Jacob's Pillow Will Invest in Innovative New Work at the Intersection of Dance and Technology

Jacob's Pillow has shared new opportunities this winter for dance audiences to connect with initiatives by multimedia artists, all of whom are pushing the creative and technological boundaries of today's dance world. In the coming weeks and months, three works will debut that have been commissioned fully or in part by Jacob's Pillow, brought to life by artists Brian Brooks, Catie Cuan and Ken Goldberg, and Talvin Wilks and LaJuné McMillian.

Brooks' Viewpoint is a new Pillow-commissioned work that can be experienced uniquely from anywhere in the world, via smartphone or tablet. Jacob's Pillow has also co-commissioned two works that enable artists to dance with the technology shaping our future: Breathless: Catie and the Robot, an eight-hour durational dance duet between a human and a robot, created by Cuan and Goldberg; and Snakehips in our DNA, a motion-capture-enabled choreographic media collage, created by Wilks and McMillian.

“We are thrilled to help gather audiences and dance lovers into new and surprising encounters with this inspiring array of innovators and artists,” said Pamela Tatge, Executive and Artistic Director at Jacob's Pillow. “These new projects are a part of our evolution as a year-round center investing in artists who are creating work at the intersection of dance and technology, and providing more opportunities for in-person and virtual audiences to access their art, not only at Jacob's Pillow but also at partner organizations.”

Premiering December 16, 2023 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY, Breathless: Catie and the Robot is a captivating durational duet created by dancer/choreographer/engineer Catie Cuan (a resident artist in Dancerly Intelligences at the 2023 Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival) and artist/researcher Ken Goldberg, which pairs Cuan with an industrial robot arm for an eight-hour dance performance that unfolds over the timespan of a single American workday. Performed to a soundtrack including original compositions by Peter Van Straten, Breathless contrasts the beauty, strength, and frailty of the human body with the relentless precision of machinery. In the debut of their ambitious new piece, Cuan and Goldberg address the historical, cultural, and emotional complexity of our collective fears about artificial intelligence and the future of human labor with the significant technical gaps that remain between science fiction and contemporary robotics. At the conclusion of the eight-hour ritual, the artists will join Elena Park—curator of the NationalSawdust+ performance and conversation series—for a discussion and audience Q&A.

Presented by Brian Brooks in four parts in January and February 2024, Viewpoint is a visionary project that uses groundbreaking, patented technology and software to stream 3D video in real time. While the dancer performs, the viewer can magically place the dancer anywhere in the viewer's surroundings through their mobile device, watching from any angle or perspective with the dancer anchored in place through Augmented Reality. This digital window allows audiences to see dance as never before, with dancers positioned in impossible places: inside the palm of your hand, on top of your desk, or on the side of a building you're walking past.

Snakehips In Our DNA is a video installation—commissioned by The Apollo Theater on the occasion of the opening of The Apollo's Victoria Theater in Harlem, NY—honoring the influence and impact of legendary Harlem Renaissance dancer Earl “Snakehips” Tucker, from then to now. Conceived by director/dramaturg Talvin Wilks in collaboration with new media artist LaJuné McMillian (November 2023 artist in the Pillow Lab residency series at Jacob's Pillow), the work is a choreographic media collage of animation and interviews, with several generations of dancers responding to the soul and spirit of Snakehips. Produced by SOZO, with an original music score by Dominique Luis, sound design by Kwamina “Binnie” Biney of DreamWolf Projects, and co-commissioning support provided by Jacob's Pillow, Snakehips In Our DNA is a tribute and timely meditation on the Harlem Renaissance's permanence in our contemporary culture today. The installation will also be on view at Jacob's Pillow this summer as part of the 2024 Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

How to access tickets

• Register for free access to watch Viewpoint online, premiering on Thursday, January 11, at 4pm ET through stream.jacobspillow.org/viewpoint.
• Tickets for the December 16 performance of Breathless: Catie and the Robot at National Sawdust in Brooklyn can be purchased at nationalsawdust.org/performances.
• Sign up for email updates about Snakehips In Our DNA and other dance and technology works from Jacob's Pillow at jacobspillow.org/signup.

Dive into dance with Jacob's Pillow online

No matter the season, Jacob's Pillow is a digital home to dance for audiences around the world. Visitors to the Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive website (danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org) can explore the Pillow's decades-deep multimedia archives through video clips of historic performances, themed playlists and scholarly essays, games, and more. The PillowVoices podcast (pillowvoices.org) brings listeners closer to notable dance artists connected with Jacob's Pillow, from 1933 to today, with a new episode every month. And Jacob's Pillow On Demand (watch.jacobspillow.org) is a new, robust video hub offering full-length streaming performances, short films of in-process work from artist residencies, commissioned digital works, and more.

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