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Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival's 85th Anniversary Season
Featuring Miami City Ballet, Paul Taylor, Aakash Odedra, Camille A. Brown, Eiko Otake and new projects
We’ve planned a momentous 85th Anniversary Festival Season including powerhouse ballet company Miami City Ballet, legendary modern dance ensemble Paul Taylor Dance Company, UK-based artist Aakash Odedra, 2016 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award-recipient Camille A. Brown, and Japanese-born artist Eiko Otake in a special, site-specific piece during a limited engagement on the Pillow grounds.
Join us this summer from June 17-August 27!
Special Highlights and Mentions:
JUNE 10
Join us for a special pre-Festival Community Day featuring free, family-friendly events including performances by Berkshire County region companies and studios, dance classes in varying styles, children’s activities, historic tours, and more.
85TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON OPENING GALA
June 17
Join us in celebrating the magic that is Jacob’s Pillow and start your summer dancing! Enjoy performances by Miami City Ballet, an exclusive work-in-progress collaboration by New York City Ballet dancer Sara Mearns and international hip-hop duo Wang Ramirez, and a world premiere by Bruce Wells performed by dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow. This event also includes presentation of the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, special pop-up performances, and a fabulous after-party under the tent with live music and dancing!
*See our amazing eclectic lineup of items online and bid all night at the event!
MIAMI CITY BALLET
June 21-25
Hailed by The New York Times as “one of America’s most beloved dance companies”, these stunning ballet dancers open the Pillow’s 85th Anniversary Season, bringing works from master choreographers George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, and Peter Martins.
PILOBOLUS
June 21-23
Celebrating the power of the Pillow’s pastoral setting, internationally acclaimed dance company Pilobolus Dance Theatre will premiere a new work commissioned specifically for the Pillow’s iconic outdoor stage set against the Berkshire hills. Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times praises Pilobolus’s consistent, unique, and powerful aesthetic: “bodies become imagery, and one image merges into another, organically, poetically, inexplicably.” The world premiere will kick off the Festival’s free Inside/Out Performance Series with an extended three-day run.
NW DANCE PROJECT
Jun 28-Jul 2
NW Dance Project makes its Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival debut in the Doris Duke Theatre! The Portland, Oregon-based dance company brings classically-trained, versatile dancers and an all-original repertory. The program includes Post-Traumatic-Monster by Felix Landerer, choreographer in residence for Scapino Ballet in the Netherlands; At Some Hour You Return by former Nederlands Dans Theater dancer Jiří Pokorný; Le Fil Rouge by 2011 Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest winner Ihsan Rustem; and MemoryHouse by Artistic Director Sarah Slipper.
PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY
Jul 12-16
In a special 85th Anniversary Season appearance, Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to Jacob’s Pillow. Led by the vision of renowned modern dance choreographer Paul Taylor, the company is a Berkshires audience favorite with their Pillow debut in 1964 and annual performances at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in nearby Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Paul Taylor Dance Company’s program will feature a roster of classic works, including the exuberant and romantic Esplanade, set to two Johann Sebastian Bach concertos and audience favorites Airs and Syzygy.
EIKO'S A BODY AT THE PILLOW
July 22
In an exclusive one-day-only engagement, Japanese-born artist Eiko Otake will perform A Body at the Pillow, a site-specific solo performance. The work is the newest installment of Otake’s A Body in Places series, which includes performances in train stations, warehouses, and libraries, as well as the fraught Fukushima site.
TRISHA BROWN: IN PLAIN SITE. Photo © Agathe Pouponey.
TRISHA BROWN: IN PLAIN SITE
August 13 at 1pm & 4pm
The Trisha Brown Dance Company continues Brown’s legacy through its Trisha Brown: In Plain Site initiative. Through this effort, the company draws on Brown’s model for reinvigorating her choreography at new sites and in new contexts. In a co-presentation by Jacob’s Pillow and the Clark, the company will present Trisha Brown: In Plain Site on the Clark’s grounds in Williamstown.
MAIRA KALMAN'S PRINCIPLES OF UNCERTAINTY
Doris Duke Theatre Lobby
Open daily, noon through final curtain
In tandem with her Dance Heginbotham collaboration premiering this season, one-of-a-kind artist and author Maira Kalman shares some favorite images in this exhibition created especially for the Pillow. Both whimsical and brilliant, Kalman's work explores the intersections of dance, life, and art in unexpected ways.
Dj booth at finale party.
FESTIVAL FINALE
August 26
Celebrate the end of Festival 2017! Your Festival Finale ticket includes an evening performance of The Washington Ballet or Dance Heginbotham’s The Principles of Uncertainty, plus entrance to the best after-party of the summer. Mingle with artists and staff and dance the night away to DJ BFG spinning live at the ultimate dance celebration.
