Brinae Ali: Baby Laurence Legacy Project

Following her rousing performance on the outdoor stage in 2023, tap dancer, choreographer, and vocalist Brinae Ali returns to Jacob’s Pillow with Baby Laurence Legacy Project, developed during a Pillow Lab residency in 2024. The show explores and celebrates the artistic genius of “Baby” Laurence Donald Jackson, a Baltimore innovator whose impact on tap dance and jazz music is legendary.

This evening-length production traces Laurence’s life from Baltimore to Harlem and Washington, D.C. to share his largely forgotten story with audiences, featuring songs by Laurence including “Baby at Birdland” and “An Afternoon of Percussion” reimagined with new arrangements and choreography— interspersed with technology that brings Laurence himself into the production. With music played live by the Baltimore Music Collective, Ali reveals how Laurence embodied the bebop aesthetic, reflecting a defiance of the white gaze and a self-referencing Black consciousness akin to the music of Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, and Charlie Parker. This work is the recipient of Jacob’s Pillow’s 2026 Joan B. Hunter New Work Commission.

This work is supported by Chamber Music America New Jazz Works, National Dance Projects, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Johns Hopkins University Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts, and the Peabody Conservatory Jazz Department.

First introduced to the Pillow by Dormeshia, Ali was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, and has worked as an educator, grassroots organizer, and the artistic director of Tapology, Inc., a youth based outreach program. She is now the Creative Director of Destination 4 Ever, a platform for artists and an incubator for innovation, collaboration, and liberation.