Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers Award
Honoring the spirit of Jacob’s Pillow founder Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers, the Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers Award is a biennial award which recognizes visionary choreographers who create work danced by men dancers
MEET THE 2026 JACOB'S PILLOW MEN DANCER'S AWARD RECIPIENT
This year, Jacob’s Pillow will present American dancer, artist, and choreographer Shamel Pitts with the Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers Award. Pitts will receive the award as his company TRIBE performs in the Doris Duke Theatre during the first week of the Festival.
Dancer, artist, and choreographer Shamel Pitts creates provocative dance works that “push against the boundaries of identity” (Dance Magazine). Pitts is a United States Artist Fellow (2026), a Stroke of Genius Fellow (2025), a MacArthur Fellow (2024), and a Guggenheim Fellow (2020). He received a Doris Duke Artist Award as well as a Knight Choreography Prize in 2024, and a Princess Grace Award in Choreography in 2018. Pitts’s “BLACK series” has toured extensively worldwide since 2016.
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE: Touch of RED
June 24 — 28, 2026 | Doris Duke Theatre
Set in a stylized ring, "Touch of RED" is inspired by the rapid-fire footwork of boxing, the African American jazz dance style Lindy Hop, Gaga movement language, and nightlife culture.
ABOUT THE AWARD
The Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers Award continues the vision legacy of Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers, amplifying the power of men dancers and supporting future artists.
The Award was created in 2024 with generous underwriting support provided by Brian Fitzpatrick and his husband Fernando Cortez. The Award will be presented every two years to a choreographer of any gender who creates a work danced by male dancers, to be performed at Jacob’s Pillow. The Award of $25,000 may be used by the choreographer in any way they wish.
DISCOVER THE HISTORY
When Ted Shawn selected his original Men Dancers from the athletes he taught at Springfield College in 1933, his stated purpose was to forge a new performance style for men, and to prove that dancing could be an honorable profession for the American male. By May 1940 when Shawn disbanded the group, the company had danced for over a million people across the United States and in Canada, Cuba, and England, having challenged and irrevocably changed the course of American dance.
For the final three decades of his life, Shawn became a major impresario, bringing dance to mainstream America through the theater and school at Jacob’s Pillow. To promote his principle of the importance and universality of dance, Shawn introduced countless foreign companies to American audiences, provided opportunities for promising young artists and trained countless students in a full range of dance styles. Shawn orchestrated premieres by both the established and emerging talents of his day including Agnes de Mille, Anton Dolin, Pearl Lang, Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, Alvin Ailey, and Robert Joffrey.