Ralph Lemon News

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

The French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, has announced the Crossing the Line Festival 2017, the eleventh annual edition of its path-breaking fall arts festival.

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/.

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".

Jacob's Pillow Director Pamela Tatge recently unveiled Vision '22, a strategic approach for the Pillow's development over the next five years, through 2022. Vision '22 is a blueprint for enabling the Pillow to become a year-round center for dance creation and to more robustly serve artists and audiences alike.

Celebrating the power of Jacob's Pillow's natural setting, internationally acclaimed dance company Pilobolus Dance Theater will premiere a new work commissioned specifically for the Pillow's iconic outdoor Inside/Out performance space, set against the Berkshire hills. The program featuring the world premiere and On the Nature of Things will kick off the Festival's 2017 free Inside/Out performance series with an extended three-day run, June 21-23.

“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.

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.

Queer|Art has announced the new Mentors for the 2017-2018 program cycle of Queer|Art|Mentorship. Applications open June 1st.

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 Kitchen's Spring 2017 Gala celebrates John Cale and Lawrence Weiner, two pivotal artists whose careers have spanned over five decades.

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.

The Herb Alpert Foundation and California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) will award the 23rd Annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts to five exceptional mid–career artists, presented at a lunch hosted by the Herb Alpert Foundation in Santa Monica on May 19th, 2017.

Each year, more than 250 individuals come together to support this unique organization and celebrate iconic leaders from the arts sector. This year, PS122's Spring Gala 2017 at the Diamond Horseshoe honors Alan Cumming, awards a shining star to Ben Rodríguez-Cubeñas and welcomes new Executive Artistic Director, Jenny Schlenzka. 

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.

Bessie Award winner and New York Live Arts' Stryker/Ranjelovic Resident Commissioned Artist Okwui Okpokwasili presents the culmination of her two-year residency at New York Live Arts with the New York premiere of Poor People's TV Room.