Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival 2022 begins with a celebration of Indigenous dancers, highlighting the breadth of Indigenous performance traditions within the Eastern Woodland region and its diaspora.
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International Dance Festival
With limber bare feet, a dancer keeps a rhythm to the beat of a drum. Behind him, trees on the open ridge line catch the sun. Cicadas hum under the white pines.
Dancers, companies and choreographers come from around the world to the top of a mountain in Becket, where an old farm has become the campus of an international festival.
The pioneering Modern dance choreographer Ted Shawn founded Jacob’s Pillow here more than 80 years ago, as a home for his company of Men Dancers. He wanted a place close to the dance community in New York and sheltered enough for new work to grow.
His balance still holds here today. The summer festival brings more than 40,000 people in June, July and August to see performers on indoor and outdoor stages, and artists in residence develop new work here year-round.
Dancers with Just Sole leap together on the Inside / Out Stage at Jacob's Pillow.
The Royal Danish Ballet performs classics with spirit at the Jacob's Pillow International Dance Festival in Becket.
Red Sky Performance, contemporary Indigenous performance in Canada and worldwide, will perform at Jacob's Pillow International Dance Festival in Becket in August 2019.
Brisbane-based Circa, contemporary Australian circus, performs new work to live music at Jacob's Pillow International Dance Festival in Becket in 2019.
Pilobolus / Photo by Pei Check Productions
Virtual Pillow
In spring 2020, as theaters and performance spaces adapt to a physically distancing world, Jacob’s Pillow has launched a new series of online programming. Virtual Pillow is live on their website now with new programming, Pillow Talks and a deep archive of dance on film.
Through the summer, the Pillow will create conversations with the dance companies and artists they had invited to their festival 2020, before the coronavirus compelled them to postpone it. They will hold live virtual events to share dance they love.
