George Carter News

As Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival rings in 85 seasons, Doug Varone & Dancers celebrates its 30th anniversary as a company with a program in the Ted Shawn Theatre, August 2-6.

The 2016 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Winner, Camille A. Brown, will bring her evening-length work BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play to the Ted Shawn Theatre this summer, August 9-13.

Ballet Hispanico will perform at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival at the Ted Shawn Theater, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA 01223, from July 26-30, 2017 with performances Today-Saturday at 8pm; Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $45-78 and are available at www.jacobspillow.org/events/ballet-hispanico/.

Ballet Hispanico will perform at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival at the Ted Shawn Theater, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA.

New York City's famed Doug Varone and Dancers will perform at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival at the Ted Shawn Theater, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA 01223, from August 2-6, 2017 with performances Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $39-69 and are available at www.jacobspillow.org/events/doug-varone-dancers/.

As Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival rings in 85 seasons, Doug Varone & Dancers celebrates its 30th anniversary as a company with a program in the Ted Shawn Theatre, August 2-6.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival presents AteNine in the Doris Duke Theatre, July 26-30. AteNine, formerly Ate9dANCEcOMPANY, is led by Artistic Director and choreographer Danielle Agami, named “choreography's It girl” by the LA Times. A former dancer and rehearsal director of the world-renowned Batsheva Dance Company, Agami draws from her background in Gaga movement practice to create bold, innovative work. The program will include two works: Exhibit b and excerpts from vickie. AteNine dancers move with an intense clarity praised as “odd, fleeting, and gorgeous, it left you wanting much, much more” (Janet Smith, The Georgia Straight).

Ballet Hispanico will perform at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival at the Ted Shawn Theater, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA 01223, from July 26-30, 2017 with performances Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm; Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $45-78 and are available at www.jacobspillow.org/events/ballet-hispanico/.

Montreal-based Compagnie Marie Chouinard makes its Jacob's Pillow debut in the Ted Shawn Theatre, July 19-23. Described by The New York Times as a "hurricane of unbridled imaginativeness," company director Marie Chouinard has been pioneering avant garde choreography that pushes the boundaries of on-stage performance since the late 1970s. The program includes 24 Preludes by Chopin, a series of vignettes laced together by Chopin's iconic piano refrains and set to live piano accompaniment, and HENRI MICHAUX: MOUVEMENTS, inspired by the ink drawings and poems of the French/Belgian poet and visual artist.

Ballet Hispanico will perform at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival at the Ted Shawn Theater, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA.

Based in Israel, Roy Assaf Dance makes its U.S. debut with a program of clever and heartfelt works in the Doris Duke Theatre July 12-16. A rising choreographic star, Assaf has been commissioned by companies across the globe including Batsheva Dance Company, The Royal Swedish Ballet, National Dance Company Wales, and LA Dance Project. The program opens with Assaf's embracing duet Six Years Later which is praised for its "beauty, nuances, and intricate, astute movements" (Ora Brafman, Jerusalem Post), and closes with his powerful all-male trio The Hill, inspired by veterans' experiences and based on the Hebrew song "Givat Hatachmoshet".

“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.

Astonishing tap artists from across the U.S. and abroad come together in a Jacob's Pillow-exclusive program curated and introduced by the "tireless ambassador of tap" Michelle Dorrance (The New York Times).

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.

Miami City Ballet returns to Jacob's Pillow for the first time since 1998, to open the Festival's 85th Anniversary Season June 21-25, in the Ted Shawn Theatre. Led by Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez, a former New York City Ballet principal dancer who later directed The George Balanchine Foundation, the company performs a program with a trio of works by master ballet choreographers,

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 2017 Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2017, the first programmed exclusively by new Director Pamela Tatge, is full of exciting programming featuring world premieres, commissions, site-specific work, international artists, live music, and Pillow-exclusive engagements, all to celebrate a momentous 85th Anniversary Season. Running June 21-August 27, Festival 2017 includes more than 200 free events, performances, exhibits, and talks, as well as many new offerings and initiatives launched under Tatge's leadership. In keeping with the Jacob's Pillow mission to engage and educate the community through the depth and breadth of dance, the genres and styles presented as part of the 85th Anniversary Season are far-reaching and inclusive, encompassing modern, contemporary, ballet, hip-hop, improvisation, flex, tap dance, step, Brazilian social dance, dance theater, traditional Native American, Bharatanatyam, musical theater dance, classical Cambodian, Latin ballroom, capoeira, and traditional Korean movement styles.

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.

Artistic Director Julie Kent is delighted to announce The Washington Ballet's participation in the 85th Anniversary Season of the 2017 Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival at the invitation of Jacobs Pillow Director Pamela Tatge.

Celebrating its 85th Anniversary season, Jacob's Pillow, home to America's longest-running dance festival and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, is now accepting applications for the 2017 Festival's Inside/Out free performance series. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2016.