Street & Club Dances:
Styles, Culture, History

Street & Club Dances: Styles, Culture, History | June 29—July 12

Ephrat Asherie & Archie Burnett, Program Directors

Artist Faculty Michele Byrd-McPhee, Bravo, Chrybaby, Val “Ms. Vee” Ho, TweetBoogie, and Omari Wiles, with others to be announced | Read about the Artist Faculty

For 24 United States and international dancers, comfortable freestyling in two or more styles, with or without academic or studio training; minimum age 16.

Ephrat Asherie and Archie Burnett, with a powerhouse roster of artist faculty, will lead dancers in experiencing the connections and inspirations of street and club dances impacting dance across all styles and genres of dance today. The origins, performative cultures, and evolutionary histories of a wide-range of dance styles will be explored in classes, cyphers, jams, performances, and discussion circles. Dancers will share the vibrancy of house, breaking, afrobeat, whacking/waacking, hustle, vogue and more with Festival audiences on the Pillow’s iconic outdoor stage on July 4 and July 11.

Archie Burnett shares, “The goal is for dancers to experience the real life connections and inspirations that drive this dance movement, tied to each dancer’s journey to create a real life representative visual truth.” 

The School Experience at Jacob’s Pillow is fully dance-immersive. Stamina, perseverance, a collaborative and open spirit, and a voracity to live and work as a professional are expected of everyone. The curriculum includes seeing companies on the Pillow’s three stages, having meaningful career-building discussions with Festival artists, taking Master Classes, attending artist and scholar-led talks, researching dance interests and assignments in the Jacob’s Pillow Archives, discussing dance with staff and audience members, networking at Cast Parties, and much more. Through these experiences, dancers gain artistic growth, a unique artistic point of view, a vision of the possibilities that exist in dance, and an influential career network.

Festival companies during the program include Dorrance Dance, Limón Dance Company, and CONTRA-TIEMPO. Learn about Festival 2020 and explore exciting program-related content, such as Ephrat Asherie performing at Jacob’s Pillow on Dance Interactive.

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