Ella Baff News

From Italy, the innovative dance-theatre group Compagnia TPO travels to Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival to present Bleu!, a wondrous interactive production that will delight children, parents, and the young at heart. Directed by David Venturini and Francesco Gandi, TPO invites audiences to a journey under the sea with this spectacle of light, animation, and movement. Through immersive technology and imaginative set design, Bleu! brings viewers into a mythical world of sea creatures and ancient legends. Audiences of all ages are welcomed onstage to engage with the dancers and the responsive set, or they can choose to sit back and enjoy the adventure. Bleu! is presented in an expanded ten-show engagement in the Doris Duke Theatre from July 2-6, with $10 youth ticket pricing available for all performances.

Jacob's Pillow Executive and Artistic Director Ella Baff brings together some of today's most innovative hip-hop dancemakers for a new, Pillow-exclusive production. Unreal Hip-Hop features the diverse styles of Brooklyn-based crew Decadancetheatre, b-girl Ephrat 'Bounce' Asherie, freestyle and pop 'n' lock duo The Wondertwins, plus the musical stylings of DJ Boo. These artists can only be seen together at the Pillow, today, June 25-29 in the Doris Duke Theatre.

A bold company with a strong Jacob's Pillow history including five engagements since 2005, Trey McIntyre Project will make its final appearance as a fulltime dance ensemble today, June 25-29 in the Ted Shawn Theatre.

This summer the Music Institute of Chicago's prestigious Trio Solaris, comprised of the Institute's top Fellow Laureates, will travel to the internationally renowned Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts, to perform live alongside Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) in The Vinegar Works: Four Dances of Moral Instruction, a Harris Theater-commissioned work. Trey McIntyre Project will present its final six performances at Jacob's Pillow, today, June 25-June 29, in a program that will include The Vinegar Works and Mercury Half-Life, a ballet set entirely to the music of rock band Queen Thanks to the generous support of a Harris Theater benefactor, all travel-related costs for the members of Trio Solaris will be covered during the trip.

Carmen de Lavallade's career as a dancer, choreographer, and stage and film actress spans more than six decades working with luminaries such as Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Alvin Ailey, and many others. She already holds the distinction of the longest Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival performing career on record, having made her Pillow debut with Lester Horton Dance Theatre in 1953 and performing at the Festival as recently as 2004 (with Paradigm), and she now extends that record by another decade. In the world premiere of her new solo show, As I Remember It, de Lavallade combines powerful movement and poignant storytelling to weave a theatrical memoir about her venerable life on stage. This exclusive engagement opens the 2014 Festival in the Doris Duke Theatre with a limited three-show run, this weekend, June 20-22.

With an array of ideas and images at its source, Reggie Wilson's Moses(es) takes audiences on a captivating journey in six performances at Jacob's Pillow, July 9-13. Wilson's precise, energetic fusion of modern and African dance is remarkable; Brian Seibert of The New York Times comments, “The dance vocabulary is rich: wide squats, jumps that spin and kick, Egyptian poses, arms rippling like bulrushes, heavy steps.” The choreography is married to a diverse score including music by Louis Armstrong, The Klezmatics, Amahlokohloko, Ngqoko Women's Ensemble, MaZarher, Aly-Us, Tiger, Bi Kidude, Southern Sons, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and traditional African-American spirituals “Wade In the Water” and “Eli, Eli (Somebody Call Eli)” sung live by the artists of Fist & Heel Performance Group.

Following a successful opening week of Festival 2013, Dance Theatre of Harlem returns with an all-new program. DTH gave its first professional performance at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1970; since that date, DTH and the Pillow have enjoyed a longstanding and fruitful artistic relationship. The company, led by Artistic Director Virginia Johnson, performs Donald Byrd's smooth yet power-packed contemporary ballet Contested Space, which features a plethora of solos and duets. past-carry-forward, created for DTH by Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis, conveys the spirit and significance of the Harlem Renaissance. The cornerstone of this dynamic evening is the late choreographer Ulysses Dove's moving, elegiac ballet Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, danced to "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" by Arvo Part. The company appears in a special seven-show engagement in the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob's Pillow, July 9-13.

Popular contemporary company Hubbard Street Dance Chicago returns to Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival for the first time since 2010, bringing a sensational mixed-bill program. Directed by Glenn Edgerton, the 18-member company performs the dramatic Mediterranean-inspired Gnawa, choreographed by Nacho Duato, and Ji?í Kylián's vivid Falling Angels, a stark all-female work danced to “Drumming” by contemporary composer Steve Reich. The company's performance of Falling Angels earlier this year was called “a gorgeous combination of energetic and hypnotic, a celebration of what the body can do” by Lauren Whalen of Chicago Theater Beat. Hubbard Street Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo's latest work for the company, The Impossible, is a bold and theatrical work centered around themes of memory, mortality, and the human spirit.

From Italy, the innovative dance-theatre group Compagnia TPO travels to Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival to present Bleu!, a wondrous interactive production that will delight children, parents, and the young at heart. Directed by David Venturini and Francesco Gandi, TPO invites audiences to a journey under the sea with this spectacle of light, animation, and movement. Through immersive technology and imaginative set design, Bleu! brings viewers into a mythical world of sea creatures and ancient legends. Audiences of all ages are welcomed onstage to engage with the dancers and the responsive set, or they can choose to sit back and enjoy the adventure. Bleu! is presented in an expanded ten-show engagement in the Doris Duke Theatre from July 2-6, with $10 youth ticket pricing available for all performances.

Jacob's Pillow Executive and Artistic Director Ella Baff brings together some of today's most innovative hip-hop dancemakers for a new, Pillow-exclusive production. Unreal Hip-Hop features the diverse styles of Brooklyn-based crew Decadancetheatre, b-girl Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie, freestyle and pop 'n' lock duo The Wondertwins, plus the musical stylings of DJ Boo. These artists can only be seen together at the Pillow, June 25-29 in the Doris Duke Theatre.

A bold company with a strong Jacob's Pillow history including five engagements since 2005, Trey McIntyre Project will make its final appearance as a fulltime dance ensemble June 25-29 in the Ted Shawn Theatre. Called "engaging and provocative" by Karen Campbell of The Boston Globe, Trey McIntyre's dances overflow with fresh intelligence, unabashed physicality, and spirit. TMP's Festival 2014 program features The Vinegar Works: Four Dances of Moral Instruction, a new work inspired by the surreal art and writings of Edward Gorey, and the East Coast premiere of Mercury Half-Life, set entirely to the music of legendary rock band Queen.

After collaborations in 2012 and 2013 with an all-male cast, Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham's The Men Dancers: From the Horse's Mouth make their return to New York today, May 30 through June 1 in honor of ballet great Frederic Franklin (1914-2013) in what would have been his centenary year. This celebration will take place at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts (3 Spruce Street, between Park Row and Gold Street) and is presented by Pace University.

This year's Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, a coveted honor carrying a $25,000 cash prize, will be presented to choreographer John Heginbotham in recognition of his talent and outstanding contributions to the dance field. Heginbotham, an alumnus of The School at Jacob's Pillow, has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his contemporary works, eclectic and rich with “movement that exhibits sharpness, energy, formality and, yes, oddity” (Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times). His company, Dance Heginbotham, will perform the evening-length world premiere of Chalk and Soot in the Doris Duke Theatre July 30-August 3. In Chalk and Soot, Heginbotham joins forces with composer Colin Jacobsen to create a work featuring imaginative, theatrical choreography, live music performed by superstar string quartet Brooklyn Rider, the vocal stylings of Shara Worden (lead singer of My Brightest Diamond), and singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane on harmonium.

Carmen de Lavallade's career as a dancer, choreographer, and stage and film actress spans more than six decades working with luminaries such as Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Alvin Ailey, and many others. She already holds the distinction of the longest Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival performing career on record, having made her Pillow debut with Lester Horton Dance Theatre in 1953 and performing at the Festival as recently as 2004 (with Paradigm), and she now extends that record by another decade. In the world premiere of her new solo show, As I Remember It, de Lavallade combines powerful movement and poignant storytelling to weave a theatrical memoir about her venerable life on stage. This exclusive engagement opens the 2014 Festival in the Doris Duke Theatre with a limited three-show run, June 20-22.

Following its 2012 Jacob's Pillow debut, The Hong Kong Ballet returns with sleek elegance, technical precision, and a range of contemporary ballets. Directed by Madeleine Onne, former Artistic Director of The Royal Swedish Ballet, the company performs a varied program that includes Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor's In Light and Shadow, set to Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' and 'Orchestral Suite in D Major No. 3'. The company's male dancers will present Nacho Duato's commanding Castrati, which explores themes of masculinity and sacrifice to the music of Antonio Vivaldi and Karl Jenkins. A poetic trio from A Room of Her Own, by National Ballet of China resident choreographer Fei Bo, opens this international program. The Hong Kong Ballet kicks off the 2014 Festival in the Ted Shawn Theatre, June 18-22.

Following the record-breaking attendance of Festival 2013, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival announces the full 2014 Festival free and ticketed event schedule. Jacob's Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, home to America's longest-running dance festival, and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Noted dance writer Jennifer Dunning has called the Pillow "the dance center of the nation, possibly the world."

After collaborations in 2012 and 2013 with an all-male cast, Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham's The Men Dancers: From the Horse's Mouth make their return to New York May 30 through June 1 in honor of ballet great Frederic Franklin (1914-2013) in what would have been his centenary year. This celebration will take place at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts (3 Spruce Street, between Park Row and Gold Street) and is presented by Pace University.

Interdisciplinary choreographer David Neumann will present an evening of solos tonight, April 26 at 8pm at MASS MoCA's Hunter Center for the Performing Arts. A co-presentation by Jacob's Pillow Dance and MASS MoCA, the retrospective evening spans Neumann's career from his first choreographic endeavor, DOSE, to his current work-in-progress, I Understand Everything Better. The program, also including tough the tough (redux) (2008) and You Are In Control (2009), captures Neumann's exploration of lines between theatre and dance, audience and performer, movement and voice, mundane and theatrical.

This summer the Music Institute of Chicago's prestigious Trio Solaris, comprised of the Institute's top Fellow Laureates, will travel to the internationally renowned Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts, to perform live alongside Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) in The Vinegar Works: Four Dances of Moral Instruction, a Harris Theater-commissioned work. Trey McIntyre Project will present its final six performances at Jacob's Pillow, June 25-June 29, in a program that will include The Vinegar Works and Mercury Half-Life, a ballet set entirely to the music of rock band Queen Thanks to the generous support of a Harris Theater benefactor, all travel-related costs for the members of Trio Solaris will be covered during the trip.