Jacob's Pillow

Designed by the leading Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, the reimagined Doris Duke Theatre occupies the site of the former studio theater from 1990, destroyed by fire in November 2020.  The new theater aims to become one of the world’s most technologically advanced dance venues, providing a makerspace for artists seeking to integrate artificial intelligence, extended reality, robotics, and immersive platforms into live performance.

Jacob’s Pillow announces the artists selected to participate in 10 onsite residencies this fall through next summer, as part of the Pillow Lab residency program. Artists participating in this series, in chronological order, are: Hélène Simoneau Danse; Emily Coates, Ain Gordon, and Derek Lucci;  Music from the Sole; Andy Blankenbuehler and Kate Quinn; Brinae Ali; dani tirell; Peter Rockford Espiritu and Roberta Uno; Joanna Kotze; The Choreodaemonic Collective; and Rosy Simas. Programming and dates are subject to change.

Superstar dancer, choreographer, and Tony nominated director, Camille A. Brown, has a long history with Jacob’s Pillow. Funded by the Hunter Foundation this past winter the company was in residence developing a major new work. It is based on themes from the “I Am” episode of the HBO series Lovecraft Country. Jacob's Pillow was honored to host the world premiere of a game changing work.

Week 8 of this summer’s Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival will feature beloved New York-based flamenco artists Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca, who will perform at the Festival for the first time since 2002. Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca will appear for five days in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre, from Wednesday, August 14 through Sunday, August 18. The program is a showcase for the work of Martín Santangelo and Bessie-award winning dancer and choreographer Soledad Barrio, and will feature their newest work, Searching for Goya (2023).

Grand Théâtre de Genève arrived for the scheduled third week of the Jacob’s Pillow season. Sets for Noetic, which was to have its North American premiere, however, did not. With just two days to adjust the company pursued Plan B,

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival welcomes the internationally- touring modern dance company Parsons Dance back to the Ted Shawn Theatre, 25 years after their last engagement with the festival in 1999.

Both the Royal Ballet and Jacob’s Pillow were formed in 1931. There have been many interactions but in the current season the renowned company has visited the Berkshires for the first time. It is their only North American stop. Some five years of planning, fund raising, and logistics were entailed for this historic event.

“It is a thrill to welcome Camille A. Brown back to the Pillow, this time for the world premiere of I AM,” said Jacob’s Pillow Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge. “Since she received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2016, she has seen a meteoric rise as a choreographer and director of opera and Broadway productions, from her stunning work on Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, to her Tony nominated work this year on the Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen. 

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival will bring the acclaimed Social Tango Project—an innovative dance company founded and based in Buenos Aires, Argentina— for an immersive week-long engagement during Week 4 of the Festival. Offering audiences a deep dive into the art of tango, Social Tango Project will showcase this social dance like never before in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre from Wednesday, July 17 to Sunday, July 21. 

The A. R.T. season will begin in September with a production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and choreographed by two-time Olivier Award winner Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Jagged Little Pill; Beyoncé at the 2017 Grammy Awards and APESHIT; Madonna’s Celebration tour). This powerhouse duo reunites for the first time since their Tony Award-winning collaboration Jagged Little Pill, staging a bold new production of Shakespeare’s iconic love story.

Jacob’s Pillow announces that tickets are now on sale to the general public for the full schedule of programming at this summer’s Dance Festival, which will offer nine weeks of performances by world-class artists, live music, and free and paid family-friendly events, on indoor and outdoor stages. In addition to featuring local and regional artists, the festival will include dance companies traveling from across the United States, Canada, England, Switzerland, Italy, Argentina, Spain, and beyond. 

The nine companies to perform for one week each in the Ted Shawn Theatre are, in chronological order: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Social Tango Project, MOMIX, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Parsons Dance, Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca, and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom, will appear at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival for the first time, as the company’s sole stop in the United States in 2024. To celebrate this milestone, Jacob’s Pillow will for the first time feature daily back-to-back performances from one company in multiple venues, with one program on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, and another distinct program in the historic indoor Ted Shawn Theatre.

For PIXEL, by Compagnie Käfig, today based near Lyon, France, ten male Hip Hop dancers, French style, a woman contortionist, a roller-skater, small robots carrying tiny lights, and a huge metal hoop shared and interacted on stage with highly sophisticated projections, music, and sounds.

Jacob’s Pillow today announced the artists who will participate in 10 onsite residencies this fall through next summer, as part of the Pillow Lab residency program. Artists participating in this series, in chronological order, are: Ilya Vidrin, Sekou McMiller, LaJuné McMillian, Minty Fresh Circus, Aakash Odedra, Kyle Marshall Choreography, CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater, Hari Krishnan/inDANCE, Theresa Ruth Howard, and Miguel Gutierrez.

Now 47, the French Canadian dancer, artistic director, and choreographer Eric Gauthier joined Stuttgart Ballet in 1996, where he rose to the rank of soloist. Initially with six dancers, in 2007 he founded Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart.

Jacob's Pillow is pleased to announce programming for the eighth week of the 2023 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, when the world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company will perform Graham’s Cave of the Heart and Errand Into the Maze, and Hofesh Shechter’s CAVE, in the Ted Shawn Theatre from Aug. 16-20.

For nearly three decades, Complexions Contemporary Ballet has thrilled audiences around the globe with its full-throttle, high-intensity performances on five continents and in over 20 countries, committed to its mission of “bringing unity to the world one dance at a time.” The diverse and inclusive company is made up of dancers “who blur lines and boundaries and exude an innate passion” (The Guardian). With their programs set to music from Kendrick Lamar, David Bowie, Metallica, and Lenny Kravitz, the company reinvents ballet with a mix of methods, styles, and cultures that engages and delights. 

Jacob's Pillow launched its season with the Mark Morris Dance Group performing an hour long work Bacharach/ David's The Look of Love. During this soggy summer how apt that Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.

Running June 28 through August 27, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2023 will feature nine weeks of performances in the Ted Shawn Theatre and on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, as well as special events, parties, and pop up performances in Berkshire County. This season will offer the largest breadth of international performers since 2019, as well as multiple performances with live music, and dance styles ranging from hip hop and street dance to ballet and contemporary.

Groundbreaking choreographer Shamel Pitts doesn’t dance around big issues—instead, he dances into them.

Festival 2022, which will feature 10 weeks of on-site programming, opens June 22, and runs through August 28, attracting dance audiences from across the globe to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. The season-opening Gala will be held on June 18. The recipient of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and the gala program will be announced on March 15.

Jacob’s Pillow will offer two weekends of free Pillow Pop-Up performances in Berkshire County during the last weekend in July and first weekend in August. Performances will happen on a uniquely designed portable stage and feature local performers, as well as the all-female intergenerational Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective (July 31 – Aug. 1) known for illuminating the strength, power, and diversity of women in hip-hop, and Philadelphia-based Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble (Aug. 7-8), dedicated to preserving the traditional dance and music of West Africa and the African diaspora.

Did you miss Global Pillow this weekend? There's still time to watch this global celebration of dance!

Elizabeth Streb, the high-octane choreographer known for such risk-taking --and horrifying - feats as setting herself on fire, crashing through glass, and walking down the outside of very tall buildings (London’s City Hall,) returns to the Pillow with her Extreme Action Company for the first time in twenty years.