Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at 6:15pm

FREE | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | OUTDOOR | LIVE MUSIC | WEST AFRICAN

Performing in elaborate masks to the explosive percussion of a group of brilliant drummers, Kotchegna Dance Company brings to life the ancient stories and legends of Africa’s Ivory Coast, praised by The New  York Times for “feverishly intricate rhythms from drummers who knew countless ways to subdivide a beat and make it jump.”

Artistic Director Vado Diomande is a master dancer and percussionist, who was born into the sacred stilt-dancing tradition of the Mahou people in northwest Ivory Coast. As a young member of the Ballet National de Cote D’Ivoire, Diomande absorbed diverse dances of over 60 ethnic groups of the Ivory Coast. Diomande has toured the world, impressing audiences with the acrobatics of the Tall Mask, “God of the Sacred Forest”, and Gue-Pelou. Diomande re-established his dance company in New York City in 1994, as Kotchegna Dance Company, developing a corps of multicultural dancers and a repertoire that is widely loved and admired.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

FREE | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | OUTDOOR | TAP

Dancers of the Tap Program have journeyed from around the world to study with Tap Program Directors Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Michelle Dorrance for three weeks. For Inside/Out audiences, they perform traditional tap vocabulary, cutting edge styles, improvisation, and acapella compositions as soloists and ensemble performers, all in preparation for GOTTA DANCE, a benefit for The School at Jacob’s Pillow held in the Ted Shawn Theatre on August 18.

Additional artist faculty that dancers are trained and mentored by are among the most talented and celebrated artists in tap today including Brenda Bufalino, Derick K. Grant, Jason Samuels Smith, Maria Torres, Dianne Walker, Sam Weber, and Josette Wiggan-Freund.

Photography is not permitted at Saturday performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow.

Open Rehearsal Observation

3pm on the Inside/Out Stage
In cases of inclement weather, observation of rehearsals will be canceled.

Saturday, July 6, 2019 at 6:15pm

FREE | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | OUTDOOR | FLAMENCO & SPANISH DANCE

Dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow Flamenco & Spanish Dance program train with revered artists from Spain during their first week of study. Artist faculty coach dancers in the traditional rhythms and palos of flamenco and Spanish dance, such as alegrías, bulerías, and seguiriyas. Their performance for Festival audiences features a glimpse into their studio work where communication with musicians evokes each dancer’s passionate duende.

The Flamenco & Spanish Dance Program is directed by Cuba-based Irene Rodríguez with highly-acclaimed artist faculty Carmela Greco and Carmen Ledesma from Spain. Guitarist and singer Cristian Puig and percussionist Peter Basil Bogdanos will accompany the performance.

Photography is not permitted at Saturday performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow.

Open Rehearsal Observation

3pm on the Inside/Out Stage
In cases of inclement weather, observation of rehearsals will be canceled.

Saturday, June 29, 2019 at 6:15pm

FREE | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | OUTDOOR | FLAMENCO & SPANISH DANCE

Dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow Flamenco & Spanish Dance program train with revered artists from Spain during their first week of study. Artist faculty coach dancers in the traditional rhythms and palos of flamenco and Spanish dance, such as alegrías, bulerías, and seguiriyas. Their performance for Festival audiences features a glimpse into their studio work where communication with musicians evokes each dancer’s passionate duende.

The Flamenco & Spanish Dance Program is directed by Cuba-based Irene Rodríguez with highly-acclaimed artist faculty Carmela Greco and Carmen Ledesma from Spain. Guitarist and singer Cristian Puig and percussionist Peter Basil Bogdanos will accompany the performance.

Photography is not permitted at Saturday performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow.

Open Rehearsal Observation

3pm on the Inside/Out Stage
In cases of inclement weather, observation of rehearsals will be canceled.

July 6, 2019 at 2pm

Presented in collaboration with Hancock Shaker Village

Award-winning choreographer Reggie Wilson imagines what Black Shaker worship might have looked like in the world premiere of POWER in Festival 2019. Witness an introduction to the work in a special site-based experience at Hancock Shaker Village with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group.

The site-specific event will feature the dancers in a roving performance that weaves the historic buildings and landscape into Wilson’s narrative and emphasizes the intense physical expression of Shaker spirituality.

POWER is commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow and fueled by two residencies at the Pillow Lab with supplemental research at Hancock Shaker Village, a living history museum dedicated to the Shakers, who established the village in Pittsfield, MA in 1783.

Pillow Pop-Up: 860 MVMNT | February 15, 2019, 6pm

Presented as part of Discover Pittsfield’s 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival

The Hartford-based all-styles dance collective 860 MVMNT brings the raw, intense energy of street dance to the stage, versed in hip-hop, house, b-boying, and voguing. This family-friendly, free performance at the Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires ends with a post-performance open cypher and dance party. | FREE and Open to the public

10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival | February 14-24

Participants and locations will include Barrington Stage Company, the Beacon Cinema, Berkshire Athenaeum & Berkshire Historical Society, Berkshire Art Association, Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Theatre Group, Berkshire United Way and Pittsfield Promise, Hancock Shaker Village, Jacob’s Pillow, and Word X Word.

Building a Better Fishtrap/Part 1

Jul 19, 2018 at 6:30pm

NYC-based Angela’s Pulse will present Paloma McGregor’s ensemble dance work Building a Better Fishtrap/Part 1, part of an ongoing performance project that explores the questions: What do we take with us, leave behind, and return to reclaim? at Pittsfield’s Third Thursday street festival.

View an excerpt of Building a Better Fishtrap/Part 1:

Conceived and Directed by Paloma McGregor
Choreographed by Paloma McGregor in collaboration with performers
Performed by Christine King, Audrey Hailes, Stephanie Mas, Erica Saucedo, Ricarrdo Valentine
Costumes by Kym Chambers
Text by Ebony Noelle Golden
Soundscore by Everett Saunders
Music by Philip Glass

Adam H. Weinert in Dance of the Ages
Sep 21-23, 2018

Following the critically acclaimed premiere of MONUMENT at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2016 and recent performances at The Museum of Modern Art, Adam H. Weinert returns with Dance of The Ages. Coinciding with ongoing exhibits at Jacob’s Pillow and The Williams College Museum of Art, this unique and epic ensemble work was created by Ted Shawn in 1938. Shawn considered Dance of the Ages to be the summit of his achievements as a choreographer. It was the first evening-length modern dance ever presented, and one of the last works he choreographed for The Men Dancers.

This special historic performance will transform the Pillow’s campus to reflect the original experience as first performed in 1938, featuring use of Bakalar Studio and traditional production components, as well as an authentic tea garden reception. The performance will also be adapted to be performed at the final Third Thursday in Downtown Pittsfield on September 20 at 6pm.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to see this dance presented in its original venue once again,” says Director of Preservation Norton Owen. “Audiences will be able to ‘time travel’ and imagine themselves back in the formative years of Jacob’s Pillow, bringing our history alive in a powerful way.”

ABOUT DANCE OF THE AGES

Dance of the Ages premiered on September 9, 1938 at Jacob’s Pillow. Shawn considered Dance of the Ages to be the “summit of his achievement as a choreographer, dancer, and educator.” Each section mirrors one of the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. With no narrative, Shawn referred to this as pure dance.

Dance of the Ages was also his first dance in “symphonic framework” to be presented as a full evening’s program. Shawn used the word symphonic to describe the work’s structure, with many different themes introduced and explored. After its premiere at Jacob’s Pillow, Dance of the Ages traveled to Montreal and became a cornerstone of The Men Dancers’ repertory in hundreds of cities until the company’s final performance in May 1940.

Special Weekend OUT Performance | Aug 5, 2018 at 1:15pm

Ian Spencer Bell performs Marrow, a deeply moving solo set to original poems about Bell’s experience growing up queer in Virginia, in Sommers Studio as a special performance during Weekend OUT.

Blending idiosyncratic movement with classical dance and spoken poetry, Bell creates a queer language of his own. The New York Times writes “his movement itself seems to do the talking,
physical sentences inseparable from verbal ones—neither upstaging the other—so that what results is not dance and not poetry but some third medium.”

Janis Claxton Dance in Great Barrington| June 19, 2018 at 6pm

Scottish company Janis Claxton Dance makes its U.S. debut with POP-UP Duets (fragments of love), performed in downtown Great Barrington, MA.

POP-UP Duets is a series of five minute, multi-site-specific contemporary dance duets, based around the theme of love and designed for a wide range of public spaces. Praised as “a richly inventive, wonderfully perceptive work, danced with a persuasive humanity to a score you want to own” (The Herald), the duets are created by choreographer Janis Claxton with music composed by Pippa Murphy. Check out more dates and locations.