Jacob's Pillow to Continue Year Round Programming With '25-'26 Pillow Lab Residencies

Jacob’s Pillow has revealed selected to participate in the prestigious Pillow Lab residency program as part of the organization’s continued year-round programming. Participating artists, in chronological order, are: Grisha Coleman, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Jerron Herman and Candace L. Feldman, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, mayfield brooks, Reggie Wilson / Fist and Heel Performance Group, and slowdanger.  An eighth residency will be announced in early 2026.

The Pillow Lab is a residency program that supports U.S.-based and international dance artists in the crucial development, research, and technical stages of choreographic projects, and offers the opportunity for artists to work in the Pillow’s retreat-like atmosphere, studio spaces, and wooded landscape. Lead support for the Pillow Lab is generously provided by the Mellon Foundation.  

A portion of this year’s Pillow Lab cohort will work in the new Doris Duke Theatre, which opened its doors to the public in July 2025. The state-of-the-art theater expands residency location and opportunities for artists, providing access to a makerspace that can integrate emerging technologies and bring dancemakers’ tech-driven visions and works to full actualization.

“Pillow Labs are an essential component of the magic that takes place at Jacob’s Pillow year-round,” said Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge. “The exploration and artistic development that occurs through these residencies can be transformational for the artist, their collaborators, and the work. We are honored to be an organization that intentionally nurtures the choreographic process through an immersive retreat-like atmosphere, fueled by the generative power of nature.”

Pillow Lab artists and their collaborators receive unrestricted use of Jacob’s Pillow’s iconic site, founded more than 90 years ago in the bucolic landscape that characterizes the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Artists live on campus and receive housing, an artist fee for each collaborator, a grocery stipend, and access to the Pillow’s extensive Archives. 

Residency programs have existed at Jacob’s Pillow in various forms since the organization’s founding in the early 1930s. The Pillow Lab program was launched in 2017 and sets an industry example with a distinctive mission, vision, set of values, and approach.

Choreographers selected for residencies through the Pillow Lab are chosen by Tatge as well as Associate Artistic Director Kim Chan and Associate Curator Melanie George. Most residencies include an informal, work-in-progress showing limited to an invited audience of Jacob’s Pillow Members, as well as faculty, staff, and students from the Pillow’s College Partnership Program, community members, and artists’ colleagues. For more information, visit jacobspillow.org/pillowlab.

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