DaEun Jung
This performance took place on August 23, 2024.
Pillow Debut
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted DaEun Jung for a special one-night-only performance on August 23. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Based in Los Angeles, choreographer/dancer DaEun Jung makes contemporary dance that is informed by ancestral dance practices of Korean classical and folk dance. In her Pillow debut, DaEun will perform NORRI, a group dance project inspired by the principle, form, and mode of Korean folk dance as a communal performance practice. In NORRI, meaning “play” in Korean, classical Korean dance vocabulary—originating from simple steps and gestures—is re-stylized by dancers of different cultural and movement backgrounds. Spontaneous Pansori (traditional Korean folk opera) phrases and continuous pulse of electronic sound guide or challenge dancers’ complex and playful pattern explorations.
The presentation of “NORRI” by DaEun Jung was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
South Chicago Dance Theatre
This performance took place on August 22, 2024.
Pillow Debut
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted South Chicago Dance Theatre for a special one-night-only performance on August 22. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Founded by Kia S. Smith in 2017, South Chicago Dance Theatre (SCDT) is firmly rooted in the vibrant arts community and rich heritage of Chicago’s south side. Since its launch in 2017, the company has toured regionally, nationally, and internationally, and commissioned the choreographic work of renowned artists. Its collaborative initiatives have included music ensembles, television, opera, art museums, and public schools.
The Chicago Tribune lauds SCDT as “the next big thing to hit Chicago’s dance scene.” Smith was recently named a Rising Star in 2023 by Chicago Magazine, and one of 25 to Watch in 2024 by Dance Magazine, which praised Smith’s choreographic voice: “note-by-note precision, fluid torso movement, unexpected gesture, powerful unison.”
Smith is a 2021 alum of the The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at The School at Jacob’s Pillow.
Annie Hanauer Dance
This performance took place on July 18, 2024.
Pillow Debut | U.S. Premiere
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Annie Hanauer Dance for a special one-night-only performance on July 18. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
In her U.S. debut as a choreographer, Hanauer presented the U.S. Premiere of A Space for All Our Tomorrows, which imagines a utopian space for different bodies to share. It takes inspiration from the historical artist community of Monte Veritá in the Swiss mountains. Through their bodies, movement, and voices, Hanauer and collaborators channel the search for utopia—the feeling of something that is intangible, imaginary and different for every person—and hold space for multiple perspectives, particularly including testimony from disabled persons. Four bodies, each with their own wisdom, explore the harmony and tension between togetherness and individuality, presence and power, in relation to our human search for utopia.
Digital Program Viewing & Listening Options
The booklet accessible to the in-person audience can be viewed online here.
Listen to the audio recording of the audience information introduction here.
Listen to the audio recording of the booklet here.
Annie Hanauer Dance’s engagement at Jacob’s Pillow is generously supported by an individual who wishes to highlight the power and possibilities of dance.
Merce Cunningham, Liz Gerring, Kyle Abraham: Three Duets
This performance took place on July 12, 2024.
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage presented Merce Cunningham, Liz Gerring, Kyle Abraham: Three Duets as a special one-night-only performance on July 12. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
The evening brought together three distinctive duets: an arrangement from Merce Cunningham’s Landrover, Liz Gerring’s Dialogue, and A.I.M by Kyle Abraham’s MotorRover. These three works first appeared in a 2021 digital program called “In Conversation with Merce,” co-produced by the Merce Cunningham Trust and Baryshnikov Arts. Jamie Scott, a former member of the Cunningham company, was engaged by the Trust to make a duet arrangement of material from Landrover for Jacquelin Harris and Chalvar Monteiro, and choreographers Gerring and Abraham were each commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts to make a duet in response.
On the Leir Stage, these three duets were seen together in live performance for the first time, in a program honoring Merce Cunningham’s enduring legacy and his more than 50-year relationship with the Pillow.
Dive into works from the creators on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive:
Watch Merce Cunningham Dance Company on Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive:
Watch Liz Gerring Dance Company on Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive:
- glacier from 2015
- she dreams in code from 2012
- Liz Gerring, a Themed Essay
- Explore the Women in Dance themed essays here
Watch Kyle Abraham on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand:
USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance
This performance took place on July 24, 2024.
Pillow Debut
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted dancers from the BFA program of USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance for a special one-night-only performance on July 24. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Founded in 2012, USC Kaufman is a world-class art school at the forefront of developing dancers, choreographers, and dance leaders for the future through a comprehensive BFA program at a premier research institution. The Kaufman community is home to award-winning faculty artists and Artists in Residence and features the repertory of several iconic choreographers, including Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, and Crystal Pite. BFA dancers also study and work with an ever-expanding roster of Visiting Artists, such as Tessandra Chavez, Peter Chu, Tyce Diorio, Justin Peck, Max Pham, Dani Rowe, Caili Quan, Toyin Sogunro, Spenser Theberge, Doug Varone, and Yin Yue.
Graduates of the BFA program have secured contracts with international dance companies, Broadway productions, mega Pop music artists, and cruise ships. Kaufman alums have performed with Ballet Austin, Ballet BC, Ballet Hispánico, Ballets Jazz Montréal, BalletX, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Gibney Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Joffrey Ballet, LA Dance Project, Oregon Ballet Theatre, RUBBERBAND and Staatsballet Berlin, among others. Alumni have recently danced at the Academy Awards and Super Bowl, in movies and commercials, at Coachella and other music festivals, and on tour with artists like Kali Uchis, Olivia Rodrigo, and Jennifer Lopez. BFA dancers also pursue careers in choreography, arts administration, marketing, business, digital technology, and dance science, forging new understanding around what dance can be and do in the world.
Emma Cianchi
This performance took place on July 31, 2024.
Pillow Debut | World Premiere | U.S. Premiere | Pillow Lab Artist
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Emma Cianchi and her company from Naples, Italy for their one-night-only Pillow debut on July 31. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Based in Naples, Italy, Emma Cianchi is the leading force of ArtGarage, and curator of dance at the Teatro Bellini. Cianchi’s company in its United States and Pillow debut will present the world premiere of Il mare che ci unisce (translation: the sea that unites us). The work explores the subtle connections that despite distances unite people across time and space. As if from a bas-relief, ancestral figures of the culture and history of the Mediterranean land appear in a work with music composed by the Neapolitan violinist Lino Cannavacciuolo who uses instruments typical of the musical culture of southern Italy in a new contemporary form. The presentation at Jacob’s Pillow is supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture and American Dance Abroad.
Watch Emma Cianchi on Jacob’s Pillow Dance On Demand:
Christopher Unpezverde Núñez
This performance took place on August 21, 2024.
Pillow Debut
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Christopher Unpezverde Núñez and collaborators for a special one-night-only performance on August 21. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Núñez is a visually impaired choreographer whose work celebrates immigrant and disabled narratives. As a Costa Rican born of Mískito descent, his inspiration comes from experiences of displacement, migratory journey, medicinal botany, indigeneity, and mythology. He embraces Audio Description, an access tool for Visually Impaired communities, as a form of resistance, preservation, cultural continuity, and perseverance.
His movement practice titled Vortex explores mechanisms and concepts such as velocity distribution, vorticity (curvature), and circulation in relation to proprioception, anatomy planes (sagittal, transverse, frontal) and axes of movement.
Bilingual (English/Spanish) ASL and Audio Description will be provided for this performance.
The MasterZ at Work Dance Family
This performance took place on July 13, 2024.
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted The MasterZ at Work Dance Family for a special one-night-only performance on July 13, in honor of Pillow Pride. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
A dance collective of fierce young performers from different dance backgrounds, MasterZ at Work ignites the stage with jazz, hip-hop, street jazz, house, African, vogue, and contemporary dance. Led by Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington Balenciaga—a legend in the ballroom community—the company creates dances that represent resilience, and which foster community in under-resourced areas of Brooklyn. Always “irrepressible” and “crowd-pleasing” (The Dance Enthusiast), the company wowed the Pillow audiences last year, and 2024 marks their triumphant return performing the Works & Process commissioned ALL INCLUSIVE and more.
Company Program
Cast: Jay Parel, Brian Starke, Deandre Cousley, Aaliyah Berry, Ja Quinn Coleman, Dashaun “DayDay” Peals, Bryce Farris, Jaylen Wallace, Tyreel Simpson, Lolita
ALL INCLUSIVE AND MORE
In their first residency with Works & Process, The MasterZ at Work Dance Family decided to show the company and cast by incorporating everyone’s personal style. Each dancer was trained by sharing their own style with the audience, piece, and each other. Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington Balenciaga says “this dance also gives us space to show everyone individually.” This piece was choreographed by everyone in the cast.
ALL INCLUSIVE AND MORE premiered on March 31, 2021 at the Guggenheim’s Works & Process.
Costume direction by Patrick Gordon & Jay Parel
Music by Byrell The great, cakes da killa, and Lolita
Space
Space was created and performed by and for the company. Whether Black, queer, loud, curly hair, no hair, no diet, fat, skinny, etc., Washington says that “this dance was created to show us taking up space in our true identity.”
Space premiered on November 21, 2022 at the Guggenheim’s with Works & Process.
Choreography by Luis Estevez, Jay Parel, Armani Moore, Brian Starke, Jaquinn Coleman, Dashaun Peals
Costume direction by Courtney Washington
Sekou McMiller
This performance took place on July 25, 2024.
Pillow Debut | Pillow Lab Artist | Live Music
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Afro-Latin Soul by Sekou McMiller & Friends for a special one-night-only performance on July 25. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Sekou McMiller is a New York City/Chicago-based choreographer, teacher, curator, and producer at the forefront of a new movement in Afro Latin dance. McMiller’s unique fusion style has a strong Afro-Caribbean essence that is laced with many different dance techniques combined with an explosive energy. His new work is inspired by the golden age of mambo at the Palladium nightclub in New York City during the 1940s, ‘50s and ’60s. To bring the work to life, McMiller has curated a collective of skilled dancers, musicians, composers, and performers. The result is a masterful show that fuses music and dance while uniting interconnected cultures.
McMiller’s choreographic work has been featured at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Dance Chicago, The Actors Fund Theater, New York City Center, Ailey CitiGroup Theater, Symphony Space, Edison Ballroom, and the United Nations General Assembly. He has appeared in films including In the Heights (2021), performed off-Broadway, choreographed for television, and performed and choreographed for top Latin music artists including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Willie Colón, Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Rojas, Tito Nieves, Pitbull, and Madonna. He is a director of this summer’s Musical Theatre program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow.
Watch Sekou McMiller & Friends on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand:
Princess Lockerooo & The Fabulous Waack Dancers
This performance took place on August 24, 2024.
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage hosted Princess Lockerooo & The Fabulous Waack Dancers for a special one-night-only performance on August 24. This performance included a “Choose What You Pay” ticketing option, with a suggested ticket price of $25.
Audiences who have caught Princess Lockerooo performing at recent Jacob’s Pillow parties and events know one thing for sure: that she is “a whirling force with a singular focus: spreading the gospel of Waacking.” (The New York Times). A legend in the New York scene, Lockerooo and a group of remarkable dancers took to the Leir Stage with a performance called The Big Show, commissioned by Works & Process, which touches on jazz, disco, soul, R&B, pop music, and the blues, while pulling in theatrical choreography, elements of comedy and drag, and incredible costumes. This all-ages show explored the evolution and origin of waacking—a street dance style created in gay clubs of the ‘70s disco era—in utterly delightful ways.
Stream the Encore!
Watch the free livestream encore on Jacob’s Pillow On Demand, for 24 hours only starting Wednesday, August 28 at noon.