Contemporary | Program Director
Helen Pickett, native of San Diego, CA, is the co-director, along with Milton Meyers, of The School at Jacob’s Pillow 2022 Contemporary Performance Ensemble. She is an award-winning contemporary ballet choreographer, creating over 50 ballets in 16 years in the U.S. and Europe, including The Crucible, a full-length for Scottish Ballet, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival, and won two awards; UK Theatre Critics Award and the Herald Angel Award. While resident choreographer for Atlanta Ballet, 2012 – 2017, she was named Best Choreographer in 2014, for The Exiled, and in 2015, for her full length, Camino Real, which also won best production. Pickett’s 2021 commissions included American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow, Kansas City Ballet, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Future commissions include Boston Ballet, The Dutch National Ballet, which has commissioned a new full-length production, and The National Ballet of Canada. Starting in May 2020, Pickett launched her YouTube talk show, Creative Vitality Jam Sessions, and subsequently completed 83 interviews. From June – December 2020, Helen choreographed 12 dances for film resulting in two series: Homes Studies and The Shakespeare Cycle. Three films from The Shakespeare Cycle were featured in a PBS special. And a fourth, The Air Before Me, created with director Shaun Clarke, was an official selection of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival 2021, and won the Audience Favorite Award from Screen Dance International. All were created virtually on Zoom. In April 2021, Pickett founded the Female Choreographer’s Big Round Table, a zoom meeting place for female choreographers, 144 women, to build community and forge avenues for more equitable work environments. She leads her think-tank dance workshop, Choreographic Essentials at universities around the country. Pickett danced with Ballet Frankfurt, director, William Forsythe from 1987-1998, and performed with the New York theater company Wooster Group, director, Elizabeth LeCompte, for five years. In addition to Pickett’s contemporary ballet choreography, she has collaborated, as a choreographer and actress with installation video artists and filmmakers, including Eve Sussman, Toni Dove and Laurie Simmons. Pickett earned an MFA in 2011 from Hollins University, and in 2016, she received an Honorary Doctorate from UNCSA, awarded by Susan Jaffe, for her contribution to the arts. Pickett is represented by Kristopher McDowell at Rhizome Arts Consulting. www.helenpickett.com