Jacob's Pillow presents the world premiere of Pillow-commissioned POWER, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group's new evening-length work, July 10-14 in the Doris Duke Theatre. Imagining what Black Shaker worship may have looked like, POWER was developed through two residencies at the Pillow Lab and Berkshire-based Hancock Shaker Village. It is preceded by ...they stood shaking, while others began to shout, a site-based roving performance at the Village's Round Stone Barn and 1910 Barn on Saturday, July 6 at 2pm.
"Reggie Wilson's newest work POWER is the product of Berkshire-based research and development and we're thrilled to present the world premiere. Wilson's nuanced lens into the physicality of spirituality is unmatched," says Jacob's Pillow Director Pamela Tatge.
Award-winning choreographer Reggie Wilson created POWER with his Brooklyn-based company Fist and Heel Performance Group through two residencies at the Pillow Lab and Hancock Shaker Village, a living history museum based in neighboring Pittsfield, MA. POWER imagines what Black Shaker worship would have looked like. With a name derived from the whirling, communal dancing that occurred as part of their religious services, the Shakers welcomed African American members into their communities as early as the late 1700s, assisted fugitive slaves along the Underground Railroad, and often purchased the freedom of slaves in southern communities.
Praised for how "his sprawling movement pieces fold history into the present" (The New York Times), Wilson refers to his work as "post-Africa/Neo-HooDoo Modern dance." Through rhythmic movement, POWER presents intriguing perspectives and correlations on Shaker worship and practices. The work is a culmination of Wilson's extensive research on the spiritual and mundane traditions of Africa and its Diaspora, specifically visionary black preacher Rebecca Cox Jackson. POWER further reflects Wilson's investigations on the early evolution of African American spiritual worship in the pantheon of American Christian religions and expands on his research into African American shout traditions.
...they stood shaking, while others began to shout is a site-specific companion to the world premiere, performed in two barns at Hancock Shaker Village. A continuation of Wilson's series of thought-provoking performances and talks that engage historic religious spaces, ...they stood shaking "explores intersection of worship and dance with poetic imagination" (The New York Times). Established by Shakers in 1783, the Pittsfield village was the site of extensive research by Wilson as he and his collaborators engaged with thousands of archival materials.
Fist and Heel will also lead a Community Ring Shout in Pittsfield on July 8. This stimulating, transformative sing-a-long will connect participants to their rhythmic voices and bodies. The Shout unearths some of the origins, functions, and interconnections through tales and songs from Africa and the African Diaspora (the Caribbean and American South).
ABOUT Reggie Wilson/FIST AND HEEL PERFORMANCE GROUP:
Reggie Wilson founded his company, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, in 1989. The company's name is derived from enslaved Africans in the Americas who reinvented their spiritual traditions as a soulful art form that white and black authorities dismissed as merely 'fist and heel worshipping'. Wilson draws from the cultures of Africans in the Americas and combines them with postmodern elements and his own personal movement style to create what he calls "post-African/Neo-HooDoo Modern dances." Wilson is a graduate of New York University, Tisch School of the Arts (1988, Larry Rhodes, Chair). He has studied composition and been mentored by Phyllis Lamhut, and performed and toured with Ohad Naharin before forming Fist and Heel. He has lectured, taught, and conducted workshops and community projects throughout the U.S., Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean. He has traveled extensively to the Mississippi Delta to research secular and religious aspects of life there; Trinidad and Tobago to research the Spiritual Baptists and the Shangoists; and Southern, Central, West, and East Africa to work with dance and performance groups as well as diverse religious communities. He has served as visiting faculty at several universities including Yale, Princeton, and Wesleyan Universities.
Wilson is the recipient of the Minnesota Dance Alliance's McKnight National Fellowship (2000-01). Wilson is also a 2002 Bessie Award recipient for his work The Tie-tongued Goat and the Lightning Bug Who Tried to Put Her Foot Down, and a 2002 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He has been an artist advisor for the National Dance Project and Board Member of Dance Theater Workshop. In recognition of his creative contributions to the field, Wilson was named a 2009 United States Artists Prudential Fellow and is a 2009 recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in Dance. In 2012, New York Live Arts presented a concert of selected Wilson works, theRevisitation, to critical acclaim and the same year he was named a Wesleyan University's Creative Campus Fellow, received the 2012 Joyce Foundation Award for his new work Moses(es), and was named a Doris Duke Performing Artist and a 2015 New York City Center Choreography Fellow.
Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group made their Pillow debut in 1996 with excerpts from Love as part of the Inside/Out Performance Series. They returned to the Inside/Out stage several times, and in 2007, had their Doris Duke Theatre debut with The Tale: Npinpee Nckutchie and the Tail of the Golden Dek. Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group returned to the Doris Duke Theatre in 2014 with Moses(es).
POWER was developed in part at the Pillow Lab through two residencies.
Explore past Pillow performances on Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive:
Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group in Moses(es) in 2014: danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/reggie-wilson-fist-heel-performance-group/moseses/
PERFORMANCE & TICKET INFORMATION:
-
Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group
Doris Duke Theatre, July 10-14
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:15pm
Saturday and Sunday at 2:15pm
$45, $35
A limited number of $20 Under 35 tickets are available; adults ages 18-35 are eligible. One ticket per person; each guest must show valid I.D. when picking up tickets at Will Call.
-
...they stood shaking, while others began to shout
Hancock Shaker Village
Saturday, July 6 at 2pm
$30 (includes admission for the day); members $10
1843 West Housatonic St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Note: Most of this performance will be standing room only
Comments
Videos