Ephrat Asherie Dance: Shadow Cities

In this summer’s new work, Shadow Cities, the company collaborates with Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill to reflect on the beauty, vastness, and joy of the in-between. Seven dancers and four musicians explore the myriad ways they feel split between cities, memories, and generations, encountering their most enlivened selves in unexpected moments. Featuring live music by O’Farrill and friends, Shadow Cities is a conversation between a musician’s vast compositional voice and a dancer’s dynamic choreography.

New York City-based director, choreographer, performer, and b-girl Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie always finds a powerful groove at Jacob’s Pillow—from her company’s Festival performances since 2013, to her years on faculty at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, to her crowd-pleasing collaboration with Michelle Dorrance last summer on The Center Will Not Hold. Rooted in African American and Latine street and club dances, Ephrat Asherie Dance crafts new stories and playful expression from vernacular forms like breaking, hip-hop, house, waacking, and vogue.

Asherie's work has been presented on stages nationally and internationally, with commissions from Malpaso, Parsons Dance, Vail Dance Festival, Fall for Dance at New York City Center, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, the Kennedy Center, and more. A Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance, she has received Dance Magazine's Inaugural Harkness Promise Award and two National Dance Project Awards, among others.