In December 2024, tap dancer, choreographer, and vocalist Brinae Ali came to Jacob’s Pillow for a Pillow Lab residency, joined by a dramaturg, technologists, and bandmates from the Baltimore Jazz Collective. Only two months later, Ali’s long-term project, The Baby Laurence Project, debuted at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore.
“It’s a dream come true… all the heartache and headache that it takes to get here, it’s worth it when you’re able to receive feedback from people in the room who are having a cathartic experience…” said Ali. “That human connection makes it all worth it.”
“That human connection makes it all worth it.”
Ali’s time at the Pillow came at a crucial moment in the development of this innovative archival and performance project. For several years, she has been working alongside collaborators to investigate the artistic genius of Baltimore’s greatest tap dancer: Donald “Baby” Laurence, the first tap dancer to record a jazz album titled Dancemaster (recorded in 1959, released in 1977).
“My experience with the Pillow lab was definitely right on time in regards to where I was at with my creative process,” said Ali. She needed time “away,” and concentrated hours in the studio with her collaborators.
Ali came to the Pillow lab ready to investigate the relationship between technology, tap dancing, and jazz music, and sought to figure out a bridge between the past, present, and future. Not only did Ali and her collaborators work on the movement and technology components of the project, the artists also took time to interrogate pieces from Baby Laurence’s history. Ali dug into certain words from song titles, connecting Laurence to other musicians who inspired him.
“We unpacked that a lot, and spent time going through the research collectively and having conversations so that the intentionality of the work was that much more clear in our delivery,” said Ali.
The aspect of getting “away,” and looking at the residency as a form of retreat for all the artists was important to Ali during her time at the Pillow. The artists went to the grocery store together, cooked together, stayed in cabins on the Pillow’s campus, and spent time collecting “probably every tap video that existed in the archive.” Ali said carving out this time helped the group get to know each other, and gave space for the artists to process all of the work being done.
Cultivating connection between the artists proved an important role in what Ali developed during her residency. She describes her life as “a smorgasbord of collaboration,” and working interdisciplinarily with others as a cornerstone of this project. During the residency, Ali was joined not only by her bandmates from the Baltimore Jazz Collective and other dance artists, but also by technologists, music producers, a dramaturg from the Maryland State Archives, and serendipitously, a poet.
“The young man Ahadu [Chase], came the last couple days, and his mom came with him,” said Ali, describing a tap dancer and musician who joined the residency. “We’re in the room… she’s a poet. She wrote a poem that I was like, well, now we need to figure out how we’re going to work you in this mix.”
The work of all of the collaborators ultimately came together for a premiere of The Baby Laurence Project at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance in February 2025 – the home city of Laurence where Ali is now based.
“I didn’t want to do it anywhere else because the motivation behind this project started here,” said Ali. “Being around Baltimore, I’m seeing how many people are not tap dancing at all… For me, I felt like I was being summoned to do this work to try and activate that in people here.”
See Inside the Pillow Lab
Take a look behind the scenes of tap dancer and choreographer Brinae Ali's Pillow Lab residency with this mini-documentary, now on Jacob's Pillow On Demand.
