Becket
Massachusetts
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2024
Arts and Entertainment
June 13, 2024
From: Jacob's Pillow Dance FestivalGet ready for nine weeks of unforgettable performances, day and night, in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre and on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage! This summer’s dance performances are an eclectic mix of Jacob’s Pillow debuts and longtime audience favorites, including ballet, modern, Indigenous dance from across Turtle Island, hip hop, flamenco, circus, and more, with artists from Canada, England, Switzerland, Italy, Argentina, Spain, and beyond. And in an exciting first, The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom will stage a “takeover” of Festival Week 2, appearing on multiple stages from July 3-7.
Festival 2024 also includes special events, parties, workshops, exhibits, PillowTalks, pop-up performances in Berkshire County, and more! Visitors can explore the National Historic Landmark grounds, visit The School at Jacob’s Pillow, picnic on the grounds, or dine at our on-site restaurants.
Performances Schedule:
LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO
June 26-30 , 2024 - Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Festival 2024 opens with the trailblazing comic ballet and modern dance company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (the “Trocks”), performing the second act of Swan Lake plus their singular take on Paquita.
SHAWN L. STEVENS AND FRIENDS
June 26, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
An enrolled member of the Stockbridge Munsee band of Mohicans, Shawn L. Stevens and Friends will open Festival 2024 with his multifaceted talents as a musician, dancer, and storyteller.
M.A.D.D. RHYTHMS
June 27-28, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: Thu 6pm | Fri 6pm
Showcasing their full-length work A M.A.D.D. Mixtape, a combination of the rhythmic connection of Tap and Footwork, M.A.D.D. (Making A Difference Dancing) Rhythms is committed to bringing tap history and culture front-and-center for youth in underserved communities and unexpected places.
THE SCHOOL AT JACOB’S PILLOW CONTEMPORARY BALLET PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE
June 29, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow Performance Ensemble provide an inside look at The School experience and feature repertoire created on the dancers by leading choreographers who serve as program faculty.
THE ROYAL BALLET (INDOOR)
July 3-7, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 2pm and 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
One of the most famous and celebrated companies in the world, The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom will appear at Jacob’s Pillow for the first time, as the company’s sole stop in the U.S. in 2024. This summer’s program will feature the U.S. Premiere of Secret Things by American choreographer Pam Tanowitz and a World Premiere by Wayne McGregor, created especially for Jacob’s Pillow, alongside works by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and Christopher Wheeldon.
THE ROYAL BALLET (OUTDOOR)
July 3-7, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: Wed 5:30pm | Thu 5:30pm | Fri 5:30pm | Sat 5:15pm | Sun 12pm
One of the most famous and celebrated companies in the world, The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom will appear at Jacob’s Pillow for the first time, as the company’s sole stop in the U.S. in 2024. This summer’s program will feature a series of solos and duets from classical repertoire and works by Frederick Ashton, Wayne McGregor, and Christopher Wheeldon.
MOBBALLET: CREATING PATHWAYS TO PERFORMANCE
July 10-11, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: Wed 6pm | Thu 6pm
This exciting initiative by Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet (MoBBallet) founder Theresa Ruth Howard presents the works of established Black choreographers including Donald Byrd, Jennifer Archibald, and Kiyon Ross, and early-career makers Meredith Rainey and Portia Adams, who are creating in the idiom of ballet. This program will be performed by 15 international Black Ballet artists from preeminent ballet companies across the country.
BALLET DU GRAND THÉTRE DE GENÈVE
July 10-14, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Featuring classically trained dancers performing breathtaking contemporary choreography, Switzerland's acclaimed ballet company Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève returns to the Pillow for the first time in over a decade, sharing the groundbreaking Faun and the U.S. debut of Noetic.
MERCE CUNNINGHAM, LIZ GERRING, KYLE ABRAHAM: THREE DUETS
July 12, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
A celebration of Cunningham's 50 year legacy,Three Duets brings together an arrangement from Merce Cunningham’s Landrover, Liz Gerring’s Dialogue, and Kyle Abraham’s MotorRover, seen together in live performance for the first time.
THE MASTERZ AT WORK DANCE FAMILY
July 13, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Wowing audiences at Festival 2023, The MasterZ at Work Dance Family, led by Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington Balenciaga, is known for fostering community in Brooklyn's under-resourced areas. They return to Festival 2024 with their unique blend of jazz, hip-hop, street jazz, house, African, vogue, and contemporary dance.
MIGUEL GUTIERREZ
July 17, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Shaping empathetic and boundary-pushing spaces for queer and trans people of color to dream, Miguel Gutierrez, a living legend of contemporary dance in New York's downtown scene, brings his latest music project sueño, a captivating fusion of dancers and live musicians, to Jacob's Pillow.
SOCIAL TANGO PROJECT
July 17-21, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Providing “a journey into the heart of Tango” (La Nación Newspaper), Social Tango Project offers a stunning interactive and immersive dance performance that blends movement and live music with cinematic documentary film projection, offering a colorful window into tango’s power to create and maintain social cohesion at times of political unrest.
ANNIE HANAUER
July 18, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Drawing from her experiences as a person with a disability, Annie Hanauer disrupts assumptions of the dancing body, advocating for inclusivity and accessibility and exploring themes of power, wisdom, and resilience through deeply connected movement. In A Space for All Our Tomorrows, she imagines a utopian space for all bodies to share.
INSPIRIT
July 19, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Emphasizing collaboration and community engagement, INSPIRIT strives to create and sustain social change through dance's transformative power. Founding Artistic Director Christal Browns' latest project What We Ask of Flesh, developed in her 2021 Pillow Lab residency, explores human stories through soundscapes and physicality.
THE SCHOOL AT JACOB’S PILLOW CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE
July 20, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow Performance Ensemble provide an inside look at The School experience and feature repertoire created on the dancers by leading choreographers who serve as program faculty.
USC GLORYA KAUFMAN SCHOOL OF DANCE
July 24, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance presents a dynamic range of performances choreographed by faculty, Artists in Residence, and renowned choreographers, highlighting the talents of developing dancers in the program.
MOMIX
July 24-28, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Famous across the globe for exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty, MOMIX conjures thrilling and family-friendly performances that move from humorous to athletic, sensual to physical, and dynamic to lyrical, always using props, bodies, costumes, and screen projections in new and unique ways, with eye-popping visuals and an extraordinary sense of fun.
SEKOU MCMILLER & FRIENDS
July 25, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
McMiller's new work, inspired by the golden age of mambo at the Palladium nighclub in New York City during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, brings together a wide collective of skilled dancers, musicians, and performers to create a masterful show that fuses music and dance while uniting interconnected cultures.
DANCERS OF DAMELAHAMID
July 26-27, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: Fri 6pm | Sat 6pm
Dancers of Damelahamid, the Indigenous dance company from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia, finds innovative ways to bring audiences into the art, history, language, and traditions of Indigenous culture through dramatic dance, captivating narrative, intricately carved masks, and elaborate regalia.
EMMA CIANCHI
July 31, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Based in Naples, Italy, Emma Cianchi and company will present the world premiere of Il mare che ci unisce. Accompanied by Neopolitan violinist Lino Cannavacciuolo, the piece explores the subtle connections that unite people across time and space through ancestral figures of Mediterranean culture.
CAMILLE A. BROWN & DANCERS
July 31-August 4, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
2023 Pillow Lab resident Camille A. Brown returns to the roots of her own dance company, presenting the world premiere of I AM which centers Black joy, celebrates the past, and boldly pushes into the future.
BINDLESTIFF FAMILY CIRKUS
August 1, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Since 1995, The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus has traveled the world with a talented and diverse troupe of American circus artists, bringing a unique hybrid of vaudeville, circus, and sideshow spectacle to theaters, clubs, colleges, and festivals. Bindlestiff Family Cirkus combines jugglers, acrobats, contortionists, plate spinning, sword swallowing, novelty music and dance, and other risk-taking feats set to live music, creating an interactive evening of fun for the entire family.
HOUSE OF JIT & A LADY IN THE HOUSE DANCE CO
August 2, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
House of Jit and founder Mike Manson share the stage with legendary competitor in waacking and house dance styles Nubian Néné, founder of A Lady in the House, for a thrilling peek into the world of Jit, a regional social dance from Detroit marked by acrobatic flips and kicks, drops and spins, and feet that hit the air at high speed.
DAVID DORFMAN DANCE
August 3-4, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: Sat 6pm | Sun 12pm
For almost 40 years, David Dorfman has been on a mission “to get the whole world dancing” by delivering audiences a provocative mix of visceral dance, music, and text, in performances that offer post-modern dance as something inviting, accessible, and interactive.
GIBNEY COMPANY
August 7-11, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: Wed 6pm | Thu 6pm | Fri 6pm | Sat 6pm | Sun 12pm
The creators of “sharp and satisfying” contemporary dance (The New York Times), Gibney Company lives at “the intersection of art and social action.” While Gina Gibney Dance performed three times at the Pillow from 1999 to 2001, Gibney completely rebuilt her company in 2020. This will be the reimagined group's Pillow debut.
PARSONS DANCE
August 7-11, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Guided by the vision of David Parsons “to bring life-affirming performances and joy to audiences worldwide,” internationally-touring contemporary dance company Parsons Dance returns to the Pillow after 25 years, showcasing signature works including Caught (1982) and Takedeme (1999).
KANKOURAN WEST AFRICAN DANCE COMPANY
August 14, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
A beloved home for West African dance in Washington, D.C., KanKouran West African Dance Company celebrates over 40 years of tradition, preserving and promoting the rich culture of West Africa while fostering a sense of community ownership among generations of dancers, students, and musicians.
SOLEDAD BARRIO & NOCHE FLAMENCA
August 14-18, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Performing an excerpt of their newest work, Searching for Goya (2023), Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer Soledad Barrio and company Noche Flamenca combine onstage performance with educational outreach "to evoke the vivid and expansive sea of passion and emotion that is flamenco."
KNONAME ARTIST / RODERICK GEORGE
August 15, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Recognized with the inaugural Jacob's Pillow Men Dancers Award, Roderick George presents excerpts of The Missing Fruit, a work inspired by the lasting impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the erasure of the LGBTQIA+ community, and Venom, a work that explores how racial and public health violence affects BIPOC communities.
ARTISTS OF THE BERKSHIRES
August 16, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
The outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage celebrates Berkshire-region dance artists, selected through an open call, as the closing event of our Community Day, an afternoon full of free dance-based activities for all ages.
THE SCHOOL AT JACOB’S PILLOW MUSICAL THEATRE PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE
August 17, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow Performance Ensemble provide an inside look at The School experience and feature repertoire created on the dancers by leading choreographers who serve as program faculty.
DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM
August 21-25, 2024 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Time: Wed 8pm | Thu 8pm | Fri 2pm | Sat 2pm and 8pm | Sun 2pm
Returning to the Pillow during their 55th Anniversary Season, Dance Theatre of Harlem presents innovative, culturally inclusive works that propel ballet into the future with "earnest and potent" performances (Los Angeles Times).
CHRISTOPHER UNPEZVERDE NÚÑEZ
August 21, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
As a visually impaired choreographer whose work celebrates immigrant and disabled narratives, Núñez draws inspiration from experiences of displacement, migratory journey, medical botany, indigeneity, and mythology. His movement practice, Vortex, delves into concepts like velocity distribution, vorticity, and circulation, exploring their relationship with proprioception, anatomy planes, and axes of movement.
SOUTH CHICAGO DANCE THEATRE
August 22, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
A vital part of Chicago's vibrant arts scene, South Chicago Dance Theatre (SCDT) is known for precise and fluid choreography. Established by 2021 alum of The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at The School at Jacob's Pillow Kia S. Smith, SCDT is lauded as "the next big thing to hit Chicago's dance scene," (The Chicago Tribune).
DAEUN JUNG
August 23, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Los Angeles-based choreographer and dancer DaEun Jung draws inspiration from ancestral Korean classical and folk dance practices for her contemporary creations. Making her Pillow debut, she presents NORRI, a group dance project that reimagines traditional Korean dance vocabulary through diverse cultural influences.
PRINCESS LOCKEROOO & THE FABULOUS WAACK DANCERS
August 24, 2024 | Henry J. Leir Stage
Time: 6:00pm
Renowned in the New York scene, Princess Lockerooo and her remarkable dancers present "The Big Show," an exploration of the evolution and origin of waacking-a street dance style created in gay clubs of the ‘70s disco era-in utterly delightful ways.
Date: June 26-August 25
Location: Various locations in Becket, MA
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