Festival Update:
In recognition of the profound impact of this global crisis, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Jacob’s Pillow Festival 2020 for the safety of our staff, artists, audiences, community partners, friends, and the dance community. If you have questions not answered by our website, please email us at [email protected].
Since we can’t see you in-person just yet, we are excited to announce Virtual Pillow, a space to come together this spring and summer to experience and enjoy our precious art form, and to share the quintessential Jacob’s Pillow experience with the wider world. Virtual Pillow is your gateway to videos, games, podcasts, essays, invitations to live events, and decades of dance treasures from our renowned Archives.
Ticketed Performances
Season Opening Gala
June 20
The summer kickoff party not to be missed, a performance by The School at Jacob’s Pillow; presentation of the 2020 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award; spirited auctions; dinner on the Great Lawn; and a fabulous after party with dancing into the night!
Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève
June 24–28
Switzerland’s acclaimed ballet company returns to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time in nearly a decade, featuring classically trained dancers performing breathtaking contemporary choreography. The program includes the U.S. premiere of Fall, a dance about the capacity to descend and rise again, with music by Arvo Pärt and choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
A.I.M by Kyle Abraham
June 24–28
An Untitled Love is Kyle Abraham’s newest evening-length work. Comprised of the catalogue of Grammy Award-winning R&B legend D’Angelo, this creative exaltation serves as a thumping mixtape celebrating culture, family, and community.
Ted Shawn: Dorrance Dance Plays the Pillow
July 1–5
Featuring a world premiere solo for Michelle Dorrance set alongside one of her most beloved rhythmic compositions, SOUNDspace, this program is framed by world premieres set on the company by living tap legends—and may even include some of the masters themselves!
Doris Duke: Dorrance Dance Plays the Pillow
July 1–5
This singular in-the-round experience blends the site-specific collaborations of Michelle Dorrance and Nicholas Van Young into a seamless work adapted specifically for the Pillow. With the unique sonic palettes and compositions featured in Elemental (BAM) and The Rotunda Project (Guggenheim Works and Process), Dorrance, Young, and the members of Dorrance Dance explore the Duke like never before.
All Styles Dance Battle
Jul 5
Be a part of the action and circle around some of the best dancers across multiple genres, as they battle it out right in front of you!
Limón Dance Company
July 8–12
Celebrated as one of the world’s greatest modern dance groups, the Limón Dance Company marks its 75th anniversary this year. This spectacular program features classic and contemporary dances, with iconic masterworks from dance legends Doris Humphrey and José Limón, including his powerful all-male The Unsung and Artistic Director Colin Connor’s vivid The Weather in the Room.
CONTRA-TIEMPO
July 8–12
This multilingual urban Latin dance theater company draws on their Los Angeles lineage with work rooted in Salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance. Their evening-length work joyUS justUS is an embodiment of radical joy and justice that brings together outstanding dancing and superb music in a potent artistic and emotional journey.
Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart
July 15–19
In the U.S. premiere of Swan Lakes, four of today’s leading international choreographers create their own versions of the classic story. Germany’s Gauthier Dance performs contemporary adaptations by Marie Chouinard, Marco Goecke, Cayetano Soto, and Hofesh Shechter, as stylistically varied as the star choreographers themselves.
Duets From Quebec
July 15–19
This exclusive presentation of U.S. premieres highlights the art of the duet through two distinct programs. Anne Plamondon and James Gregg captivate in Only You, a dance about the complexities of love and commitment; and Sylvain Lafortune and Esther Rousseau-Morin perform L’un L’autre, the embodiment of the intimate, constantly evolving nature of a relationship. Choose one magnificent program or see both!
Ballet Hispánico
July 22–26
Back by popular demand, Ballet Hispánico's 50th anniversary program celebrates lush and exhilarating dance, and includes Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Tiburones, a daring and insightful work that uses humor, satire, and sexy, virtuosic dancing to comment on the discrimination placed upon Latinx culture by the media.
Dance Heginbotham
July 22–26
John Heginbotham's company performs a delightful new program, with live music by jazz pianist and composer Ethan Iverson, including Easy Win, an ode to the repetition, drama, and humor of ballet class, and Dance Sonata, which captures the unique interplay of dancers and musicians in performance.
Cleo Parker Robinson
Dance Ensemble
July 29–August 2
Celebrating 50 years in the modern dance world, this distinguished company presents both iconic and innovative works inspired by African-American experiences and traditions. Their performances will include masterworks from a richly diverse and historic repertoire, along with Micaela Taylor’s Resist, a cutting-edge work set to a score that spans ‘70s funk to Max Richter’s haunting minimalist tones.
Malavika Sarukkai
Thari – The Loom
July 29–August 2
Malavika Sarukkai is one of the great living masters of the classical Indian dance style of Bharatanatyam from South India. In Thari - The Loom, she and her ensemble of expert dancers delve into the layered disciplines of dance and handloom weaving, with radiant choreography and spellbinding stage presence, that is both deeply welcoming and totally transporting.
Black Grace
August 5–9
Dedicated to the rich storytelling traditions of the South Pacific, New Zealand-based Black Grace masterfully blends contemporary and Samoan/Maori dance genres, expressing them with “phenomenal strength, stamina and spirit” (The New Zealand Herald).
LAVA Compañía De Danza
August 5–9
For its very first U.S. performances, the Tenerife-based LAVA performs a program of vigorous premieres including Bending the Walls, by Spanish choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan. This lush, emotional work illustrates the metaphorical roadblocks we encounter in the search for happiness, freedom, and understanding, with theatrical scenic design and exceptional dancing.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet
August 12–16
Lauded as creating “the most sophisticated modernism in classical dance” (Los Angeles Times), choreographer Alonzo King is renowned for imbuing classical ballet with new expressive potential. The company performs the octet The Personal Element and AZOTH, two new ensemble works set to music by venerable jazz musicians: saxophonist Charles Lloyd and pianist and composer Jason Moran.
Brian Brooks Moving Company
August 12–16
A “master of momentum” (Chicago Tribune), Brian Brooks has choreographed for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Miami City Ballet, Wendy Whelan, and his own talented company. His latest work Closing Distance is set to a Pulitzer Prize-winning score by composer Caroline Shaw featuring the eight-voice ensemble Roomful of Teeth. To top it off, audiences will experience Brooks’ recent virtual reality creations.
MOMIX
August 19–22
Famous across the globe for exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty, MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists under the direction of Moses Pendleton, co-founder of Pilobolus. Viva MOMIX features some of the ensemble’s most beloved vignettes, bursting with signature elements of humor, fantasy, beauty, and originality.
Liz Lerman
August 19–23
Visionary choreographer and intellectual DJ Liz Lerman returns with her newest dance-theater work. The world premiere of Wicked Bodies asks why some knowledge is celebrated, some criminalized, and some erased altogether. In this fable, witches along with the natural world are going extinct, and a man is collecting them in hopes of saving us all or making a name for himself.
The Sarasota Ballet
August 26–30
Beloved among ballet fans, The Sarasota Ballet has received unprecedented praise over the past decade under the direction of Iain Webb. They bring a totally new program to close out Festival 2020, with contemporary and classical favorites including Sir Frederick Ashton’s lavish Birthday Offering.
Aszure Barton & Artists
August 26–30
For over 25 years, Aszure Barton has been creating emotionally-charged, critically-acclaimed dances. For the U.S. premiere of Where There’s Form, she will reunite with Academy Award-nominated German pianist and composer Hauschka to reveal a refined and unpredictable world where brilliant dancers demonstrate humanity’s capacity for harmonious coexistence.
Get First Access
This is the season to take advantage of early ordering! Secure your seats to the most popular shows before they sell out. Members at the Friend level and above receive 10% off tickets at both theaters, all season long.