Sekou McMiller
This performance took place on July 25, 2024.
Pillow Debut | Pillow Lab Artist | Live Music
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Afro-Latin Soul by Sekou McMiller & Friends for a special one-night-only performance on July 25. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Sekou McMiller is a New York City/Chicago-based choreographer, teacher, curator, and producer at the forefront of a new movement in Afro Latin dance. McMiller’s unique fusion style has a strong Afro-Caribbean essence that is laced with many different dance techniques combined with an explosive energy. His new work is inspired by the golden age of mambo at the Palladium nightclub in New York City during the 1940s, ‘50s and ’60s. To bring the work to life, McMiller has curated a collective of skilled dancers, musicians, composers, and performers. The result is a masterful show that fuses music and dance while uniting interconnected cultures.
McMiller’s choreographic work has been featured at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Dance Chicago, The Actors Fund Theater, New York City Center, Ailey CitiGroup Theater, Symphony Space, Edison Ballroom, and the United Nations General Assembly. He has appeared in films including In the Heights (2021), performed off-Broadway, choreographed for television, and performed and choreographed for top Latin music artists including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Willie Colón, Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Rojas, Tito Nieves, Pitbull, and Madonna. He is a director of this summer’s Musical Theatre program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow.
Watch Sekou McMiller & Friends on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand:
Princess Lockerooo & The Fabulous Waack Dancers
This performance took place on August 24, 2024.
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Princess Lockerooo & The Fabulous Waack Dancers for a special one-night-only performance on August 24. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Audiences who have caught Princess Lockerooo performing at recent Jacob’s Pillow parties and events know one thing for sure: that she is “a whirling force with a singular focus: spreading the gospel of Waacking.” (The New York Times). A legend in the New York scene, Lockerooo and a group of remarkable dancers took to the Leir Stage with a performance called The Big Show, commissioned by Works & Process, which touches on jazz, disco, soul, R&B, pop music, and the blues, while pulling in theatrical choreography, elements of comedy and drag, and incredible costumes. This all-ages show explored the evolution and origin of waacking—a street dance style created in gay clubs of the ‘70s disco era—in utterly delightful ways.
Stream the Encore!
Watch the free livestream encore on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand, for 24 hours only starting Wednesday, August 28 at noon.
INSPIRIT
This performance took place on July 19, 2024.
Pillow Lab Artist | Live Music
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted INSPIRIT, a dance company for a special one-night-only performance on July 19. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Choreographer Christal Brown’s newest project, What We Ask of Flesh, was developed in a 2021 Pillow Lab, and combines soundscapes, installation art, and the dancers’ physicality to explore the stories that we carry in our bodies, and the capacity of human life. By harnessing the transcendent power of dance, INSPIRIT strives to create and sustain social change. Originally founded as a platform for female artists and choreographers, it now champions collaborative creativity and community engagement. Evolving from a performance ensemble to a collaborative methodology, INSPIRIT embodies the fusion of artistry and executive innovation, making dance a medium for unity and artistic growth.
Founding Artistic Director Christal Brown has an extensive history as a performer, appearing with Chuck Davis’ African-American Dance Ensemble, Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and Urban Bush Women.
Shawn L. Stevens and Friends
This performance took place on June 26, 2024.
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted musician, dancer, and storyteller Shawn L. Stevens (Red Eagle), enrolled member of the Stockbridge Munsee band of Mohicans and Friends, for a special opening performance of Festival 2024. Jacob’s Pillow is sited on the ancestral homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok or Mohican people. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
A spiritualist, musician, dancer, storyteller, historian, and sharer of knowledge, Shawn has been fulfilling his path journey for the past few decades by doing a variety of sharing in his people’s ancestral lands as well as the Midwest. Shawn describes himself as a “helper” to not only his people but to all. He explains that his spiritual path is to share the many things given to him for spiritual direction and purpose.
Shawn has recently presented work at Waldorf School, Berkshire Pulse, Austin Riggs Center, Kripalu Yoga Center, Williams College, Stockbridge Library, Darrow School, and Alliance for a Viable Future where he is now Co-Director.
Joining Shawn onstage was Chris Stevens, Raiden Stevens, Wanona Spencer, Gracie Spencer, Madalyn Romero, Riley Mohawk, Jeremy Mohawk, and Waylon Welch.
Generous support for the presentation of Shawn L. Stevens and Friends was provided by an anonymous donor.
House of Jit & A Lady in the House Dance Company
This performance took place on August 2, 2024.
Pillow Debut
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted dancers from Detroit’s House of Jit and A Lady In The House Dance Company’s Nubian Néné for a special one-night-only performance on August 2. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
This shared program offered a thrilling peek into the world of Jit, a regional social dance from Detroit marked by acrobatic flips and kicks, drops and spins, and feet that hit the air at high speed. House of Jit is a collective whose founder, Mike Manson, was featured on the television show So You Think You Can Dance, and who has performed around the world. For New England audiences, this was a rare opportunity to enjoy House of Jit’s unmatched style live, as the group works to spread the Detroit Jit culture into the mainstream.
Ticket buyers also saw a program by A Lady In The House’s founder Nubian Néné, a legendary dancer in waacking and house dance styles. Born in Montréal, Nubian Néné is a powerful artist who wears many hats: host, judge, performer, director, choreographer, community builder, and more. She teaches, judges and performs nationally and internationally, and has appeared on stages including the New Victory Theater, Gramercy Theater, and at Lincoln Center. She is the founder of Waack Bazaar Festival as well as A Lady In The House Dance Co., and was a CUNY Dance Initiative 2022-23 Artist in Residence. At Jacob’s Pillow, she hosted last summer’s All Styles Dance Battle, and also performed on the Leir Stage with Passion Fruit in 2022 as well as with the collective Nefer Global Movement in 2023.
Miguel Gutierrez
This performance took place on July 17, 2024.
Pillow Lab Artist | Live Music
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Miguel Gutierrez for a special one-night-only performance on July 17. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
A living legend of contemporary dance-making in the downtown New York scene, Miguel Gutierrez is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY and Tovaangar/Los Angeles, CA. He creates empathetic and irreverent spaces for queer and trans people of color to dream. While at the Pillow, Gutierrez will perform sueño, a new music project that “incorporates dancers and live musicians, offering the audience a heightened world of fantastical drama” (The Highline).
His work has been presented internationally in venues such as Festival d’Automne/Paris, the Walker Art Center, and in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, four NY Dance and Performance Bessie Awards, and a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. He is an Associate Professor of Choreography at UCLA in the department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.
ASL interpretation will be available for this performance.
Please note: adult themes will be referenced in this performance.
Find Gutierrez’s music projects on the following platforms:
M.A.D.D. Rhythms
This performance took place on June 27-28, 2024.
Based in Chicago, M.A.D.D. (Making A Difference Dancing) Rhythms is a multi-generational tap dance collective with one passion: to spread the love and joy of tap worldwide. Featuring dancers with wide-ranging backgrounds from all over Chicago, the company’s versatility and sense of play is a potent draw for all ages. Pillow audiences will see the full-length work A M.A.D.D. Mixtape, created by Donnetta Jackson, which combines the rhythmic connection of Tap and Footwork into an inspiring onstage party, featuring a live DJ spinning some of hip hop and R&B’s most treasured musical gems.
M.A.D.D. Rhythms has performed widely across Chicago and neighboring cities, as well as at conferences, festivals, and community events. Through live shows as well as their Tap Academy—which has educated hundreds of students—the company is committed to bringing tap history and culture front-and-center for youth in underserved communities and unexpected places. In their words: access to tap dance “gives a child a greater chance at a positive life… Therefore, we will spread the joy, love, discipline, and expression of tap to as many children as we humanly can!”
M.A.D.D. Rhythms’ founder, Bril Barrett has recently been named a National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellow. Read more about this honor and Bril’s work to found M.A.D.D. Rhythms here.
Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca
This performance took place on August 14-18, 2024.
From New York, NY | First Appearance Since 2001 | Live Music
Performance Times: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer Soledad Barrio and her husband, artistic director and choreographer Martín Santangelo, formed Noche Flamenca in 1993 in Madrid, Spain. Alistair Macaulay has written for The New York Times that “there has been no company I have been so glad to discover as Noche Flamenca and, above all, its lead dancer, Soledad Barrio. I can think of no current ballet star in the world as marvelous as she.”
Flamenco is rooted in dance, song, and music traditions from Sephardic Jews, North African, and Roma people, from Andalusia. It is a form that is, in the company’s words, “born of ancestral cultural repression and racial expulsion.” Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca’s mission combines onstage performance with educational outreach and residencies to educate people of all backgrounds “and to evoke in them the vivid and expansive sea of passion and emotion that is flamenco.”
After two back-to-back Pillow seasons in 2000 and 2001, this marked the company’s long-awaited return. The program included their newest work, Searching for Goya (2023), inspired by the transformative art of Francisco de Goya, as it references the prolific Spanish artist’s response to the turbulent social and political changes occurring in the world around him, its relevance to our present times, and its revelations of human nature.
Hailed by critics around the world, Noche Flamenca performs regular seasons in New York City, including at Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, and at its home base at the West Park Presbyterian Church. The company has received awards from the National Dance Project, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Bessies, and Dance Magazine, among many others.
Searching for Goya was developed in a residency and work-in-progress showing at Williams College’s ’62 Center that included research at the Clark Art Institute with Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.
Read a recent review of Searching for Goya in The New York Times:
- Review: Noche Flamenca, Raising the Dead With Goya
“There is little in dance as intense as a solo by Barrio.”
Watch Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca on Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive
This program is supported in part by the Neil Chrisman Fund for International Dance.
Gibney Company
This performance took place on August 7-11, 2024.
From New York, NY | Pillow Debut
Performance Times: Wed 6pm | Thu 6pm | Fri 6pm | Sat 6pm | Sun 12pm
The creators of “sharp and satisfying” contemporary dance (The New York Times), Gibney Company lives at “the intersection of art and social action.” While Gina Gibney Dance performed three times at the Pillow from 1999 to 2001, Gibney completely rebuilt her company in 2020. This was the reimagined group’s Pillow debut.
Founded in New York City since 1991 as a dance and social justice organization, Gibney has transformed dramatically over the past decade, and now tours with an “engaging” (Boston Globe) performance company that recently doubled in size, performing works by some of New York’s and the world’s most renowned choreographers. Gibney Company made their Joyce Theater debut in November 2021, and were featured in New York City Center’s Fall for Dance festival in 2022 and 2023. Following recent tour stops in Ontario, British Columbia, and The Hague, the company comes to Jacob’s Pillow as one of only two companies performing for a full week on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage.
At the Pillow, Gibney Company performed Johan Inger’s breathtaking Bliss as well as Twyla Tharp’s The Fugue and Bach Duet.
“. . . Gibney Company and its well-trained and terrifically versatile dancers returned with an eclectic and satisfying program . . . proving themselves to be a true repertory company of note.” – Adrian Dimanlig
Generous lead underwriting support for the presentation of the Gibney Company was provided by Kate and Andrew Davis/The Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund.
Heart of Brick | October 7, 2023
serpentwithfeet
Co-Presented with MASS MoCA
Three genre-defying artists join forces to tell the story of unpredictable romance & self-discovery in Heart of Brick, a theatrical dance and music production that ponders on the spirit & magic of Black queer nightlife.
Experimental R&B musician serpentwithfeet embarks on his first stage work alongside multimedia artist Wu Tsang and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly. This gentle and sincere love story features music from serpentwithfeet’s newest album, weaving together music and dance into a theatrical experience.
This performance has passed.
This program is supported in part by the Irene Hunter Fund for Dance at MASS MoCA in association with MASS MoCA.
