YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX and More to Stream Globally from Jacob's Pillow

Jacob's Pillow will present a wide variety of in-person and virtual events this upcoming fall and winter, offering audiences new and accessible ways to experience dance. The second annual Fall Season will feature a global livestream of Youth America Grand Prix: Fresh Voices in Dance from the Doris Duke Theatre this October, as well as the release of a series of Encore streams highlighting performances from the 2026 Festival to audiences around the world.

Youth America Grand Prix: Fresh Voices in Dance, running in the Doris Duke Theatre Friday, October 16 through Sunday, October 18, will showcase the next generation of choreographic talent emerging from the ballet world, following a global search by Youth America Grand Prix—the world's largest ballet scholarship organization. This special weekend will feature the world premieres of original works by the nine inaugural recipients of the Marcella Hymowitz Creative Fellowship for Choreography. The choreographic recipients are: Alexander Mockrish, Braylon Browner, Davidson Farias, Manoela Gonçalves, My'Kal Stromile, Nnamdi Nwagwu, Styles Dykes, Sylvie Win Szyndlar, and William Duggan. This mixed program will feature self-performed works by choreographers, as well as dance artists of Houston Ballet II, Alberta Dance School, the Fordham/Ailey BFA program, ABT Studio Company, Boston Ballet II, and winners of the Youth American Grand Prix 2026 season.

A free livestream of the Youth America Grand Prix: Fresh Voices in Dance will air on Saturday, October 17 at 7:30pm. Livestream registration is now open at stream.jacobspillow.org/yagp. An Encore stream of the performance will be available for 24 hours (October 19 at 6pm through October 20 at 6pm ET) followed by a three-week Encore run November 6-27. Encores appear on Jacob's Pillow On Demand (watch.jacobspillow.org) for free, no registration required.

The following weekend, Jacob's Pillow is proud to welcome the 11-time Bessie Award-winning company Doug Varone and Dancers to present a program in the Doris Duke Theatre from Friday, October 23 through Sunday, October 25, in celebration of the company's 40th year of creating and touring work. Known for dances that are both kinetically thrilling and emotionally resonant, Doug Varone and his collaborators' work spans concert dance, opera, theater, film, and multidisciplinary performance. This program, celebrating the company's 40 years, will include Lux, Varone's master work from 2006 in which lush choreography erupts across the stage with relentless power and energy, and No Matter How It Ends, a work that channels the restless beauty and quiet melancholy of Radiohead's iconic album In Rainbows. Additionally, Varone returns to the stage performing Three Nocturnes, set to three exquisite Chopin nocturnes.

Fall Season tickets are on sale and can be purchased at jacobspillow.org/fall. Additional live and digital programming for Jacob's Pillow's 2026 Fall Season includes Encore streams, online courses from The School at Jacob's Pillow led by leading experts in the dance field, the exhibit Illuminating the American Experience: Groundbreaking U.S. Women in Dance, and co-presentations held at MASS MoCA featuring Ballet Nepantla and Kimberly Bartosik.

Encore Streams

Encore streams can be accessed at Jacob's Pillow On Demand at watch.jacobspillow.org. The Encore stream schedule is as follows:

November 6-27 — Youth America Grand Prix: Fresh Voices in Dance
December 4-25 — The School at Jacob's Pillow: Contemporary Ballet, Contemporary, and Musical Theatre Performance Ensembles
January 8-29 — Urban Bush Women: SCAT!...The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar
February 3-26 — Brinae Ali: Baby Laurence Legacy Project
March 5-26 — Shamel Pitts | TRIBE: Touch of RED
April 2-23 — Brian Brooks Moving Company

Choreographic Conversations

Jacob's Pillow's new fall online course Choreographic Conversations remains open for registration, led by dance writer, educator, and researcher Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D. In this unique course, two choreographers, paired in unexpected ways, will meet for a moderated conversation designed to generate charged dialogue about contemporary practice, process, and the questions that both drive their work and refuse easy answers. Each choreographer will draw on the Jacob's Pillow Archives to illuminate their process, reveal unexpected influences, and push the dialogue somewhere neither could go alone. Guest speakers will include Annie-B Parson, Bebe Miller, Pillow alum Gesel Mason, Liz Lerman, Miguel Gutierrez, Netta Yerushalmy, Ogemdi Ude, Pam Tanowitz, Reggie Wilson, Rosie Herrera, Pillow alum Shakia 'The Key' Johnson, and Tere O'Connor.

Illuminating the American Experience: Groundbreaking Women in Dance

Starting October 16, the exhibit Illuminating the American Experience: Groundbreaking Women in Dance—originally displayed in the lobby of the Ted Shawn Theatre during Festival 2026—will move into the Doris Duke Theatre Gallery for the two Fall Season performance weekends and run through May 9, 2027. Illuminating the American Experience: Groundbreaking Women in Dance, curated by Jacob's Pillow's Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge and Associate Artistic Director Kim Chan, features women whose creative practice illuminates the American experience of their times and reveals new possibilities for the generations who follow. The exhibit includes artists Pearl Primus, Rokafella, Emily Johnson, Chey Samy, and more. The paths forged by the women in this exhibit collectively demonstrate there is no one singular American experience. By celebrating the variety of their expressions, we experience the richness of dance and civic life in the United States.

Ballet Nepantla and Kimberly Bartosik at MASS MoCA

Jacob's Pillow is proud to continue its decades-long collaboration with MASS MoCA, featuring unique works and relevant artists within the field. On Friday, October 30 at 7pm, the public is invited to attend Ballet Nepantla's Mística, a work that honors the company's ancestors by celebrating the creative and spiritual energies of their indigenous, Afro, and Hispanic roots. Mística commemorates traditions of Día de Muertos and transports the audience into the afterlife through the use of black light and Ballet Nepantla's unique fusion of ballet folklórico and contemporary dance. Then on Saturday, December 12 at 7pm, the public is invited to attend American choreographer Kimberly Bartosik's bLUr, a highly physical and emotionally intense dance piece in which five performers navigate scenes of desire, care, violence, and tender rescue. Exploring the haunting impact of witnessing addiction and substance abuse, bLUr is both personal and universal as it warps time and reminds us of our fragility, power, and need for one another. Both events will be held at MASS MoCA, with tickets now on sale through MASS MoCA's box office and website.

Ticketed Performances & Exhibit Details

Tickets are on sale now; details at

Youth America Grand Prix: Fresh Voices in Dance

October 16-18; Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm ET
Doris Duke Theatre | Assigned Seating | Tickets from $61.50 including fees
Refreshments available at the Doris Duke Theatre Bar
Pre-Show Talk: 30 minutes before each performance
Post-Show Talk: following Saturday night performance

Doug Varone and Dancers

October 23-25; Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2pm ET
Doris Duke Theatre | Assigned Seating | Tickets from $61.50 including fees
Refreshments available at the Doris Duke Theatre Bar
Pre-Show Talk: 30 minutes before each performance
Post-Show Talk: following Saturday night performance

Exhibit: Illuminating the American Experience: Groundbreaking U.S. Women in Dance

October 16, 2026 – May 9, 2027
Open until 30 minutes after curtain on performance days
Open by appointment on non-performance days
Doris Duke Theatre Gallery I FREE
Curators: Kim Chan and Pamela Tatge

Ballet Nepantla: Mística

October 30; Friday at 7:00pm ET
MASS MoCA | Preferred and General Admission | Tickets at $39 including fees
Tickets available here.

Kimberly Bartosik: bLUr

December 12; Saturday at 7:00pm ET
MASS MoCA | Preferred and General Admission | Tickets at $39 including fees
Tickets available here.

Livestream: Youth America Grand Prix: Fresh Voices in Dance

October 17; Friday at 7:30pm ET
Registration available at stream.jacobspillow.org/yagp.

Online Course: Choreographic Conversations, Led by Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D.