For Week 4 of Festival 2024, the Pillow welcomes back Miguel Gutierrez and INSPIRIT to the Outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, as well as the U.S. and Pillow debut of Annie Hanauer Dance. Read below to learn more about this incredible bill of artists, and gain some insight into what they have planned for the Leir Stage!
Miguel Gutierrez is a 2024 Pillow Lab Artist as well as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award Recipient. He is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Los Angeles and New York City, focused in creating a space for queer and trans people of color. His work, sueño, will be further developed during his residency at the Pillow this week before its presentation on the Leir Stage.
Annie Hanauer Dance will make her U.S. debut at Jacob’s Pillow with the premiere of her new work, A Space for All Our Tomorrows. With the inspiration of the historical artist community of Monte Veritá in the Swiss mountains, the performance imagines a utopian space for different bodies to share.
INSPIRIT, led by Christal Brown, will be presenting its newest work, What We Ask of Flesh, that was developed in their Pillow Lab residency in 2021. Their mission is surrounded by creating a space for actions towards social change.
Miguel Gutierrez
Miguel Gutierrez returns to the Pillow as a Pillow Lab Artist this year. Gutierrez will be performing one-night-only on Wednesday, July 17 on the Henry J. Leir Outdoor Stage.
Tell us a bit about the work you’ll be presenting this week.
Throughout my trajectory as a maker, and that’s how I primarily identify – as a person who makes things – I have often worked on two performance projects at the same time that are really different from each other. We will present my project, sueño, which is like a queer church project, a kind of melodious and heartfelt sonic movement ritual that allows me and the audience to tap into the sweetness of longing and desire. I think, when I looked at those early modern dances, I was struck by how sincere the approach was to actions that read as quite campy now. I think this balance of self-awareness and sincerity intrigues me because dance as a kind of artistic project is always about believing deeply in something that is kind of absurd.
How have you prepared for this performance?
In the first phase of my PillowLab residency, I developed a stage show for my music project sueño, in which I perform original songs in English and Spanish that tend towards the melancholic. I interacted with the archive at the Pillow and used material from dances by Ted Shawn, Harald Kreuzberg, and Isadora Duncan to develop a queer, tongue in cheek performance that re-appropriates appropriated modern dance.
In the next phase of my residency, I am working on my new piece Super Nothing, where I started from my own archive to think about what it means for me to make a dance now, in today’s world, given the many experiences that I’ve had making past works. Whenever I start making a new piece I try to forget what I’ve made before and how I’ve made it. In this instance I’m reviving material from previous processes that never made it into the final piece, from a perspective that is less sentimental and maybe less strident than those works. Maybe!
What do you want audiences to think about when watching this performance?
sueño is a pretty friendly project I think, but since I both self-identify and am lumped with the community of “experimental” artists, I would just try to remind folx that experimental work has a long legacy populated by many artists. Other than that, I hope that people always come with an open heart ready to engage with the storm of feelings in themselves and in us. Ready to feel and to stay willing.
Annie Hanauer Dance – Pillow Debut
Annie Hanauer will make her Pillow Debut this Thursday on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage. This one-night-only performance will also feature Annie Hanauer Dance’s U.S. premiere of A Space For All Our Tomorrows.
How does it feel to make your Pillow debut?
It’s a huge honour, and really exciting to share our work in this beautiful and historic place. We can’t wait to meet the Jacob’s Pillow audience.
Tell us a bit about the work you’ll be presenting this week.
A Space for All Our Tomorrows was created in response to the historical artist community of Monte Verita in Switzerland, which was a bit of a utopian experiment, and a place that has some parallels to Jacob’s Pillow. The work is a collage of different peoples’ perspectives on what utopia is or could be, and emphasizes the perspectives of disabled people and people from many different places, who we met during the creation process. The four of us on stage, dancing & singing live, are disabled and non-disabled performers from very different cultural backgrounds.
How have you prepared for this performance?
The piece was created in 2022 and has toured quite a bit in Europe, including in Switzerland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. It’s a pleasure to bring our team back together and share the show in a very different context, in such a beautiful setting.
What are you most excited about for this performance on the Leir Stage?
I’m really excited to be performing outdoors, surrounded by trees and the natural world, it’s really fitting given the inspiration for the piece. I think performing outside of traditional theater settings puts the audience & performers a little more on the same footing, or in the same world. Hopefully this emphasizes the tactility and sensitivity of the piece.
What do you want audiences to think about when watching this performance?
Don’t think. Just listen, watch, feel, and let whatever sticks with you stick with you. Know that we up on the stage are also there with you, as much as you are there with us.
Christal Brown/ INSPIRIT
INSPIRIT, directed and founded by Christal Brown, returns to Jacob’s Pillow during their 20th anniversary season for a performance this Friday, July 19.
How does it feel to return to the Pillow? What changes has the company gone through since you last performed here?
Returning to the Pillow during our 20th anniversary season feels like a full circle moment. The company was last at the Pillow in 2006. INSPIRIT has undergone various transformations; growing into an all gender intergenerational ensemble, a thriving model for collaboration, and a springboard for emerging artists.
Tell us a bit about the work you’ll be presenting this week.
In this work, What We Ask of Flesh, the artists’ bodies become instruments that question, connect and dismantle the tangible and intangible histories present in us all.
How have you prepared for this performance?
What We Ask of Flesh is the culmination of a seven year research process; exploring the capacity of human life and the intricacies of the mind.
What are you most excited about for this performance on the Henry J. Leir Stage?
We are excited to share this work at the Pillow in performance after our Pillow Lab residency in 2021.
What do you want audiences to think about when watching this performance?
I want audiences to see this work as a reflection of themselves and their own capacity for life.
This Pillow Pick was written by Mia Ortega, and published on July 10, 2024.