As a part of Festival 2023, three artists will make an extra special return to the Pillow grounds. Outside of Festival months, the Pillow’s residency program, the Pillow Lab, hosts artists during crucial development, research, and technical stages of their choreography-driven projects. During a week long residency, artists live on the Pillow’s retreat-like campus and have unlimited studio time, as well as access to the Jacob’s Pillow Archives.
This summer, Ananya Dance Theatre, Mythili Prakash, and Rokafella & Kwikstep will perform works that they developed during their Pillow Lab residencies. The Pillow is thrilled to welcome these artists back to the grounds where their work came to fruition. Explore the three artists below and watch their installments of Inside the Pillow Lab, our short form documentaries that take audiences inside each residency.
Ananya Dance Theatre
A leading contemporary dance company in the global arts and social justice movement, Ananya Dance Theatre is composed of cultural activists and BIPOC women, womxn, and femme artists who believe in the transformative power of dance.
Ananya Dance Theatre spent a week inside the Pillow Lab during March, 2022. Here, the company began to develop Nün Gherāo: Surrounded by Salt, a historical and political work about the 1978-79 massacre on the Marichjhapi Island in West Bengal, India. This summer, the company will return to the Pillow to perform the finished work, which encompasses the spirit of unwavering resistance, tremendous love, and promise of transformation, together.
Take a look back at Ananya Dance Theatre’s 2022 visit to the Pillow Lab:
Ananya Dance Theatre will perform July 12, 2023 at 6pm on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage. Tickets are Choose What You Pay, with a minimum price of $5 and suggested price of $35.
Mythili Prakash
A second-generation Indian and American artist, Prakash is one of the most celebrated and respected young Bharatanatyam dancer/choreographers today. Mythili Prakash made her Pillow debut at Festival 2022 during America(na) To Me. She returned to the Pillow in November, 2022, to further develop her work She’s Auspicious inside the Pillow Lab. This Bharatanatyam work examines notions of femininity and purity through the paradox of the Hindu Goddess Devi, who is worshiped as powerful and auspicious, in contrast to the woman who is objectified and marginalized in society.
Hear from Mythili herself as she developed her work:
Mythili will return to the Pillow once again this summer to perform She’s Auspicious on July 21 at 6pm on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage. Tickets are Choose What You Pay, with a minimum price of $5 and suggested price of $35.
Rokafella and Kwikstep
Hip Hop artists Rokafella and Kwikstep visited the Pillow earlier this year for their residency. Rokafella has roots as a street performer (hitter) and has appeared in various music videos and films. She is a well-known advocate for women in hip hop. Kwikstep is a well-known street dancer and breaker who has traveled around the world sharing the ethos of hip hop culture as it evolved.
During their week at the Pillow, the pair took time to look over their choreographic body of work to extract inspiring phrases and build a new duet that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. Rokafella and Kwikstep will perform this duet as a part of the Hip Hop Across the Pillow, the Pillow’s week-long celebration of the genre.
Watch this duo in action during their residency:
Catch Hip Hop Across the Pillow August 2-6 and don’t miss Rokafella and Kwikstep’s new duet inside the Ted Shawn Theatre.
This Pillow Pick was written by Emma Garber and published July 1, 2023.