Jacob's Pillow Announces Full Season Lineup For Festival 2018

Jacob's Pillow announces the full season lineup for Festival 2018, including U.S. company debuts, world premieres, International Artists, newly commissioned work, rich historic Festival connections, and the formal presentation of work developed through the organization's growing residency program at the Pillow Lab. Jacob's Pillow is the longest-running dance festival in the United States, a National Historic Landmark, a National Medal of Arts recipient, and has recently expanded to become a year-round center for dance research and development. Festival 2018 opens on June 20, engaging visitors and community members from throughout the region and beyond, on- and off-site, through August 26.

International companies will travel to Becket, Massachusetts, from Denmark, Israel, Belgium, Australia, France, Spain, and Scotland. Notably, representation from across the United States ranges from New York City, Minneapolis, and Houston to Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago, among others.

"I am thrilled to share what we have in store for Festival 2018," says Jacob's Pillow Director Pamela Tatge. "This summer, we introduce new work through Pillow debuts and world premieres, welcome back fan favorites, and reconnect audiences with the work of companies that are returning to the Pillow for the first time in years, like PHILADANCO!, Limón Dance Company, Houston Ballet, and ODC/Dance. Opening our season with The Royal Danish Ballet, one of the world's most highly respected ballet companies, in the Ted Shawn Theatre, presenting the U.S. debut of Compañía Sharon Fridman, and ending with an artist-curated program by New York City Ballet's Daniel Ulbricht, are just a few special highlights for me. With live music collaborations, work that was developed at our Pillow Lab, and site-specific special engagements, I truly believe Festival 2018 has something for everyone."

Jacob's Pillow announced Vision '22, a strategic five-year approach to the Pillow's development through 2022, in June 2017. As a testament to the growth and success of this vision, the Pillow presents the work of four artists that have had their choreographic endeavors developed and supported through the Pillow Lab, an incubator of new work. This includes the world premiere of b-girl-led Ephrat Asherie Dance's Odeon; Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE's collaboration with GRAMMY-Award winning Afro-Cuban jazz artist Arturo O'Farrill; the world premiere of Jacob's Pillow Dance Award winner Michelle Dorrance's newest work; and the world premiere of Paramodernities by Netta Yerushalmy, steeped in dance history and presented through multiple programs.

Live music continues to be an integral aspect of seven multidisciplinary collaborations featured this season, including Ragamala Dance Company's distinct alchemy of Iraqi, jazz, and Carnatic instruments composed by Doris Duke Performing Artist Awardee Amir ElSaffar; live music by 20th century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth in Ephrat Asherie Dance's Odeon; a diverse blend of Korean, Indian, Congolese, and Japanese music in Eastman's Fractus V; an original, live score by Donovan Dorrance and Gregory Richardson featuring vocals by eclectic soul vocalist Aaron Marcellus in Dorrance Dance's Myelination; GRAMMY-Award winning Arturo O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban jazz in New Conversations; an original music score composed by indie folk duo The Bengsons performed as dance symphony with six on-stage musicians in Sonya Tayeh's you'll still call me by name; and a selection of works by composer Leonard Bernstein to coincide with a program of Jerome Robbins in Stars of American Ballet.

Dedicated to expanding ideas about where dance can happen, Jacob's Pillow also presents several special engagements that extend beyond the traditional Festival schedule. The first to note is hosting the symposium of Translucent Borders, a three-year initiative led by The NYU Global Institute for Advanced Study that brings together global collaborators, culminating in a presentation as part of the Inside/Out Performance Series. Additional highlights include Monica Bill Barnes& Company's Happy Hour, where Sommers Studio, former home of The School at Jacob's Pillow, is re-imagined as a performance space for a quirky office party; Scottish company Janis Claxton Dance's POP-UP Duets (fragments of love) performed at the Season Opening Gala and in the community at Pittsfield's Third Thursday Street festival, and other locations; and an All Styles Dance Battle hosted by Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie, featuring Festival artists, participants of The School at Jacob's Pillow, regional street artists, and surprise judges.

VIP Pre-Sale begins February 20, 2018. Tickets go on sale to the public on April 2, 2018.

For more information visit jacobspillow.org.