one letter. S focuses on the body and utilizes little or no set, characters, story line, or theme. The entire production is on an intensely human scale.

Pre-Show Talk by Jacob’s Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe; Post-Show Talk with Founder and Director Yaron Lifschitz.

Circa

Circa Contemporary Circus is one of the world’s leading performance companies. Since 2004, from its base in Brisbane, Australia, Circa has toured the world—performing in 40 countries to over a million people. Circa’s works have been greeted with standing ovations, rave reviews, and sold-out houses across six continents.

Circa is at the forefront of the new wave of contemporary Australian circus pioneering how extreme physicality can create powerful and moving performances. It continues to push the boundaries of the art form, blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre, and circus, and is leading the way with a diverse range of thrilling creations that “redraw the limits to which circus can aspire” (The Age). 

Under the direction of circus visionary Yaron Lifschitz, Circa features an ensemble of exceptional, multi-skilled circus artists who have been a regular fixture at leading festivals in Berlin and Montreal with seasons at Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Barbican Centre, Les Nuits de Fourvière, and Chamäleon Theatre, as well as major Australian Festivals.

WATCH Circa ON JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE:

• CIRCA from 2012
• S from 2014
• What Will Have Been from 2019

Additional Circa VIDEO:

• Festival 2012 promo video
• Festival 2019 promo video
• 2019 Post-Show Talk
• 2014 Post-Show Talk

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This event is produced in collaboration with

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

And Still You Must Swing | Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 7pm

This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

Dormeshia, Derick K. Grant, and Jason Samuels Smith are three of the world’s most influential ambassadors of tap. They came together at the Pillow in 2016 along with contemporary dance icon (and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award Winner) Camille A. Brown for the world premiere And Still You Must Swing, a show commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow that captures the heart and legacy of tap dance and honors the influence of jazz roots on this outstanding art form. This rhythmic feast features live music, dynamic choreography, stunning improvisation, and special guest dancer Camille A. Brown.

Pre-Show Talk with Jacob’s Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Melanie George; Post-Show Talk with all four artists.

Dormeshia is a two-time Bessie Award winner (as performer and choreographer), a Princess Grace Award winner, and an Astaire Award winner for Best Female Performer in Broadway’s After Midnight. She is the Co-Director of the biennial tap program in The School at Jacob’s Pillow. Additional Broadway credits include Black and Blue and Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. Dormeshia was integral to Noise/Funk’s International Tour (dance captain/principal) and performed as a special guest at International Jazz Day featuring the legendary Al Jarreau and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Choreography credits include Michael Jackson’s Rock My World, The Blues Project (co-choreographer/creator), and Jacob’s Pillow debut of And Still You Must Swing (creator/co-choreographer), The New York Times’ “The Best of Dance for 2016”. With over 30 years touring the world, she also spent 11 years as Michael Jackson’s tap instructor.

Derick K. Grant is a native of Boston, MA and an award-winning tap performer and choreographer. He began his training at the Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts and studied “hoofin” style from master tap dancer, Dianne Walker. He went on to train at Universal Dance Design Studio with Paul Kennedy and spent three years with the Jazz Tap Ensemble touring the world. He was given the Princess Grace Award for Upcoming Young Artist and The Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Featured Actor for his role in Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. Recently returning from his three-month tour of A Night Out: Tap!, Grant’s newest choreography and performance with Jazz Tap Ensemble, held at the Joyce Theater, has been praised by the The New York Times stating, “Mr. Grant let gusts of rhythm propel him with remarkable velocity!”

Jason Samuels Smith (Tap Dancer, Choreographer, Performer) received an Emmy, Dance Magazine Award, American Choreography Award, and Gregory Hines Humanitarian Award. Television/film and choreography credits include Outkast’s Idlewild; Black Nativity; Psych; Secret Talents of the Stars (MYA); So You Think You Can Dance; Dean Hargrove’s Tap Heat. Stage Credits include Broadway’s Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk; Debbie Allen’s Soul Possessed, and Imagine Tap!. His touring works included India Jazz Suites as documented in “Upaj: Improvise”,  A.C.G.I. Tap Company, Going The Miles, Chasin’ The Bird, and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards’s And Still You Must Swing. Director of L.A. Tap Festival and Tap Family Reunion, Smith supports DRA/Broadway Cares, Tied to Greatness, CTFD/The Actors Fund, Groove with Me, TapTakeOverHarlem, amfAR, and AHF among others. Smith promotes respect for tap dance, developed a pro tap shoe by BLOCH, and creates opportunities for upcoming generations as he travels as an ambassador for tap around the world.

Camille A. Brown is the Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Choreographer of A Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway), The Fortress of Solitude (The Public Theater), William Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale (Regional), Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM! (City Center Encores! Off-Center), Marcus Gardley’s THE BOX: A Black Comedy (Regional), and Stagger Lee (Regional-DTC). She is a two-time Princess Grace Award recipient (Choreography & Works in Progress Residency), a two-time recipient of New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project: Production Grant, the recipient of the 2014 Joyce Award with DANCECleveland, and a 2014 New York City Center Choreography Fellow. She has been commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for two works, Philadanco, Urban Bush Women, and Complexions, among others.

Musical Arrangements: Allison Miller & Dormeshia
Music Direction: Allison Miller
Featured Musicians: Allison Miller (Drums), Carmen Staaf (Piano), Alex Hernandez (Bass), Gabriel Roxbury (Djembe)

WATCH And Still You Must Swing ON JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE

• And Still You Must Swing from 2016

Additional And Still You Must Swing VIDEO:

• Post-Show Talk
• Behind The Scenes

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This event is produced in collaboration with

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

Bereishit Dance Company | Thursday, August 13, 2020 at 7pm

Presented in partnership with the Korean Cultural Center New York

This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

Founded in 2000 by choreographer Soon-ho Park, Bereishit Dance Company is a Seoul-based dance company that approaches Korean traditional culture from a contemporary view. In a rare U.S. performance, Bereishit made their Pillow debut in 2016. This Virtual Festival stream features the rigorous male duet BOW_CONTROL, inspired by the tradition of archery and explores the boundaries of sports and dance, while the intensely physical work Balance and Imbalance features brilliant and fun interplay between five contemporary dancers, a pair of Korean traditional drummers, and one traditional pansori singer.

Pre-Show Talk with Jacob’s Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe; Post-Show Talk with founder and choreographer Soon-ho Park.

Bereishit Dance Company

Founded in 2000 by choreographer Soon-ho Park, Bereishit Dance Company is a Seoul-based dance company that approaches Korean traditional culture from a contemporary view – keeping the fundamental value of things, as opposed to simply borrowing or transforming them. The work also explores the issues of identity and transformation, delving into multimedia, street dance, community dance work, and real time interactive demonstration. The works of the company are known to display an amazing sensitivity towards space and rhythms, and are always delivered with kinesthetic clarity and power.

WATCH Bereishit Dance Company ON JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE:

• BOW from 2016

Additional Bereishit Dance Company VIDEO:

• Post-Show Talk
• Festival 2016 promo video

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This event is produced in collaboration with

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

Tero Saarinen Company & The Boston Camerata | Thursday, August 20, 2020 at 7pm

Presented in association with Hancock Shaker Village
This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

The resonance of Borrowed Light‘s U.S. premiere in 2006 led to a rare return engagement as part of the Pillow’s 80th anniversary celebration in 2012. The work is inspired by Shaker music (edited and arranged by The Boston Camerata Director Emeritus, Joel Cohen) and dance, and succeeds in seamlessly integrating singers and dancers onstage to create a work that is unstoppable once it starts. Tero Saarinen Company’s new home is in the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland, a cultural hub that houses the company’s TSC Studio as well as space for rehearsals, workshops, and artistic residencies.

Artistic director Tero Saarinen founded the company in 1996 as a venue to stage his own choreography, after having first made a name for himself as a soloist with the Finnish National Ballet. In addition to his ballet training, he also studied butoh in Japan and Nepalese dance in Katmandu. One of the most important lessons that Saarinen learned from butoh is a sense of respect for his own history. He quotes his butoh teacher, Kazuo Ohno, as saying, “I am dancing on top of my ancestors.” This philosophy fits perfectly with the goals of The Boston Camerata, which endeavors to preserve and reawaken human memory through music.

Pre-Show Talk with Jacob’s Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe; Post-Show Talk with Artistic Director Tero Saarinen and Boston Camerata Director Anne Azéma.

Tero Saarinen Company

Tero Saarinen Company is the flagship troupe of Finnish dance abroad. Since its founding in 1996, it has toured at leading festivals and venues in 40 countries on all continents. Alongside Jacob’s Pillow, U.S. audiences might remember TSC from performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Joyce Theater in New York City or its performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

In addition to Borrowed Light, choreographer Saarinen’s key works include the group’s international breakthrough Westward Ho! (1996), his The Rite of Spring reinterpretation solo HUNT (2002), Morphed (2014) to the music of Esa- Pekka Salonen, Jean Sibelius’s Kullervo (2015) in collaboration with the Finnish National Opera and Ballet and, most recently, Third Practice (2019), a creation based on Monteverdi’s music performed together with The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra. His newest creation Transit—set to premiere in October 2020 at the Malmö Opera in Sweden—features 16 dancers, new music by composer Sebastian Fagerlund, and an animated film installation by internationally recognized visual artist duo IC-98.

Tero Saarinen Company’s core activities include an international teaching program of TERO-technique, presenting other dance companies in Helsinki and community outreach projects. It also provides residencies and produces demo performances at its TSC Studio in Helsinki. TSC’s operations are supported by Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture and The City of Helsinki.

The Boston Camerata

Directed since 2008 by French-born singer/scholar Anne Azéma, the Boston Camerata occupies a unique place in the densely populated universe of European and American early music ensembles. Camerata is one of the longest-lived groups to be functioning, and vigorously so, up to the present day. Camerata has continued to create, over more than a half-century of activity, a very large number of concert and recorded productions. These typically combine extensive original research (as in the case of Borrowed Light) with high performance standards maintained by a distinguished roster of outstanding vocal soloists and instrumentalists.

Borrowed Light, with a musical score arranged and edited by Music Director Emeritus Joel Cohen, conceived especially for Tero Saarinen’s choreography, toured extensively, with over eighty performances from 2004 to 2015. Camerata has recently appeared in concert at the Théatre de la Ville, Paris (2015), the Alcântara Festival in Brasil (2016), The Metropolitan Museum’s The Cloisters (2017), Rockefeller Chapel Chicago (2018), La Philharmonie de Paris (2018), the Basel (Switzerland) Early Music Festival (2018), and the Boston Early Music Festival (2019). Two new recordings were issued in 2019 (NAXOS and Harmonia Mundi) to critical acclaim.

Camerata’s numerous distinctions include the American Critics’ Circle Award, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, residencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee, the University of Oregon, and the Grand Prix du Disque. Both Anne Azéma and Joel Cohen are recipients of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.

WATCH Tero Saarinen Company & The Boston Camerata ON JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE:

• Borrowed Light from 2012

Additional Tero Saarinen Company & The Boston Camerata VIDEO:

• Festival 2012 promo video

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This event is produced in collaboration with

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

Dance Theatre of Harlem | Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 7pm

Supported by
Auerbach Pollock Friedlander and the Friedlander/Kaplan Charitable Fund

This event took place as part of Virtual Festival 2020.

Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded by the late Arthur Mitchell and co-founder Karel Shook in 1969 to create a new vision of ballet as well as an opportunity where none had existed before. Their very first performance was at Jacob’s Pillow. For over 50 years, the company’s signature artistry has challenged expectations, provided a platform for new voices, and broken down barriers. 

Their Virtual Festival program features highlights from the recent 2019 celebration of the company’s 50th Anniversary and includes Darrell Grand Moultrie’s Harlem on My Mind; Christopher Wheeldon’s pas de deux This Bitter Earth; George Balanchine’s classic Valse Fantaisie; and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Balamouk. 

Pre-Show Talk with Jacob’s Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Theresa Ruth Howard; Post-Show Talk with Artistic Director Virginia Johnson.

Read the new essay on Dance Theatre of Harlem by John Perpener on Dance Interactive:
African-Americans in Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow: The Dance Theatre of Harlem

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DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM

When the late, legendary, Arthur Mitchell created Dance Theatre of Harlem (with co-founder Karel Shook) in 1969, he was as intent on creating a new vision of ballet as he was on creating opportunity where none had existed before. Now, 50 years later, the organization is a singular presence in the ballet world. With a legacy of bringing renewed vitality to the art form of ballet through thrilling performances by its professional touring company, training in its Harlem-based school as well as transforming the lives of young people through its exceptional arts education and community engagement programs, the organization is acclaimed around the globe. Dedicated to the future of ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem continues the work of changing perceptions, in particular, who can or cannot participate, what has value and what is beautiful. By challenging expectations, providing a platform for new voices and breaking down barriers, DTH presents ballet for the 21st -century, an art form that is as relevant as it is inspiring, an art form for all.

WATCH Dance Theatre of Harlem ON JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE:

• Balamouk from 2019 

Additional Dance Theatre of Harlem VIDEO:

• Post-Show Talk
• Festival 2019 Promo video

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This event is produced in collaboration with

Nel Shelby, Producer | Loren R. Robertson, Assistant Producer/Editor
Cherylynn Tsushima, Project Manager | Vincent Vigilante, Videographer
Benjamin Richards, Videographer/Editor/Graphic Animation
Ashli Bickford, Videographer/Editor | Amber Schmiesing, Editor
Jacob Marks, Recordist | Kathryn Brodie, Intern

Virtual Pillow: The Men Who Danced

With Ron Honsa

June 17, 2020 | Jacob’s Pillow on YouTube 

When Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers returned to Jacob’s Pillow for a 50th anniversary reunion in 1982, Ron Honsa was here with his camera crew. And he’ll be with us once again for the world premiere screening of a new edition of The Men Who Danced, the renowned film exploring that momentous reunion.

This half-hour documentary has been seen by each incoming group of Pillow students and interns for the past 35 years, as well as in screenings and broadcasts around the world. Now, in a newly-reformatted edition with upgraded graphics, higher-resolution photos, and some key updates, this celebrated film will be screened free on YouTube, along with a live conversation between Ron Honsa and Director of Preservation Norton Owen.