With a long history of presenting both acclaimed and innovative dance companies and teachers from around the world, Jacob’s Pillow International Dance Festival celebrate its 90th Season June 22 – August 28, 2022. The festival is located on the farmland purchased in 1931 by modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn and his then wife Ruth St. Denis. The couple separated both personally and professionally later that same year. Prior to that, however, these incredible dance artists were considered America’s leading dance couple and together they founded a school in Los Angeles that later became the revolutionary group known as the Denishawn Company It was their efforts which opened the creative doors for other pioneering choreographers such as Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, and Jack Cole.
The festival begins with an Anniversary Gala on June 18, 2022 to honor the reopening of the renovated Ted Shawn Theatre built in 1942 by Architect Joseph Franz. The Ted Shawn Theatre was the first performance space built in America designed specifically for dance. Franz was also the architect for Tanglewood’s Music Shed.
BODYTRAFFIC performs (d)elusive minds by Fernando Hernando Magadan at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on September 26, 2019; (l-r), Guzmán Rosado, Tina Finkelman Berkett. Photo by Don Lee.
Those participating in the Gala event are Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson of Kinetic Light, Adam Weinert and Dancers performing an excerpt of Ted Shawn’s iconic Dance of the Ages (1938), a World Premiere choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa performed by The School at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Ballet Performance Ensemble, Dancers Sara Mearns and Gilbert Bolden III performing an excerpt from Justin Peck’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (2015), and Irene Rodríguez and Guests.
JazzAntiqua Dance and Music Ensemble. Photo courtesy of the artists.
The list of notable dance artists who will help us inaugurate the newly renovated Ted Shawn Theatre stage includes Carmen de Lavallade, Camille A. Brown, Michelle Dorrance, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Liz Lerman, Mark Morris, Eiko Otake and Wendy Whelan. There will also be a presentation of the 2022 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.
There is a very diverse list of dance styles being presented at Jacob’s Pillow this, and every summer, ranging from hip-hop to indigenous to ballet. Included on this exciting lineup of dance companies are four California-based companies. They and their performance dates are: Los Angeles-based BODYTRAFFIC (June 29-July 3, 2022) and JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble (July 6), along with San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet (August 3-7, 2022) and Vanessa Sanchez & La Mezcla (August 17).
Alonzo King LINES Ballet – Cast of The Personal Element – Photo by Denise Leitner
The ticketed performances also include: America(na) to me (June 22–26), Eastern Woodland Dances (June 22), Ted Shawn’s historic “Dance of the Ages” – 1938 – (June 23), Collage Dance Collective (June 24), Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE (June 29-July 3), Loni Landon Dance Project (July 1-2), SW!NG OUT (July 6-10), Prakriti Dance (July 7), Bill Shannon (July 8), New York Korean Performing Arts Center (July 9), A.I.M. By Kyle Abraham (July 13-17), Ballet Nepantla (July 13), Mina Nishimura/Kota Yamazaki (July 14), Passion Fruit Dance Company with Baye & Asa (July 15), Limón Dance Company (July 20-24), Music From The Sole (July 20-24), Black Grace (July 27-31), Dichotomous Being: An Evening of Taylor Stanley (July 27-31), Michelle N. Gibson with The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra/Nojo 7 (July 29-30), Les Ballet Afrik (August 3), Indigenous Enterprise (August 4), Soles of Duende Percussive Trio (August 5), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (August 10-14), Dance Heginbotham (August 10-14), Liz Lerman (August 10-13), Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble (August 17021), Hustle at the Pillow (August 18), East Coast Styles (August 19), Miami City Ballet (August 24-28), Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective (August 24), Boston Dance Theater (August 25), Kayla Hamilton (August 26), and YYDC (August 27).
Vanessa Sanchez & La Mezcla – Photo by Beth LaBarge
If you are on or visiting the east coast, this promises to be an exciting dance summer.
For more information about the Jacob’s Pillow International Dance Festival and the companies performing, please visit their WEBSITE.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble – Photo courtesy of the artists.
