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Jacob's Pillow Presents Electrifying Street Dance in FLEXN
By: Ashlee Latimer Aug. 14, 2016
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival brings FLEXN, an electrifying street dance to the Ted Shawn Theatre stage, August 17-20. Created by flex dance pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray with visionary theatre and opera director Peter Sellars, FLEXN confronts today's complicated social justice issues by combining raw personal perspectives with powerful and provocative movement. In order to contextualize the topics addressed in the performance, the show will open with an onstage panel discussion with artists and community leaders debating the current socio-political climate and its impact on Berkshire County.
FLEXN uses storytelling through the thrilling flex dance genre to respond to contemporary issues of social justice. The flex form, characterized by pausing, snapping, gliding, hat tricks, 'bone breaking', animation, and contortion, evolved from the Jamaican bruk-up style made popular in Brooklyn reggae clubs. Pioneer of the style and director of the work, East Brooklyn native Gray's far-reaching influence can be seen in both the concert and commercial dance spheres, including being featured on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. Highly-esteemed international opera, theatre, and festival director Peter Sellars co-directs the work, weaving the personal stories of the cast into a striking narrative arc.
Featuring an ensemble of 16 "extraordinary movers" (Siobhan Burke, The New York Times), FLEXN is rooted in freestyle movement, creating unique, improvised work for each performance. The design team includes DJ Epic B who created a vibrant soundscape from a wide range of popular music and sounds from the Brooklyn street, costume designer Gabriel Berry, a long-time collaborator of Peter Sellars, and acclaimed lighting sculptor and designer Ben Zamora, whose work has been seen at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Art Basel/Design Miami.
The pre-show program will feature FLEXN artists, local political leaders, and community advocates who will engage in conversations on race, equity, and the school to prison pipeline. These panel conversations programmed in partnership with the NAACP Berkshire County Branch in collaboration with Dennis Powell, President, NAACP, Berkshire County Branch and Shirley Edgerton, Cultural Proficiency Advisor, Pittsfield Public Schools.
ABOUT REGGIE (REGG ROC) GRAY
FLEXN Director Reggie Gray has choreographed for many different projects including Public Works: The Odyssey, a Public Theater production (New York City). He has won several top dance titles, danced for music videos, television shows, and reality show competitions. Gray specializes in pauzin, an animated and cinematic flex style that he developed early on in his dance career. The production of Gray's and Sellars's FLEXN has toured to Brisbane, Australia, Marseille, France, and Naples, Italy. An agent for change, Gray also founded a dance competition called D.R.E.A.M. Ring (Dance Rules Everything Around Me) which engages youths in the community.
ABOUT Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars has gained international renown for his transformative interpretations of artistic masterpieces and for collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative artists. He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, Salzburg Festival, and San Francisco Opera, among others, and has established a reputation for bringing 20th-century and contemporary operas to the stage. Sellars has led several arts festivals, including the Los Angeles Festival and the Adelaide Arts Festival. He was Artistic Director of New Crowned Hope, a month-long festival in Vienna for which he invited artists from diverse cultural backgrounds to create new work in the fields of music, theater, dance, film, the visual arts and architecture for the celebration of Mozart's 250th birth anniversary. Earlier this year Sellars served as Music Director of the 70th anniversary edition of the Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, California. His awards include a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize for contributions to European Culture, and the Polar Music Prize. Peter Sellars is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
PILLOW CONNECTIONS
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and Berkshire Museum partnered to bring D.R.E.A.M. Ring (Dance Rules Everything Around Me) to Berkshire County Friday, July 22, 2016. A day-long event including a talk, master class, and dance competition, D.R.E.A.M. Ring honors the culture of the street dance community, encouraging dancers to "battle" with an emphasis on creativity, innovation, and storytelling.
Performance and ticket information
FLEXN
Ted Shawn Theatre
Wednesday, August 17-Saturday, August 20, 8pm
Saturday, August 17, 2pm
Thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation, $10 tickets are available to regional community groups that serve and support youth and young adults.
Free Pre-Show Talks with Jacob's Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Nancy Wozny are offered in Blake's Barn 30 minutes before each performance.
Free Post-Show Talk with artists from FLEXN will take place immediately following the 2pm performance on Saturday, August 11th and the 8pm performance on Friday, August 12th at the Ted Shawn Theatre.
Tickets start at $39. $10 Teen tickets available for all performances. Now on sale online at jacobspillow.org, via phone at 413.243.0745, or in person at the Jacob's Pillow Box Office.
Box Office hours: Wednesday- Saturday, 11am-8pm; Sun, noon-5pm; Tues, 11am-5pm
Pillow Members receive exclusive benefits. To become a Member, call 413.243.9919x125. Jacob's Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2). The Jacob's Pillow campus and theaters are handicapped accessible.
ALSO THIS WEEK:
Pam Tanowitz Dance
August 17-20, Wednesday-Saturday at 8:15pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2:15pm
Doris Duke Theatre?
Free Inside/Out Performance: Kilowatt Dance Theatre
Wednesday, August 17, 6:15pm
Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space
Delightfully family-friendly, New York City-based Kilowatt Dance Theatre (formerly known as Hell's Kitchen Kilowatts) returns to the Inside/Out series with their signature blend of high energy swing-era jazz dances such as Shag, Lindy Hop, and Charleston with a contemporary twist. FREE
Class with Inside/Out Artist: Site-Responsive Voice & Body with Elisabeth Motley
Thursday, August 18, 4pm
Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space
Dancer and choreographer Elisabeth Motley teaches a unique site-response voice and body class. Open to all experience levels, ages 12+; $10 per person. Pre-registration is required. Participants younger than 18 will require a parent's signature on a liability waiver.
Free Inside/Out Performance: Elisabeth Motley/Motley Dance
Thursday, August 18, 6:15pm
Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space
Brooklyn-based Elisabeth Motley/Motley Dance presents an embodied performance practice that explores light, pattern, mass and wave in Flinch. Created in collaboration with dancers Lea Fulton, Alvaro Gonzalez and Ariel Lembeck, with original sound score performed and created by electronic musician Zubin Hensler, the performers use improvisation and dialogue to create the movement. FREE
Free PillowTalk: The Art of Social Justice
Friday, August 19, 5pm
Blake's Barn
Visionary director Peter Sellars teams up with dancer/choreographer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray to create this week's production FLEXN in the Ted Shawn Theatre. In this PillowTalk, they discuss their approaches to art as social and moral action. FREE
Free Inside/Out Performance: Loren, Royse & Co. in Spun
Friday, August 19, 6:15pm
Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space
A blend of dance, physical comedy, and Cyr wheel, Spun follows a character and his ability to overcome his struggles with the help of others. The work is created by dancer, choreographer, and world champion for the U.S. in wheel gymnastics Courtney Giannone and current Broadway performer (Fiddler on the Roof) Jonathan Windham. FREE.
Free PillowTalk: Battling Inequality in the Arts
Saturday, August 20, 4pm
Charitable foundations are leading the way in supporting arts projects that reinforce the core values of fairness, tolerance, and inclusion. This PillowTalk examines and discusses these new strategies. FREE
Sunday Master Class with Festival Artist: Pam Tanowitz Dance
Sunday, August 21, 10am
Doris Duke Theatre
Festival artists from Pam Tanowitz Dance will teach a master class that is open to all intermediate and advanced dancers ages 16 and over. Pre-registration is required, call 413.243.9919 x5 the week of the class to register. Quiet observation is welcome; $15 per class or $80 for a 6-class card.Participants younger than 18 will require a parent's signature on a liability waiver.
Free Inside/Out Performance: Musical Theatre Dance Program of The School at Jacob's Pillow
Saturday, August 20, 6:15pm
Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space
The international students from the Musical Theatre Dance program of The School at Jacob's Pillow perform repertory works to live music coached by program director, Tony Award winner, and Broadway veteran Chet Walker in preparation for the annual benefit for The School at Jacob's Pillow, A Jazz Happening. FREE
A JAZZ HAPPENING
Sunday, August 21, 5pm
Ted Shawn Theatre
Students of the Musical Theater Dance program of The School at Jacob's Pillow perform in a show of dance and live music, directed by Program Director and Broadway artist Chet Walker. Tickets start at $25.
FESTIVAL 2016 FREE EXHIBITS - ON VIEW JUNE 22-AUGUST 28
Lois Greenfield: Moving Still
Blake's Barn
Open daily, noon to 10pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, noon to 5pm Sundays-Tuesdays.
Building the Pillow
Ted Shawn Theatre Lobby
Open 60 minutes prior to every performance.
While seemingly unchanged and timeless in many ways, the beloved structures of this National Historic Landmark have been in constant transition for more than 200 years. In this exhibit, rare photographs of the site's development are shared, many for the first time. FREE
Hirschfeld on the Move
Doris Duke Theatre Lobby
Open 60 minutes prior to every performance.
The legendary Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) loved dance and captured movement with uncanny economy of line. One of his last masterworks was a commissioned study of Ted Shawn at Jacob's Pillow (now available on new merchandise in The Pillow Store), and exhibited among nine decades of other dance images in an exclusive exhibition created with the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. FREE
Jacob's Pillow Archives/Norton Owen Reading Room
Blake's Barn
Open daily, noon to 10pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, noon to 5pm Sundays-Tuesdays.
This newly-expanded informal library and reading room allows impromptu visitors to view videos, browse through books, access the Pillow's computer catalog, or peruse Permanent Collections of Pillow programs and photographs from the Pillow's Archives. Also on display are recent donations from Ruth St. Denis's family and more treasures from the Stephan Driscoll Collection. Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive, available on the popular touch-screen kiosk in the Reading Room, provides instant access to rare film clips ranging from the present day back to the 1930s. FREE
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