Jacob's Pillow Announces 350+ Performances, Talks, Events, Exhibits, Classes & Workshops

Jacob's Pillow announces the Festival 2018 complete schedule, encompassing over ten weeks packed with ticketed and free performances, pop-up performances, exhibits, talks, classes, films, and dance parties on its 220-acre site in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. Jacob's Pillow is the longest-running dance festival in the United States, a National Historic Landmark, and a National Meal of Arts recipient. Founded in 1933, the Pillow has recently added to its rich history by expanding into a year-round center for dance research and development.

2018 Season highlights include U.S. company debuts, world premieres, International Artists, newly commissioned work, historic Festival connections, and the formal presentation of work developed through the organization's growing residency program at the Pillow Lab. International Artists will travel to Becket, Massachusetts, from Denmark, Israel, Belgium, Australia, France, Spain, and Scotland. Notably, representation from across the United States includes New York City, Minneapolis, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago, among others.

"It has been such a thrill to invite artists to the Pillow Lab, welcome community members to our social dances, and have this sacred space for dance animated year-round. Now, we look forward to Festival 2018 where we invite audiences to experience the full spectrum of dance while delighting in the magical and historic place that is Jacob's Pillow. You'll discover new artists making their Pillow debuts including Spain's Compañía Sharon Fridman and Belgium's Eastman, alongside the hugely talented U.S. choreographer Sonya Tayeh. We are also expanding our Community Engagement work in so many exciting ways, including through our multi-tiered collaboration Pittsfield Moves!. We look forward to celebrating the first summer in our state-of-the-art Perles Family Studio, presenting the winner of our crowd-sourced Chance to Dance contest on the Inside/Out stage, and offering as many opportunities to engage with dance as we possibly can," says Jacob's Pillow Director Pamela Tatge.

One year after the announcement of Vision '22, the Pillow's strategic five-year development plan that expands its impact as a year-round center for dance, the organization celebrates several milestones:

• a complete first season of artist residencies in the Pillow Lab serving 12 artists (and their companies) in addition to college partners, community groups, and Pillow Members

• new September-May programming offering social dances on campus and performances in communities to serve Berkshire County's year-round population

• the first summer of The School's new 7,373-square foot home in the Perles Family Studio, a multifunctional, rehearsal, instructional, and performance space completed August 2017

• a revitalized focus on fostering early-career choreographers with the launch of the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows Program

• the reinstatement of the National Dance Presenter's Forum, after over a decade

Festival ticketed performances occur Wednesday through Sunday, June 20-August 26, and include a rare U.S. engagement by the Royal Danish Ballet; the return of "one of the most important living choreographers" (The Guardian) Ohad Naharin with his company Batsheva - The Young Ensemble, coinciding with a two-week Gaga program at The School at Jacob's Pillow; a Pillow-commissioned world premiere by Dorrance Dance; the U.S. debut of Madrid's Compañía Sharon Fridman; a live music premiere by GRAMMY-Award winning Arturo O'Farrill in collaboration with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE; the return of 2018 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Winner Faye Driscoll with Thank You For Coming: Attendance; Monica Bill Barnes & Company's interactive Happy Hour; and Daniel Ulbricht's Stars of American Ballet in celebration of the centennial of Jerome Robbins.

Since Tatge began work as Director in 2016, Jacob's Pillow has solidified its focus on Community Engagement, bolstering its role as a civic leader through initiatives including:

• Pittsfield Moves!, a year-long residency in collaboration with The Berkshire Bridges - Working Cities Pittsfield Initiative, led by Angela's Pulse director Paloma McGregor and key collaborators to create a community performance that takes cues from the people and stories of Pittsfield

• the second summer of the Pittsfield-Pillow Express, a free weekly bus service in response to the lack of public transportation between Becket and Pittsfield

• continuation of the Dancing Berkshire Fund, providing subsidized tickets to Berkshire County's young dancers

• a community residency in Pittsfield with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE led by the company's Associate Artistic Director and dancer Arcell Cabuag, July 16-20

• Performances at every Third Thursday cultural street festival in downtown Pittsfield in the newly designated Dance Zone

• continued collaborations with community partners including Greenagers, Soldier On, NAACP Berkshire County Branch, the Berkshire Athenaeum, and STEAM Team: A Program Through Berkshire Community College's Kid Academy

The Inside/Out Performance Series, a beloved tradition, continues with free, outdoor, family friendly performances Wednesday through Saturday on the iconic Henry J. Leir stage. Highlights include Translucent Borders, the result of a three-year exploration of intercultural dialogue, practice, and exchange led by New York University (NYU) Tisch Professor, Dr. Andy Teirstein; the winner of this year's Chance to Dance contest, IndianRaga; viral dance video artist Emma Portner; a Contemporary Dance from Spain Series featuring Marcat Dance and The Carmen Fumero Dance Company; Kinetic Light, with work at the intersection of disability, dance, and race; and a Pillow-commissioned piece based on imagination by Lida Winfield.

PillowTalks, free hour-long discussions with artists, writers, experts, and choreographers, continue every Friday and Saturday. This year's highlights include talks with Artistic Director of The Royal Danish Ballet and alum of The School at Jacob's Pillow Nikolaj Hübbe; monumental force in Israeli dance, Ohad Naharin; curators of the Williams College of Museum of Art exhibition Dance We Must, featuring collections from the Jacob's Pillow Archives; as well as a film screening and discussion of NY Export: Opus Jazz, an adaptation of an iconic Jerome Robbins film from 1954.

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