Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 6:15pm

Making waves as a budding female choreographer–rare in the ballet world–Gemma Bond is a corps de ballet member of American Ballet Theatre. Since 2010, she has created three new ballets for ABT’s Choreographic Institute, as well as various new works for New York Theatre Ballet, Intermezzo Ballet Company, and the Hartt School; most recently, Atlanta Ballet commissioned the world premiere of Denouement. She has received a fellowship grant from The New York Choreographic Institute and is the two-time awardee of a grant from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. She will debut at the Joyce Theater in July 2017 with a program that includes two new works. Her Inside/Out program includes Depuis Le Jour, a fluid pas de deux, danced to an aria by French composer Gustave Charpentier, and Then and Again, an ensemble work for Alfredo Piatti’s solo cello piece “Twelve Caprices.” Calvin Royal III, an American Ballet Theatre corps de ballet dancer and alumnus of The School at Jacob’s Pillow, will perform with the ensemble.

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Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 6:15pm

Good Foot Dance Company, hailing from West Virginia, is known for high-energy, fast-paced footwork, as they explore the complex cultural beginnings of American vernacular dance from Appalachian flatfooting to tap to contemporary urban dance. By remixing traditional dance and music and bringing a critical and historical inquiry to the shared history of American dance cultures, they raise questions about connectivity, continuity, and social responsibility. Co-founders and dancers Matthew Olwell and Emily Oleson are alumni of The School at Jacob’s Pillow.

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Friday, August 3, 2018 at 6:15pm

IndianRaga, based in Cambridge, MA, is devoted to presenting high quality Indian classical dance to a wider audience. The company provides a platform for artists across the U.S. and the world to collaborate across styles and reach audiences through a unique online platform. They are the winners of Jacob’s Pillow’s 2018 Chance to Dance viewers’ choice contest, a crowd-sourced online competition that allows dance fans from around the world have a say in who gets to perform as part of the Inside/Out Performance Series; they received over 1,000 online votes.

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Wednesday, August 23, 2017 at 6:15pm

Brazilian tap dancer Leonardo Sandoval, described by the Chicago Sun-Times as “strong yet fine-boned, capable of authority and nuance,” is quickly gaining a reputation in the tap world and beyond for his musicality and for adding his own Brazilian flavor to tap dancing. An alumnus of The School at Jacob’s Pillow, he performs excerpts from his first full-length work, Music from the Sole, an hour-long show created with bassist and composer Greg Richardson. Sandoval’s choreography and performing style are rooted both in America’s tap dance heritage, and in Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical traditions, with additional influences from jazz and contemporary dance. In addition to his solo work, he is currently performing with Dorrance Dance, touring across the U.S. and abroad.

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Friday, August 25, 2017 at 6:15pm

Showcasing Charya Burt’s inventive choreography, based in Cambodia’s classical dance tradition, this program includes her 2016 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival premiere, Heavenly Garden; a demonstration of classical Cambodian movements and gestures; Sentimental Dance from the classical repertory; and Intersections Through Time, which explores her personal journey as an immigrant artist. Dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Cambodian dance through formal instruction, workshops, and public performances, Charya Burt Cambodian Dance was established in 1993 after Charya left the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh to immigrate to the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, the company continues its original mission along with developing and presenting new works deeply rooted in tradition that also push artistic boundaries to help the art form evolve and stay relevant.

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Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 6:15pm

Red Sky Performance is Canada’s leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance in dance, theater, music, and media. They will perform Miigis, a commissioned work which will be the centerpiece of a Toronto celebration for Canada’s 150^th anniversary. In Anishinaabe culture (the culture of the indigenous people of Canada), the miigis shell represents the breath of life, and informs travel to the Great Lakes and to a place where wild rice grows (manoomin) on water. Red Sky is an award-winning company founded in 2000 by Artistic Director Sandra Laronde. Touring since 2003, the company has delivered 1,523 performances across Canada and 159 international performances in 12 countries on four continents.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2017 at 6:15pm

Kicking off a week of hip-hop and street dance presentations, this all-female hip-hop crew performs Dance Within Your Dance, created by choreographer and director Tatiana Desardouin. This invigorating work illustrates how dancers influence each other’s style within the hip-hop and house community, combining themes of connection and transformation with individual groove. Originally from Geneva, Switzerland and now based on the east coast of the U.S., Desardouin’s first influences were Afro-Haïtian dance and dancehall, and she now specializes in hip-hop and house dance. She was a member of Geneva’s very first hip-hop dance company and originally founded Passion Fruit in Geneva before moving to the U.S. In addition to her own company, Desardouin dances with Rennie Harris Puremovement.

Opening for Passion Fruit is The Funk Box Studio, the only breakdance studio of the Berkshires. The company helps to develop self-confidence, presentation, teamwork, and social skills for youth. In classes, children learn the fundamentals of breakdancing—everything from Top Rock, Go Downs, Footwork, Power, Musicality, and Style—in a safe and energetic environment. The Funk Box Studio also performed at this year’s Community Day.

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Passion Fruit; photo by StillOne.

D.R.E.A.M. (Dance Rules Everything Around Me)
Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 6:15pm

After wowing the Berkshire County community last season with FLEXN, Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray returns with a new program for the Inside/Out Performance Series. Gray is a pioneer of the flex style, an electrifying street dance characterized by pausing, gliding, hat tricks, ‘bone breaking’, animation, and contortion that evolved from the Jamaican bruk-up dance style made popular in Brooklyn reggae clubs. He will teach a community class earlier in the day and present a new collection of dances and dancers for Inside/Out. Janine Parker of The Boston Globe comments, “Flexing is rooted in storytelling, and practitioners are encouraged to be both emotionally expressive and physically unique.”

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Class with Inside/Out Artist:  FLEXN with Regg Roc 

4pm | Open to all experience levels, ages 12+; $10 per person.

Friday, June 30, 2017 at 6:15pm

This presentation is a celebration of youth and the next generation of hip-hop dancers from the surrounding region. 860 Movement is an all-styles street dance collective, under the direction of Jolet Creary, an alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow; the troupe implements original street dance in collaboration with contemporary styles of hip-hop. Their Inside/Out program features dancers from Studio 860 in Hartford, CT, a studio specializing in a hip-hop, break dance, and b-boy styles, and will display the raw, intense energy of these genres.

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Wednesday, July 5, 2017 at 6:15pm

Thunderbird American Indian Dancers is the oldest resident Native American dance company in New York, founded in 1963 by a group of men and women who were descended from Mohawk, Hopi, Winnebago, and San Blas tribes. With a mission to keep alive the traditions, songs, and dances they learned from their parents, the troupe has toured the U.S., expanding and sharing traditional repertoire. This program will introduce audiences to new forms of indigenous American dance, including the traditional Fancy Dance and Hoop Dance, as well as a variety of other distinct regional tribal dances.

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