Kinetic Light's Virtual Reality Experience to Premiere at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Performances will take place July 12-13.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 17, 2025
Kinetic Light's immersive virtual reality headset experience territory will have its world premiere July 12-13 at the celebrated Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, as part of the Opening Week Celebration of the new Doris Duke Theatre.
Co-Directed by Kiira Benz and Alice Sheppard and created by internationally recognized disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light in collaboration with Double Eye Studios, territory is set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world that surrounds the user in accessible movement, light, vibration and sound. Kinetic Light's Alice Sheppard, Laurel Lawson and Double Eye's Kiira Benz will be in attendance for the engagement.
The new Doris Duke Theatre is a living lab for innovation, showcasing bold, immersive works that combine dance and cutting-edge technology. The Opening Week Celebration, running July 6-13, features performances and appearances by Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Annie-B Parson, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, Eiko Otake, Kinetic Light, Unwired Dance Theatre and more.
Extended Reality Salon at Jacob's Pillow
Forest Studio, Doris Duke Theatre
358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA 01223
Saturday, July 12: 9:30am-4:15pm, 5-7:40pm
Sunday, July 13: 11am-2pm
Free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required.
Access is central and generative in all Kinetic Light projects and practices. For territory, the team has integrated artistically equitable access practices into VR development and created full-reality immersive technologies, including spatial and multitrack audio description, haptics, and creative captioning. Earlier this year, Kinetic Light participated in the 2025 SXSW festival, where they shared their distinctive approach to disability aesthetics, access, and technology.
About territory
Both utopic and dystopic, territory is a groundbreaking, disability-centered VR experience directed by Kiira Benz and Alice Sheppard. It features performances by Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson and Sheppard; scenography by Michael Maag; sound design and spatial mix by Q Department; sound technology by Mach1; and access design by Lawson and Sheppard.
Set in a fantastical, post-apocalyptic world shaped by human insistence on barriers and borders, territory immerses the witness in a disability-centered, fantastical universe that offers encounters with cosmic figures, dark forces, partnership, and new worlds. The VR experience reimagines Kinetic Light's stage production Wired, a potent aerial and contemporary dance experience that tells race, gender, and disability stories of barbed wire in the United States.
Still from territory. Image Description: A golden sun: two figures fly through the air, bodies horizontal, hands clasped, wheelchair wheels facing out. They are encircled by interwoven barbed wire.
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