Shamel Pitts | TRIBE

Festival Week 7 | Wednesday, August 6 – Sunday, August 10 | Doris Duke Theatre
Pillow Debut

Dancer, artist, and choreographer Shamel Pitts creates provocative dance works that “push against the boundaries of identity” (Dance Magazine). His company TRIBE will perform Touch of RED, inspired by the rapid-fire footwork of boxing, the African American jazz dance style Lindy Hop, Gaga movement language, and nightlife culture. Set in a stylized ring, this dance duet examines the way Black men are perceived and perceive themselves in contemporary society.

This is a notable homecoming for Pitts and his company, whose Pillow Lab residency work on Touch of RED in November 2020 was disrupted when the original Doris Duke Theatre was lost to a fire. Since then, TRIBE premiered Touch of RED in a sold-out weekend in October 2022 at MASS MoCA, co-presented by Jacob’s Pillow. This will be the first time this remarkable duet is performed at the Festival.

Pitts is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2024 Doris Duke Artist, and recently received a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship. He is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award in Choreography, and a 2024 Knight Choreography Prize. Pitts’s “BLACK series” has toured extensively worldwide since 2016.

To complement his week-long performance run in the Doris Duke Theatre, Shamel Pitts has also been commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow to create and release a digital-first work in summer 2025 and will create a series of cinematic 3D experiences, in collaboration with TRIBE’s Transmedia Artist Lucca Del Carlo, that accompany his in-person performance of Touch of RED.

“Touch of RED held me in its grasp from the second I entered the venue, from the twisting route to my seat, to the stark intimacy immediately on display. It all set my nerves on fire, still burning as I recall the experience.”

Trinity Irish Dance Company

Festival Week 3 | Thursday, July 10 – Sunday, July 13 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Pillow Debut | Live Music | 35th Anniversary Season

Trinity Irish Dance Company (TIDC) is a uniquely Irish-American company that is the high watermark for their art form. Called “sophisticated and commanding” by the Los Angeles Times and “impossibly complex” by The New York Times, TIDC makes their Jacob’s Pillow debut this summer, presenting “everything you expect, but like nothing you’d imagine.”

Performing in the Ted Shawn Theatre, TIDC’s mixed program will represent their range of genre-defying repertoire as well as classic works, featuring a live band. Among the works presented will be Mark Howard’s Soles, a tribal and timeless rhythmic study; Push, an explosion of hard-driving percussive power that exemplifies the company’s consistent message of female empowerment; and Michelle Dorrance and Melinda Sullivan’s American Traffic, a hybrid of Irish step and American tap that plays at the intersection of rhythmic sensibilities and rebellious histories.

Since 1990, TIDC has celebrated Founding Artistic Director Mark Howard’s pioneering vision to fuse vibrant Irish traditions with ever-evolving innovation. TIDC is the birthplace of progressive Irish dance, Howard’s innovative movement genre that “ushered in a new era for Irish step dance” (Chicago Tribune). Considered an American treasure by critics and enthusiasts worldwide, TIDC has performed sold-out tours globally, carving new traditions as they push the boundaries of an ancient and beloved art form. The company celebrates its 35th anniversary this season.

“Irresistible.”

Stephen Petronio Company

Festival Week 5 | Wednesday, July 23 – Sunday, July 27 | Ted Shawn Theatre
First Appearance Since 2003

This summer, Jacob’s Pillow is honored to welcome acclaimed director and choreographer Stephen Petronio to present the final performances of the Stephen Petronio Company (SPC), while also marking the culmination of SPC’s 40th anniversary. Petronio, who is regarded as “one of the few contemporary dance makers who have created an instantly recognizable style infused with emotional texture and wit” (The New York Times), will sunset an accomplished 40-year run with his company as he moves into his next creative endeavor: Petronio Projects.

The company’s Festival 2025 program in the Ted Shawn Theatre will include some of Petronio’s signature works, including MiddleSexGorge (1990), BUD (2005), Broken Man (2002), the critically acclaimed American Landscapes (2019), and a new iteration of Petronio’s solo Another Kind of Steve (2024). This appearance comes exactly 40 years after the company’s Pillow debut in the first of three consecutive seasons when they were Artists-in-Residence here.

A recipient of numerous awards, including a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award, SPC focuses on the creation and presentation of Petronio’s existing and new works, alongside legacy initiatives meant to preserve the history of postmodern dance lineage. The company also advances the future of postmodern dance through new works that honor and extend the history, offering a platform for a greater inclusivity of artistic voices. SPC has performed in 40 countries throughout the world with numerous New York City engagements, including 25 seasons at The Joyce Theater.

“One of the few contemporary dance makes who have created an instantly recognizable style infused with emotional texture and wit.”

Eun-Me Ahn

Festival Week 6 | Wednesday, July 30 – Sunday, August 3 | Doris Duke Theatre
First Appearance Since 2000 | U.S. Premiere

Eun-Me Ahn is a leading artist of the Korean performing arts scene, known for her avant-garde choreographic worlds and technicolor productions. In her return to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time since 2000, Ahn will present the official U.S. premiere of Dragons, a “spectacular” (BroadwayWorld) dance with tumbling and 3D holographic choreography that juggles speed, scale, and illusion.

The work was conceived before the pandemic and transformed by the reality of her initial cast of pan-Asian dancers being split and isolated through it. Dragons incorporates the 3D holographic presence of the remote cast with live choreography for eight on-stage dancers, many of whom were born in 2000—the year of the dragon on the Asian Zodiac calendar.

A graduate of contemporary dance at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Ahn is internationally renowned, with over 150 pieces in her repertoire. Her work has toured widely in Asia and Europe through invitations from the Pina Bausch Foundation in Wuppertal, Germany, and an association with Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.

“Spectacular.”

Ballet BC

Festival Week 8 | Wednesday, August 13 – Sunday, August 17 | Ted Shawn Theatre
First Appearance Since 2019 | U.S. Premiere

Formed in 1986 and based in British Columbia, Ballet BC is well-known in Canada and around the world for pushing the physical and emotional boundaries of contemporary dance with performances that are “visually stunning and emotionally profound” (PBS). The company returns to the Ted Shawn Theatre stage for the first time since 2019 with a program that includes the U.S. premiere of BOLERO X by Shahar Binyamini, SWAY by the company’s artistic director Medhi Walerski, and the U.S. premiere of Obsidian by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber.

Ballet BC presents a diverse repertoire in its international tours, as well as its regular runs at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. Collaborating choreographers include William Forsythe, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Medhi Walerski, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Imre and Marne van Opstal, Adi Salant, Jiří Pokorný, Micaela Taylor, Marco Goecke, Fernando Hernando Magadan, Dorotea Saykaly, and Aszure Barton. “We are a company,” says Ballet BC, “that aims to create dance at its most essential: visceral, powerful, thought-provoking, and transformative.”

“Visually stunning and emotionally profound.”

BODYTRAFFIC

Festival Week 2 | Wednesday, July 2 – Sunday, July 6 | Ted Shawn Theatre
First Appearance Since 2022

With a compelling style that reflects the “invention, attitude, and urban edge” (Boston Globe) of its Los Angeles home, BODYTRAFFIC returns to the Pillow with a program that dives into the power of memory sparked by unexpected reminders. Whether it’s a painting, song, or sensation, the associations we make with the world around us forge lasting connections that provoke deep feelings of nostalgia.

For Festival 2025, BODYTRAFFIC will perform a program featuring Blue Until June—set to the songs of Etta James by their new Creative Partner Trey McIntyre—alongside works by Juel D. Lane and Matthew Neenan. This will be the company’s Ted Shawn Theatre debut, having previously performed on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage in 2022, and in the original Doris Duke Theatre in 2013 and 2015.

Founded in 2007, BODYTRAFFIC tours the country and the globe spreading the joy and positive spirit of their home city. Dance Magazine named the company one of “25 to Watch” in 2013, and this past year, Forbes magazine wrote that BODYTRAFFIC’s “incredible” work in the decade since has “made the case for how Los Angeles is becoming a home for great dancers.”

“invention, attitude, and urban edge”

Huang Yi

Festival Week 9 | Wednesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 24 | Doris Duke Theatre
Pillow Debut

Named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to Watch” in 2011, Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, and inventor Huang Yi creates partnership between humans and robots. Huang will appear for his first-ever engagement at Jacob’s Pillow to present Ink, in which he and audio-visual pioneer Ryoichi Kurokawa dismantle and reconstruct the lines from a hundred artworks in renowned calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze’s Silent Music series.

Exploring textures of movement, sound, visual art, and space, Huang and his dancers perform alongside stunning holographic projection and two industrial robots. Mixing movement with mechanical and multimedia elements to create dance that corresponds with the flow of data, Ink makes each performer, whether human or machine, a dancing instrument.

Ink was co-commissioned by the National Taichung Theater and National Theater, Taipei in Taiwan and had its world premiere in June 2023.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Festival Week 9 | Wednesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 24 | Ted Shawn Theatre
First Appearance by Full Company Since 1963

An unrivaled force since 1958, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the most acclaimed dance companies in the world. With a repertory that boasts close to 300 works by more than 100 choreographers, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed in more than 70 countries on six continents, and has been designated by the United States Congress as a “vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World.”

This summer at Jacob’s Pillow, for the first time in 62 years, the full company of extraordinary dancers will bring to life audience favorites and thrilling new works by choreographers for whom Alvin Ailey paved the way, reminding us that dance is both a reflection of our past and a guide to our future.

Alvin Ailey began his close association with the Pillow in 1954 as a performer, choreographer, and acting director of the Lester Horton Dance Theatre, and he first brought his company here in 1959. He adapted Revelations from its original form for Pillow performances in 1961, and this landmark work—which has been internationally celebrated ever since—will be part of the company’s mixed program this summer, along with Amy Hall Garner’s CENTURY (2023) and Lar Lubovitch’s Many Angels (2024). Additionally, the company will perform Cry (1971)—the signature work that Alvin Ailey created for Judith Jamison—on opening night only, Wednesday August 20.

In addition, programming on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage during this week will feature works by artists connected to the lineage illuminated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent Edges of Ailey, the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate Ailey’s enduring legacy. Artists include Yusha-Marie Sorzano in her Pillow debut, a presentation of Sacred Songs by Matthew Rushing and Ailey Extension dancers, and the Pillow debut of HopeBoykinDance. Events on the outdoor stage are ticketed separately.

Forged during a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was established to uplift the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. With dancers of all backgrounds, an extraordinary library of works, and wide-ranging collaborations with choreographers, it was truly the first modern dance company of its kind.

“A vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World.”

Elle Sofe Company

Festival Week 5 | Wednesday, July 23 – Sunday, July 27 | Doris Duke Theatre
U.S. Debut | U.S. Premiere | Live Music

Hailing from Norway, Elle Sofe Company make their U.S. debut with Vástádus eana – the answer is land, a “powerful” (Vancouver Sun) and critically-acclaimed performance that combines dance with yoik, a traditional singing style of the Sámi people who are Indigenous to the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

Supported by polyphonic music and costumes inspired by traditional clothing, the piece is inspired by political demonstrations, Sámi spiritual practices, and formation dance. Vástádus eana – the answer is land explores community and kinship between people, nature, and the earth. The yoik, composed specifically for the performance, serves as a musical pillar throughout a performance that reflects on the power of standing together and the awareness of the earth we all stand on and share.

Company founder Elle Sofe Sara is a featured artist at the Arctic Arts Festival in Harstad and a winner of the 2019 Moon Jury Award at the Imagine Native Film Festival. Now coming to the U.S. for the first time, Vástádus eana – the answer is land has toured internationally, and received the 2021/2022 Norwegian Critics Award for Dance.

Sekou McMiller & Friends

Festival Week 6 | Wednesday, July 30 – Sunday, August 3 | Ted Shawn Theatre
World Premiere | Live Music

With a musical flair and explosive energy, dancer and choreographer Sekou McMiller is at the forefront of Afro Latin Dance performance and education. His unique fusion style, rooted in Afro-Caribbean traditions and laced with a range of dance techniques from the African diaspora, brought Jacob’s Pillow audiences to their feet dancing last summer as Sekou McMiller & Friends performed on the outdoor stage.

For Festival 2025, in his Ted Shawn Theatre debut, McMiller will present the world premiere of Urban Love Suite, the latest incarnation of his dance and music project Afro Latin Jazz and Soul Experience. A joy-filled rhythmical journey through African American, Afro Latino/a/e and West African music and dance traditions, Urban Love Suite celebrates the cultural love affair between Black and Brown peoples, through encounters in cityscapes including Harlem, the Bronx, Dakar, São Paulo, Los Angeles, and Chicago. This world premiere is supported by the Joan B. Hunter New Work Commission.

McMiller’s diverse career as a dancer, choreographer, and educator has garnered him broad recognition worldwide. His 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, performed off-Broadway, and performed and choreographed for Pitbull and Madonna and for top Latin music artists including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Willie Colón, Tito Rojas, and Tito Nieves. He has also performed at numerous Jacob’s Pillow special events, participated in the Pillow Lab residency series, and served as Choreographer/Director of the Musical Theatre program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow in 2024.

“Innovative, cutting edge, and soulful are just a few words to describe Sekou McMiller.”