June 16 – August 26, 2012
Jacob’s Pillow, Becket Massachusetts
See below for schedule.
That Ted Shawn founded the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 80 years ago speaks to how old the art form is. Of course it is difficult to speak of ‘modern dance’ as an art form or even an art movement, when its main characteristic and initial need to exist, a need going back to Nijinsky’s and Diaghilev’s to create Le Sacre du Printemps in 1913, is a highly individual self-expression through movement, though it seems that from year zero as important as this honest self-expression of the choreographer and dancer(s) are common qualities such as a sense of theatre, for like ballet this is theatrical dance, and a degree of training, a technique, even a theory (however batty). Also as important is a company for the choreographer to work with and a school attached to the company, perhaps because of the difficulty to communicate the new choreography and its ever changing styles to the dancers. But one doesn’t want to be too rigid about it. What does “Self-expression” even mean in a cooperative performing art involving many “selves”?
Ted Shawn and Ruth St Denis married and formed their theatrical partnership in 1914, the year after the Ballets Russes first performed Le Sacre, and their company and school based in Los Angeles, and their general approach, soon became known as “Denishawn.” Shawn also wrote articles for his own quarterly, “Denishawn Magazine.” (Read a copy of the first issue here [PDF, 28.0 MB].) While St Denis already had an established stage magnetism and a good following, by all accounts a practical sense of entertainment, but also a prophetic, Christian, spiritual zealousness for her dancing, and she was not the less devoted to her art for its popularity. Ted Shawn by all accounts had sense for the practical side of the theatre, though he was no less zealous than his wife, and he pushed for the opening of the school for their company to ensure well- and aptly-trained dancers for their particular manifestation of the new art. And it was a very new art, Isadora Duncan was still dancing in Europe then, Mary Wigman, who would bring the eurythmics of Dalcroze and Laban’s theories, the central european developments, to America, performed her first choreography in 1914, so Shawn and St Denis were indeed pioneers, but not lone pioneers. Even though their choreography doesn’t seem to be preformed today very often (though some of the early works are mostly lost), they had a great effect on the history of the art: it was the Denishawn school which gave Martha Graham, one of Shawn’s protégés, and sometimes called the “Mother of Modern Dance,” her start, and she is still performed regularly today, as well as Doris Humphrey, who was one of St Denis’ protégés. Fittingly enough, Martha Graham broke free of the Denishawn school to start her own company and school, with a very different style, so at the least St Denis and Shawn were good teachers because it was through them Graham discovered what she wanted to create.
Shawn bought a farm in the Berkshires in 1930 called “Jacob’s Pillow,” not long after he and St Denis separated. The Denishawn school disbanded in 1932, but Shawn founded his “University of Dance” at Jacob’s Pillow the following year, and his own all-male company called “Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers,” made up of athlete-students from Springfield College whom he had taught to dance. His curiosity for dance in all its ethnic forms, which was one of the tastes he had had in common with St Denis, (they had toured the world picking up ‘new’ styles from Asia especially to adapt to the Denishawn school curriculum and their own pieces), showed in the diverse dancers and companies he invited to the dance festival which he founded in 1933, traveling the world regularly to find these. Part of his thinking in starting a dance festival in the rural Berkshires was to give young people, especially young men, a theatre to dance in. Modern dance was then, partly from having developed so fast in the 1920’s and its artists’ desire to express ‘their own times,’ and is still now, quite urban. Its sophisticated, devoted, very specialized audiences are generally city slickers, and its style seems often paced to the city. Thus Jacob’s Pillow provides a unique chance for the art to gain some isolation, some connection with nature, which is so important for all art. Fresh air can only benefit the mind and body. Whereas Denishawn in the 1910’s and 1920’s was known for its exotic ballets influenced by Egyptian, East Asian and South-east Asian traditional dance, Ted Shawn’s pieces from the 1930’s seem especially bucolic and pared down, and go back to quintessentially American imagery. His movements, as he himself stated are those of work, and he made such pieces as “The New World,” “Negro Spirituals,” “Hopi Indian Eagle Dance,” “Labor Symphony” and “Pioneer’s Dance.”
The same year the Festival began, Fred Astaire was choreographing, dancing and shooting Dancing Lady, his first film, and Flying Down to Rio (both 1933), beginning to show the world why men too should dance for art’s sake. Shawn, before he met St Denis, had his start in theatrical ballroom dancing too, but where Astaire danced masculine with suavity, Shawn and his Men danced with athleticism, or at least a more thinly clothed virility. These times were still somewhat under the spell of the age of the ballerina which goes back to the beginning of Romantic ballet in the 1840’s, but became extreme by the late 19th century when ballerinas would dance the male roles as well en travestie. Shawn saw not only the potential for male dancing but the necessity for strong male as well as the strong female dancers in the new modern dance, not to mention ballet, and saw the barriers to boys’ taking it up as a profession. So with his Men Dancers, he specially set out to break the ridiculous stereotype that dance was effeminate and whatever else, leaving little room for doubt in presenting his all male company, many of whom were athletes, “freed” of their partnering responsibilities. It is not here, perhaps, so much a physical dichotomy of men versus women in dance (though the physical aspect is of course important when your medium is the body) as a more ineffable matter of having the full spectrum of qualities in one’s choreography, in one’s company, possibilities of masculinity and femininity, virility and muliebrity, and both at once and everything in between. The artistic life of a dancer can only benefit from coed dance schools and dancing in a company — and in company — with a mixture of equally excellent men and women dancers. Indeed, as a company, the Men Dancers might have been held back by taking the opposite extreme.
On the other side, choreographers in the 19th century had been mostly male, so it is interesting how many of the greatest early modern dancer-choreographers were women; modern dance did of course grown up with women’s lib. Shawn and Nijinsky (and Massine), Nijinsky hardly making a handful of pieces, were somewhat the exception, though later in the ’20’s and ’30’s some more men choreographers started to appear. Now we seem to have swung back: there seem to be relatively few women choreographers, at least in here in South-eastern Australia I notice this. There may be help in history for us today: the modern dance revolution came at the end of 60 or so years of ballet loosing touch with its natural expressiveness and becoming misbalanced, and ballet itself benefited from this revolution: many of the modern dance choreographers worked in both realms, creating also new “modern” ballets with the traditional technique (Ninette de Valois, for example). Now modern dance, or contemporary dance, or interpretive dance, or whatever one wants to call it — albeit vague, but useful terms — has been going for some 99 years, and though there are still many fresh, excellent, honestly human pieces, there does seem to be a certain catalogue of movements used repetitively, some self-reference, tradition starting to weigh down some choreography, and sometimes one gets the idea a contemporary piece feels better to dance than to look at. “Contemporary Dance” as a term is in fact used more specifically, often it seems to describe a current style, analogous to “Contemporary Art” with a similar global style, a similar tightly connected, self-confirming world, complete with its own jargon and propaganda. Often seen as a progression through chains of dancer-choreographers, it is called “Contemporary Dance” as if necessarily at the cutting edge of human culture, rather than something which is becoming an art form with a tradition. Ballet, the most traditional dance in the theatre, is itself not very old compared with other arts — the Paris Opera Ballet School, one of the first, will celebrate its 300th birthday next year; ballet is linked inextricably to classical music, and the visual arts too, and is far younger than those art forms. Now, most of the major national ballet companies have absorbed many of modern dance’s traditional pieces into their repertoires and are often expert practitioners of it, side by side with their traditional repertoire, even as they create new ballets in the classical technique, often the same dancers dancing both styles in a single season without any awkwardness in the transition. These ballet companies commission and dance a good deal of the world’s new contemporary dance pieces. Modern technique is taught in these companies’ schools, going back at least to Serge Lifar’s introduction of the sixth and seventh positions to ballet’s traditional five when he was head of the Paris Opera Ballet in the 1950’s. Of course Isadora Duncan’s complete rejection of ballet is the most extreme case and the exception among the early modern dancer-choreographers, Denishawn, for example, taught ballet (in bare feet, though), and today many contemporary companies give their dancers a regular ballet class. The Jacob’s Pillow School teaches ballet as well as contemporary styles, and other forms, and this Festival, though mostly modern, has ballet too.
For those reasons, the Joffrey Ballet, the Hong Kong Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet are at this year’s festival. The famous Joffrey Ballet of Chicago will close the festival in August, performing Bells by Yuri Possokhov, with the piano music by Rachmaninoff. Possokhov once danced for the Bolshoi Ballet and was resident choreographer of the San Francisco Ballet. They will also perform Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence, with music by Philip Glass and Thomas Newman, as well as a brand new piece by the wonderful Stanton Welch, once a dancer and a very young Resident Choreographer at the Australian Ballet, now Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet. That last one is a coup and we hope to bring more information when it’s announced. The Hong Kong Ballet in July will perform Black on Black by Kinsun Chan to String Quartet No. 2, Op. 64 “Quasi Una Fantasia” by Henryk Górecki, and Luminous by Canadian Peter Quanz, both of which premièred in Hong Kong last year, and Symphony in Three Movements by Dutchman Nils Christie with the music by Stravinsky. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet will bring in August Carmina Burana by Mauricio Wainrot with the music by Carl Orff and Tandem by Peter Quanz with Steve Reich’s Double Sextet. Also Michael Corder, the great English choreographer, will create a new piece for the Gala on 16 June with ballet students from the Jacob’s Pillow School.
Jacob’s Pillow will also present The Men Dancers: From the Horse’s Mouth, conceived and directed by Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham, “to pay homage to” Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers, inviting 20 male dancers and choreographers, including Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell, tap superstar Jason Samuels Smith, Trent Kowalik, Lar Lubovitch, choreographer, performer, and dance writer Gus Solomons Jr., former New York City Ballet principal Jock Soto, choreographer Cartier Williams, Robert Swinston, Director of Choreography for Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and John Heginbotham. The performers will rotate in several performances in July. As part of the performance, they will also speak about their dance experiences. It is not clear whether they are performing Ted Shawn’s choreography, which would be very interesting to see, or new choreography “inspired by” him. One can see Ted Shawn’s Men as filmed in the late 1930’s in the rich history section of the Jacob’s Pillow website, dancing The New World, Kinetic Molpai and Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen from Four Dances Based on American Folk Music. As the art nowadays becomes more and more blurred with sport, gymnastics and acrobatics, as it becomes more athletic, though this is not necessarily a hard rule, luckily, it is interesting to see these early modern pieces which were themselves meant to be very athletic pieces. These are athletes dancing, the choreography was designed to be strong and virile, based on natural human gestures of work, rest, feeling and all the rest, to show what male dancers could be, but it is not a display. It would seem, from the little video, to have freshness, imagination, even nuance, it is simple in a positive way. Now “work” almost invariably means sitting (in a cubical), and a young dancer is worried for their career if they can’t do a squillion fouettés, or dance upside-down with all their body parts in continuous movement for 20 minutes without a rest, and many would consider Ted Shawn’s pieces “out of date” (whatever that means to art) or “unsophisticated” (I would disagree). It would be very interesting to see what 21st century dancing bodies would make of Ted Shawn’s choreography.
The company Mimulus, based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil will visit in June with their samba-inspired form of the art with Por Um Fio (By a Thread). Also in June is the acrobatic dance company Circa, based in Brisbane, Australia, whose art involves circus acrobatics and feats of the body, as well as aerial dance. Also in June, the company Morphoses, based in New York and run by former New York City Ballet dancer Lourdes Lopez, will perform WITHIN (Labyrinth Within), by Swede Pontus Lidberg, which uses his film, Labyrinth Within, projected in the theatre, with live dancers. Also the company Kidd Pivot which belongs to Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt will perform Dark Matters by their resident choreographer, Canadian Crystal Pite. It is a full-length piece of theatrical dance in two acts, which promises characters and narrative, sometimes rare in modern dance, and is inspired by the eponymous astrophysical supposition.
Though the Festival is very heavy with companies from the USA, there will also be, in July, the Israeli Vertigo Dance Company, based in Jerusalem, will perform Mana, named after not the concept in the Polynesian and Melanesian religions, but the “vessel of light” in Jewish mysticism, from the Zohar, the chief book of the Kabbalah, which gives a mystical interpretation of the Pentateuch. The music by Ran Bagno is influenced by klezmer music. The LeeSaar company, which Lee Sher and Saar Harari (perhaps a Denishawn-inspired name?) founded in Tel Aviv, moved to Sydney, Australia, but now is based in New York, will perform FAME, choreographed by Sher and Harari, for six dancers. Also in July, the Tero Saarinen Company will perform Saarinen’s Borrowed Light with the Boston Camerata, who will sing traditional Shaker spirituals. Many more besides will perform through July and August (listed below), including Jonah Bokaer and David Hallberg, the latter considered one of the best current male dancers, who is a principal at both the Bolshoi and the American Ballet Theatre.
There are also many free performances on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, including such diverse dancers and traditions as the Pua Ali’I ‘Ilima (The Royal ‘Ilima Blossom) School of Hawaiian Dance performing traditional, pre-colonial, royal Hawaiian dance, as well as new dance based on the ancient style. Also Raadha Kalpa, a company founded by Rukmini Vijayakumar which practices Bharatanatyam, a traditional Hindu dance form, and newly created dance pieces based on the technique. All the great national ballet schools have taught their country’s traditional dances, and their choreographers used them in their ballets. It keeps ballet on its toes (pun not necessarily intended) and fresh, and I believe the same goes for modern dance companies. I’m not sure if the Jacob’s Pillow School teaches the traditional national dance, but that is a tricky phrase when it comes to America, though it is an opportunity to immerse dancers in any or every dance from West Africa to Hawaii (and more besides). The Jacob’s Pillow School students, in four groups, Ballet, Contemporary, Tap, Jazz-Musical Theatre, will also perform on the outdoor stage, and it is always very fun and interesting to see students of the big dance schools dance, and they are no doubt very good, not least from learning in all that fresh air.
There will also be classes at the Festival, including a Community Dance Day (July 1) for those kinaesthetically-inclined audience members tired of merely sitting and watching, where anyone can join classes in a range of styles for free. There are also classes most Thursdays in July and August for children accompanied by a parent. Master Classes for dancers each Sunday will be held by members of the companies dancing that week. There are also morning classes for dancers in Pilates, Ballet, Modern, or Arab-American Fusion, Monday to Friday. Jacob’s Pillow is also offering a course in dance photography, the tuition includes tickets to the performances.
There are also several free exhibits around the farm, with photos from Jacob’s Pillow’s archives and designs from past dance pieces (see below). There will be a screening of Bob Hercules documentary about the Joffrey Ballet Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance for members on June 10, and then every second Sunday during the festival.
There will be free pre-performance talks half an hour before the ticketed performances in the Ted Shawn Theatre and the Doris Duke Theatre, post-performance talks with the artists, fielding questions, after some Thursday and Friday performances.
Jacob’s Pillow Festival Schedule: (See the Jacob’s Pillow website for more details, booking tickets, and archival videos)
Exhibits (all free of charge):
Decades of Dance
Blake’s Barn, Tuesday – Sunday, noon through final curtain
Photos, etc. from the 1930’s on from the Jacob’s Pillow archives
Old/Pillow
Ted Shawn Theatre Lobby, 60 minutes pre-performance
Photographs by Toby Old
Ivan Chermayeff Designs
Doris Duke Theatre Lobby, 60 minutes pre-performance
Collection of the artist’s designs for Jacob’s Pillow from the 1980’s and 1990’s
Precious Medals
Blake’s Barn, Tuesday – Sunday, noon through final curtain
Medals and awards given to Ted Shawn and Jacob’s Pillow over the years, including the National Medal for the Arts presented by President Obama in 2011
Anniversary Highlights, Part 2
Bakalar Studio, open to the public whenever classes or rehearsals are not in session
Photos of the Festival from 1973 to the present
Jacob’s Pillow Archives and Reading Room
Blake’s Barn, Tuesday – Sunday, noon through final curtain
A library of books, programs, videos and photographs open to the public
Fridays at 5 PM, Saturdays at 4 PM,
Sommerspace behind Blake’s Barn
PillowTalks – talks, discussions film screenings etc., also to be found online at FLORA.tv
Pre show talks with Jacob’s Pillow scholars-in-residence
30 minutes before performances in Ted Shawn Theatre and Doris Duke Theatre
Post-show talks with the artists
Thursdays after performances in Doris Duke Theatre, Fridays after performances in Ted Shawn Theatre
June 10, 3 PM
Film Screening for members
Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance by Bob Hercules
June 16
Jacob’s Pillow 80th Anniversary Gala
New work by Michael Corder, and performances by David Hallberg, and companies Mimulus and CIRCA.
Wednesday 20 June, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Pua Ali’I ‘Ilima School of Hawaiian Dance
oli (chant)
hula kahiko (ancient Hawaiian dance)
hula ‘auana (modern Hawaiian dance)
with guest musicians on kī ho’alu (slack key guitar) and slide steel guitar.
New works based on traditional dances originally composed for Lili’uokalani, the last Queen of Hawai’i, as well as repertoire of sacred drum dances, works dedicated to the fire goddess, and songs from the 1920s.
Thursday, June 21, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances For A Variable Population
Friday, June 22, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Bill Evans Dance Company
Nature Unfolding, by Bill Evans
Saturday, June 23, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Ballet
Classical ballet variations coached by Program Director Anna-Marie Holmes and Cynthia Harvey, plus a new work by Michael Corder.
June 20-24
Mimulus (Brazil)
Por Um Fio (By a Thread)
CIRCA (Australia)
Wednesday, June 27, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Swing FX
partner dancing, solos, and ensemble numbers in dance styles ranging from Lindy Hop and Charleston to tap and Vaudeville.
Thursday, June 28, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Yin Yue Dance Company
One Side Of The Story by Yin Yue
Friday, June 29, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Nicholas Andre Dance
Until Blue with the Vitamin String Quartet
and two other works
Saturday, June 30, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Tap
June 27-July 1
Morphoses (USA)
WITHIN (Labyrinth Within) by Pontus Lidberg
Kidd Pivot (Germany)
Dark Matters by Crystal Pite
July 1 9.30 AM-12.30 PM
Community Dance Day
Free classes open to all, no experience necessary in yoga, Zumba, Tai Chi, and social dances
Free master classes with Kidd Pivot for more experienced dancers
Wednesday, July 4, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
SLURP by Adam Metzger
SLURP (Syncopated Linguistic Urban Rhythm Project), a mixed company of Juilliard dancers, professional teachers from Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center, performs tap and contemporary dance.
Thursday, July 5, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Rukmini Vijayakumar’s Raadha Kalpa
The Raadha Kalpa company performs Bharatanatyam, a form of classical Hindu dance.
Friday, July 6, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Un-Damely, music by Antonio Vivaldi
Frayed Ends, music by Rachmaninov
Dynamite Walls, music of Japanese Kodo Drums
all by Ted Thomas and Frances Ortiz
Saturday, July 7, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Tap
Under the direction of Dianne Walker, dancers of The School present works by Walker, choreographer and Brenda Bufalino, and Lisa La Touche, cast member in the off-Broadway hit STOMP.
July 4-8
Vertigo Dance Company (Israel)
Mana by Noa Wertheim
LeeSaar The Company (USA)
FAME by Lee Sher and Saar Harari
Wednesday, July 11, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Ian Spencer Bell
Two-Minute Songs, music by the Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Roy Orbison.
Split, set to the sound of keys dropping and inspired by the poem “One Art” by former U.S. Poet Laureate Elizabeth Bishop with Ian Spencer Bell Dance company.
Thursday, July 12, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Cari Cunningham/bellē contemporary dance co.
Based in Reno, Nevada, this all-female contemporary dance company from Reno, Nevadahas joined by Trannon Mosher, performing
30/Love
Unforseeable
Slipping the Circumference
Friday, July 13, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
OtherShore
Bird, Bear, Grey Violet-Blue, by Jodi Melnick
and other works
Saturday, July 14, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Contemporary
Under the direction of master teacher Milton Myers, dancers conclude their first week of study with work created by and set on them by Artistic Director Emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Judith Jamison and her assistant, notable Ailey dancer and faculty member, Elizabeth-Roxas-Dobrish.
July 11-15
Tero Saarinen Company with the Boston Camerata (USA)
Borrowed Light
The Men Dancers: From the Horse’s Mouth (various countries)
conceived and directed by Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham, featuring Arthur Mitchell, et al.
Wednesday, July 18, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
z3movement project
Valley of Four Dolls, Parts 43 A, B, & C, by Christie Zimmerman, a narrative work that follows the adventures of a young girl and an imagined world inhabited by her favorite dolls.
Thursday, July 19, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company
Friday, July 20, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Erica Essner Performance Co-Op
Weathered by Erica Essner
excerpt from The Soul Project
Saturday, July 21, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Contemporary
Following two weeks of study under master teacher Milton Myers, dancers present work by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, set on the dancers by Ariel Freedman, a former dancer with the Batsheva Dance Company, directed by Naharin.
July 18-22
Hong Kong Ballet (China)
Black on Black by Kinsun Chan
Luminous by Peter Quanz
Symphony in Three Movements by Nils Christie
Luna Negra Dance Theater (USA)
Bate, by Fernando Melo
Naked Ape, by Fernando Hernando Magadan
plus additional works TBA
Wednesday, July 25, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts
pas de deux from La Bayadère, by Marius Petipa
plus a selection of contemporary works, and choreography from Nutmeg’s Artistic Director Victoria Mazzarelli
with Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts summer students, professional graduates, and guest artists
Thursday, July 26, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
skybetter and associates
Little Boy, by Sydney Skybetter
Near Abroad, by Sydney Skybetter, music by Arvo Pärt
Friday, July 27, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Jeremy McQueen
“Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins”, music by Bach
Concerto Nuovo
both by Jeremie McQueen
Saturday, July 28, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Contemporary
Concluding three weeks of study under master teacher Milton Myers, dancers present work created on them by Spanish choreographer Tony Fabre, formerly artistic director of Spain’s acclaimed contemporary dance company CND2.
July 25-29
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (USA)
Story/Time, by Bill T. Jones
Jessica Lang Dance (USA)
Among the Stars
Lines Squared
The Calling
From Foreign Lands and People
all by Jessica Lang
Wednesday, August 1, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Danielle Russo Dance Company
Learning to forget and other tragic fortune, by Danielle Russo, music performed by bassist Jason Anastasoff
Thursday, August 2, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet
Founded by Donna Salgado and based in New York City
Diversions
Friday, August 3, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECTe
Differential Cohomology by Kyla Barkin and Aaron Selissen
Saturday, August 4, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance
Following their first week of intense study and rehearsal as part of the Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance Program, dancers of The School present works created by Program Director Chet Walker and Broadway guest choreographer Lisa Gajda.
August 1-5
Royal Winnipeg Ballet (Canada)
Carmina Burana by Mauricio Wainrot
Tandem by Peter Quanz
Jonah Bokaer x David Hallberg
Solo and duet performances by Jonah Bokaer and David Hallberg, choreographed by Bokaer
Wednesday, August 8, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
HYM Latin Dancers
Mambo and Salsa dancing
Thursday, August 9, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Valerie Green/Dance Entropy
Thread
Kin
Rip Tide
Friday, August 10, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Dancewave Company
Comprised of dancers 12-18 years old from New York City, Dancewave performs works by contemporary choreographers.
Harm the Dangerous, by Ronald K. Brown
excerpt from The One Hundreds, by Twyla Tharp
excerpts from Chanson, by Andrea Miller
I Can See Myself in Your Pupil, by Andrea Miller
Saturday, August 11, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance
Under the direction of Fosse conceiver Chet Walker, dancers present new works created by Walker and Broadway guest choreographer Matt Williams in preparation for A Jazz Happening, a one-night-only Broadway revue to benefit The School on Sunday, August 19.
August 8-12
Trey McIntyre Project (USA)
LADIES AND GENTLE MEN
Bad Winter
Leatherwing Bat
all by Trey McIntyre
Dance Heginbotham
Closing Bell
plus additional works TBA, all by John Heginbotham
Wednesday, August 15, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
DanceSpora
for tranquility’s sake, music by Philip Glass
Crossing Waters
Thursday, August 16, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Gabrielle Lamb and Dancers
Two Fold, by Gabrielle Lamb, music by Bill Frisell
Friday, August 17, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Molissa Fenley and Dancers
Credo in Us, by Molissa Fenley, music by John Cage
The Vessel Stories, by Molissa Fenley, music by Philip Glass
Saturday, August 18, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance
Concluding three weeks of study with Program Director Chet Walker, dancers perform new works created on them by Walker and Broadway guest choreographer Patti Colombo, in anticipation of performing in A Jazz Happening, an all-new Broadway revue to benefit The School at Jacob’s Pillow on Sunday, August 19.
August 15-19
Compagnie Käfig (France)
Correria
Agwa
both by Mourad Merzouki
Liz Gerring Dance Company (USA)
she dreams in code by Liz Gerring
Sunday August 19, 8 PM
A Jazz Happening
A benefit for the Jacob’s Pillow School with students of the Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance Program and choreography by members of the faculty, with an onstage jazz band.
Wednesday, August 22, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Amy Cova Dance
a very fast man in a very short skirt, by Amy Cova music by Brian Trahan
Thursday, August 23, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Mariah Maloney Dance
Sliver
Rock
Irish Solo: Turas
all by Mariah Maloney.
Friday, August 24, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Out Innerspace Dance Theatre
ME SO YOU SO ME, by Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond, music by Asa Chang
Saturday, August 25, 6.15 PM
Henry J. Leir Stage
Houston Met Dance Company
Stand Back, by Kate Skarpetowska
Air, by Larry Keigwin
August 22-26
The Joffrey Ballet (USA)
Bells by Yuri Possokhov
Age of Innocence by Edwaard Liang
and a new work by Stanton Welch, TBA
Doug Elkins and Friends
Fräulein Maria by Doug Elkins, a comedy based on and using the score of Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music.
