Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion™ Institute
The Curriculum in Motion™ Institute is a career development opportunity for emerging, mid-career, and seasoned choreographers to keep your artistry alive and growing. Upon completion, artists receive a Certificate in the Curriculum in Motion™ Method.
Each year, we welcome a new cohort of teaching artists, choreographers, and Artist Educators–like you!–from diverse dance backgrounds, who want to strengthen their choreographic voice with a community building focus. Together, we train in the renowned Curriculum in Motion™ method, a transformational dance integration method where choreographers and community partners investigate how dance can be used to honor a community’s questions and needs.
The Institute supports you and your fellow Artist Educators in identifying community partners to collaborate with, crafting workshops and residencies that are rooted in each community’s history, issues, and questions. Our alumni have worked with community partners spanning K-12 classrooms, health and social service organizations, cultural hubs, galleries, historical sites, and more.
We believe that Artist Educators play a central role in community building. The Curriculum in Motion™ Institute is committed to honoring the community’s themes equally with the choreographer’s voice. Learning in, with, and by community is essential for taking down systems of oppression.
Develop and Renew Your Artistic Practice
Training for a Certificate in the Curriculum in Motion™ Method allows time to explore your identity as an artist in relationship to community building, developing a practice of self-reflection and self-renewal.
Grow Your Network
Build a diverse and invested network of artists, and engage in peer-to-peer creative investigation through dancing, journaling, and dialogue.
Build Community
Complete the program with enhanced choreographic and pedagogical skills, confident in your ability to create transformational experiences and cultivate relationships in your community through dance making.
HEAR FROM OUR PARTICIPANTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS
What’s Included in the Program
- Two in-person weekend modules at Jacob’s Pillow. On-campus experiences take place at Jacob’s Pillow as we enter the world of Curriculum in Motion™ with interactive dancing, journaling, learning labs, and more. The program begins with an opening weekend module September 18-22, 2025, and ends with a closing weekend module July 22-26, 2026 during the 2026 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.
- Monthly core curriculum Learning Labs (Zoom): Institute Directors Celeste Miller, Kimberli Boyd, and Michael Richter lead monthly learning labs with guided discussion and active artistic engagement. Participants may attend live or access recordings of sessions.
- 2025-26 dates: Oct. 12, Nov. 9, Dec. 14, Jan. 11, Feb. 15, March 15, April 19, May 17, June 14, July 12. Time TBD.
- Cohort designed learning exchanges with peers (Zoom): Meet up with your cohort to explore ideas through dance making, discussing, and sharing.
- Peer-to-peer co-mentoring pods (Zoom): These gatherings offer support and creative exchange with one another.
- Individual mentoring with Institute Directors (Zoom): These one-on-one sessions provide individualized mentoring adapted to your needs and questions about Curriculum in Motion™.
- Curriculum in Motion™ Institute workbook
The opportunity to present your Curriculum in Motion™ learning path in an open forum during the summer Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, as the Institute program draws to an end.
APPLY TO JOIN THE INSTITUTE
Learn more about application materials and deadlines, program fees, financial assistance, and our refund policy.
UPON COMPLETION
With the successful completion of the program and receiving a Certificate of Completion, graduates are eligible for the following level advancements:
- Curriculum in Motion™ Fellow: Graduates may apply to be an artist/educator for Jacob’s Pillow-produced Curriculum in Motion™ residencies. During that residency, you are mentored by Celeste Miller, Kimberli Boyd, and Michael Richter.
- Curriculum in Motion™ Certified Facilitator: A Fellow is upgraded to a Certified Facilitator upon successfully completing the fellowship.
- Curriculum in Motion™ Trainer: This is the most advanced level of Curriculum in Motion™. Currently, the trainers are Celeste Miller, Kimberli Boyd, and Michael Richter.
About the Curriculum in Motion™ Method
The renowned Curriculum in Motion™ method is a transformational dance integration method that pairs choreographers with community partners to investigate how dance can be used to honor a community’s questions and needs.
Founded in 1993 by Celeste Miller and “J.R.” Glover, Curriculum in Motion™ is an artist-driven methodology that applies creative practices toward building a more just and humane world.
At the root of the work is the question: How can artists and their community partners consider how dance can rethink, rework, reconsider, and renew?
For an example case of how this method can be applied, see how Jacob’s Pillow has developed a Curriculum in Motion™-based program in recent years with K-12 public schools in Berkshire County.
MEET THE FOUNDING ARTISTS
Meet the artists who developed this critically acclaimed methodology.