Contemporary Ballet Program | Musician
John Sauer is an important link to the Ted Shawn era at Jacob’s Pillow. Sauer first accompanied classes here in 1971, Shawn’s final season. He was a close colleague to Shawn’s composer/accompanist, Jess Meeker, for more than 25 years and performed in the two-piano arrangement of the Shawn-Meeker Kinetic Molpai as part of the Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers project at New York’s Joyce Theater. He also played second piano for several recording sessions of Meeker’s music in the 1980s. A Berkshire musician since the late 1960s, Sauer has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Antioch College. He accompanies dance at Williams College, Belvoir Terrace, Jacob’s Pillow, and most notably for Mark Morris, and was Music Director for the Berkshire Public Theatre for 15 years. In September 2018, John performed Dance of the Ages, choreographed by Ted Shawn and composed by Jess Meeker, reconstructed and danced by Adam Weinert, with eight other male dancers, at the Pillow for three performances.