“A prolific choreographer of skillfully constructed dances that respectfully mesh with music and striking visual design” (The New Yorker), Jessica Lang and her company return to Jacob's Pillow for the ensemble's first Ted Shawn Theatre engagement, July 5-9. In addition to a Pillow-commissioned world premiere work, the program includes Lang's Thousand Yard Stare, a dance embodying the incredible pride and honor as well as the searing loss experienced by military veterans. The program will also include the East Coast and company premiere of Lang's Lyric Pieces as well as Solo Bach, Sweet Silent Thought, and The Calling. This season, the Pillow has formed a partnership with the Tanglewood Music Center, whereby Tanglewood Fellows and alumni will be providing the music accompaniment for this engagement.
Known for its "cutting-edge contemporary work" (Jason Vondersmith, The Portland Tribune), NW Dance Project makes its Jacob's Pillow debut, June 28-July 2 in the Doris Duke Theatre. Based in Portland, Oregon and led by former Royal Winnipeg Ballet principal dancer Sarah Slipper, the company is composed of a cast of classically-trained, versatile contemporary dancers. The program includes works by a range of accomplished choreographers and rising talents: Post-Traumatic-Monster by Felix Landerer, choreographer in residence for Scapino Ballet in the Netherlands; At Some Hour You Return by former Nederlands Dans Theater dancer Ji?i Pokorný; Le Fil Rouge by 2011 Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest winner and NW Dance Project resident choreographer Ihsan Rustem; and MemoryHouse by Artistic Director Sarah Slipper.
Planet Connections changes the landscape of New York theatre this year. The award-winning Planet Connections Theatre Festivity runs June 12 - July 9, 2017 at The Clemente, 107 Suffolk Street, NYC. WWW.PLANETCONNECTIONS.ORG
As the Tony Awards approach, and New York's other prestigious awards are being handed out, what better time to dive into some of Broadway's best productions ever captured on film. In BroadwayHD's vast library, they have countless award-winning productions ready to stream.
We have pulled together some of our favorites below. Check them out and don't forget to vote in the 15th Annual Theater Fans' Choice Awards. After you have voted for your favorite shows, designs, and performances of the season, you will receive a code for one free month of BroadwayHD as a thank you.
Eliot Feld's KIDS DANCE, called 'a New York City treasure' by The New York Times, makes its annual visit to The Joyce for six performances, June 8-11. The remarkably poised, scrupulously schooled, and impeccably rehearsed whiz-kids, numbering 60, ages 11-17, will delight audiences young and old with Feld classics Meshugana Dance and The Jig is Up, along with two Feld works created especially for Kids Dance: Upside Dance and the new Pointing, a premiere for four young ladies en pointe.
The Jacob's Pillow 85th Anniversary Season kicks off with the Season Opening Gala, the Pillow's signature fundraising event, Saturday, June 17. The event embodies the start of the summer season in the Berkshires, and features exclusive programming, unique and delicious food and drink, and plenty of dancing and live music.
'There was a musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun?': this has been universal response of friends who knew I reviewing RAISIN. Even Dev Bondarin, the artistic director of APAC (Astoria Performing Arts Center) who directed the current production, only became aware of the show in college, during an historical survey of musical theater.
I will leave it to others to speculate why a musical nominated for nine Tony awards--including Best Original Score, Best Choreography, Best Book--and the winner of two statues (best musical and Best Leading Actress) has all but vanished from theatrical memory. But one hopes that Bondarin's production will restore Raisin to its rightful place in the musical theater canon, not because it takes up relevant social and political topics (which it does), but because it's a fine show with compelling music and lyrics by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan and sharp, elegant by Hansberry's ex-husband and literary executor, Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zalztberg. (The cast album also won a Grammy in 1975.)
Eliot Feld remains committed to creating a repertory of dances created especially for young dancers. For the June 8-11 season of Kids Dance, Feld will premiere one new ballet. There will also be one new dance by Laura Careless, and a second new work by a trio of young choreographers who are graduates of or seniors at Juilliard: Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, Stephanie Terasaki.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival has added two more opportunities for audiences to experience Trisha Brown Dance Company. Originally a five-performance run, August 16-19 in the Ted Shawn Theatre, the Pillow has added a Thursday matinee to the company's schedule. Members of Trisha Brown Dance Company will also perform the site-specific work Trisha Brown: In Plain Site at the Clark Art Institute on Sunday, August 13, a co-presentation of Jacob's Pillow Dance and the Clark. An icon of American dance with extensive Jacob's Pillow connections spanning more than 30 years, choreographer Trisha Brown died March 18, 2017. In a New York Times obituary, chief dance critic Alastair Macaulay wrote “Few dance inventors have so combined the cerebral and sensuous sides of dance as Ms. Brown did, and few have been as influential. Her choreography…helped shape generations of modern dance creators into the 21st century.”
The Limón Dance Company returns to The Joyce with two programs of works by José Limón, all staged by former principal dancers with the Company, as well as new dances Kate Weare and company artistic director Colin Connor, May 2-7.
The 2017 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, a prestigious honor that carries a $25,000 cash prize, will be presented to choreographer, performer, writer, educator, and speaker Liz Lerman in acknowledgement of her vision and outstanding contributions to the dance field. Long ago dubbed the “Democrat of Dance” by Alan M. Kriegsman of The Washington Post, Lerman's extraordinary career of the past four decades includes a wide range of groundbreaking work. Established in 2007, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award's previous recipients include the legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham; MacArthur Fellows Michelle Dorrance and Kyle Abraham; and choreographer, performer, and artistic director Camille A. Brown, among others.
Jacob's Pillow Dance announces a major expansion of its popular curated online video collection, Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive. Beginning today, the site will feature a series of multimedia essays from renowned dance scholars on three distinct themes: Tap, Women in Dance, and Dance of the African Diaspora.
Over this Valentine's Day weekend, Festival Ballet Providence (FBP) will present the world premiere of Romeo & Juliet, arguably Shakespeare's most famous play and one of the most performed and adapted works of all time.
Dance Resource Center, the service organization that is the hub and voice for Greater Los Angeles dance, is pleased to announce the third programmatic year of HOME GROWN @ Bootleg.
Boston-based contemporary dance theater company Danza Organica, directed by choreographer and Jacob's Pillow Dance Creative Development Residency Artist Marsha Parrilla, will host a free Dance for Social Justice Movement Workshop followed by a lecture/demonstration performance of Parrilla's work Running in Stillness.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival invites artists of all styles to participate in the first ever Inside/Out: Chance to Dance viewers' choice contest. An exciting opportunity to perform on the Pillow's iconic outdoor stage, the Chance to Dance contest is a viewer-selected online competition that allows the public, peers, and fans of artists to vote on their inclusion in the Inside/Out Performance Series for Festival 2017.
Cultural partners Jacob's Pillow Dance and MASS MoCA present two solo works created in response to and performed within Nick Cave's monumental exhibition Until, currently installed in MASS MoCA's largest gallery.
Over this Valentine's Day weekend, Festival Ballet Providence (FBP) will present the world premiere of Romeo & Juliet, arguably Shakespeare's most famous play and one of the most performed and adapted works of all time.
