The site of Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts, was originally settled in 1790 by Jacob Carter III. Due to the zigzagging road leading to the hilltop property, it became known as "Jacob's Ladder", after the Biblical story, and a pillow-shaped rock on the property prompted the farm to acquire the name "Jacob's Pillow".
The farm was purchased in 1931 by modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn as a dance retreat. Shawn and his wife, Ruth St. Denis, led the highly regarded Denishawn Company, which popularized dance forms rooted in theatre and cultural traditions outside European ballet. They were influential in training a host of dance pioneers, including Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, and Jack Cole.
Ted Shawn laying his head upon the Jacob's Pillow Rock
Shawn's objective was to establish a dance organization for American men. The early corps of his all-male company built many of the structures on the Jacob's Pillow campus. This effort came to an end in 1940 with the advent of American involvement in World War II; Shawn's company disbanded and most of its members joined the military.
Significant debt forced Shawn to consider a sale of the property. In 1940, he leased the property to dance teacher Mary Washington Ball, but her summer festival was also financially unsuccessful. British ballet stars Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin learned of Shawn's financial difficulties and decided to acquire the property. With financial backing and fundraising support from millionaire Reginald Wright, $50,000 was raised to purchase the property and construct a theatre building. The summer dance festival was revived, and Shawn was retained as its director until his death in 1972.
In 2003, the Jacob's Pillow property was declared a National Historic Landmark District by the federal government as "an exceptional cultural venue that holds value for all Americans". It is the only dance entity in the U.S. to receive this honor.[3] In March 2011, Jacob's Pillow was named a recipient of the 2010 National Medal of Arts, a national award of distinction.[4]
The Doris Duke Theatre, one of two indoor performance spaces, was destroyed in a fire on November 17, 2020.[5][6]
Festival
The Pillow presents international dance in many forms, styles, and traditions.
Performances at Jacob's Pillow take place in two venues. The Ted Shawn Theatre went through a renovation which was completed in 2022 and included a new ventilation and air cooling system, the creation of an orchestra pit, enhanced accessibility for artists backstage and audience seating, increased stage depth, a new industry standard electrical system, expanded clearance height to 25 feet, a new indoor artist crossover, and a new lower level with flexible dressing rooms, wardrobe spaces, an elevator, and accessible ramp system, and a maintenance space.[7]
The second venue is the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, which presents the Inside/Out Performance Series, free performances of established and emerging artists from all over the world in an informal, outdoor venue set against a panoramic vista of the Berkshire hills.[8]
Doris Duke Studio Theatre
This section may be too long and excessively detailed. Please consider summarizing the material.(September 2023)
The Doris Duke Theatre, built in 1990 as one of three primary performance spaces on Jacob's Pillow's 220-acre campus in Western Massachusetts, was lost to a structure fire on the morning of November 17, 2020, which began at around 5am EST. The fire was contained to the building; no-one was injured, and no other buildings suffered damage. Firefighters from Becket Fire Department and surrounding towns responded to the call from an eyewitness just before 7am and arrived on the scene shortly thereafter.
The Pillow was able to commit to move several of its on-site, COVID-compliant residences for dance companies that had been scheduled in the theatre between December through May into The Perles Family Studio, the other year-round rehearsal space on campus.[9] Jacob's Pillow is at the early stages of planning to rebuild the Doris Duke Theatre and has hired an external consultant to conduct interviews with artists, technicians, and audiences members as initial research.
In October 2023, the Pillow unveiled plans for the rebuilt Doris Duke Theatre, designed by Mecanoo, New York-based design firm Marvel, and Jeffrey Gibson. The new theatre will be twice as large as the old one and will feature a fire pit, a medicinal garden (both as nods to the Mohicans and other Native American tribes in the area), and a green roof that will collect rainwater and reduce noise during dance performances. The Pillow also plans to turn the building's rear area, which was often used as an informal gathering place, into an "artist quadrangle"; the slope will be changed to accommodate performances, and the Pillow will add extra seating and large, decorative rocks along the quadrangle's edges.[10]
Community Programs
Jacob's Pillow hosts several long-standing community programs, such as Jacob's Pillow Curriculum in Motion and the Curriculum in Motion Institute. The co-founders of Jacob's Pillow Curriculum in Motion are Pillow Artist-Educator Celeste Miller, and The Carole & Dan Burack Director of the School at Jacob's Pillow, "J.R." Glover.[11]
The School at Jacob's Pillow
Students of The School at Jacob's Pillow in rehearsal
The School at Jacob's Pillow[12] is based out of the Perles Family Studio[9] and is a conservatory-style curriculum of five programs: Ballet, Contemporary Traditions, Cultural Traditions, Tap/Musical Theatre, and the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows Program.[13] The dancers’ schedule includes six days each week with four professional-level studio classes each day, coaching sessions, weekly performances for the public, master classes with Festival artists, talks led by Scholars-in-Residence, study assignments in the Pillow's Archives, and attendance at all Festival performances and events.
The School at Jacob's Pillow is known for its faculty. Faculty of The School at Jacob's Pillow have included Susan Jaffe, Amanda McKerrow, Chet Walker, Nikolaj Hubbe, Anna-Marie Holmes, Milton Myers, Katherine Dunham, Rennie Harris, Matt Mattox, Soledad Barrio, Tim Rushton, Finis Jhung, Martin Santangelo, Mercedes Ellington, Stephanie Saland, Victor Plotnikov, Annie-B Parson, Paul Lazar, Aszure Barton, Helen Pickett, Banu Ogan, Mr. Wiggles, Marjory Smarth, Dana Moore, and Ric Ryder.
The core collections preserved in the archives at Jacob's Pillow were originally assembled by founder Ted Shawn. Materials have been continually added since the 1930s by volunteers from the Pillow Board and staff. In 1991, Jacob's Pillow created the position of Director of Preservation to direct the activities and maintenance of the Archives. The Archives at Jacob's Pillow has approximately 6,000 films and videos from 1894 to present, 45,000 historic dance photos and negatives, 313,000 pages of unique printed materials, 27 trunks of costumes dating from 1915, and 2,000 books. The Archives is one component of the Pillow's Preservation Program, which organizes exhibits exploring various aspects of dance, oversees issues concerning the National Historic Landmark site, and records the ongoing activities of the Festival.
The archives is internationally recognized[15] as a major repository of dance materials. Access to the research facility is open to the public year-round by appointment and is available during the summer season from noon until the end of each performance, six days a week. The Archives collection is electronically catalogued, and much of it is accessible through the Pillow's website.
Blake's Barn is an 18th-century structure that was relocated and reconfigured specifically for preservation activity. This facility was donated by stage and screen dancer/actress Marge Champion and is named in honor of her late son. In addition to a central area for exhibits and lectures, the building houses a reading room with video stations providing access to the moving image collection. The lower level contains temperature-controlled storage areas and video production equipment.
In 2011, Jacob's Pillow launched Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive, an online resource of video clips curated from the Archives in Becket.[16] The archive features performances that have taken place at the festival from 1937 to 2010, including footage rarely seen. This user-friendly free resource allows the user to browse dance footage by artist, genre, and era. The Director of Preservation, Norton Owen, curates the collection. Each entry includes a video clip, an informative paragraph describing the dancer/choreographer, and an artist portrait.[17][18]
The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California, helped many perfect their dancing talents and became the first dance academy in the United States to produce a professional dance company. Some of the school's more notable pupils include Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Lillian Powell, Charles Weidman, Jack Cole, and silent film star Louise Brooks. The school was especially renowned for its influence on ballet and experimental modern dance. In time, Denishawn teachings reached another school location as well - Studio 61 at the Carnegie Hall Studios.
Ruth St. Denis was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins. St. Denis was the co-founder in 1915 of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. She taught notable performers including Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. In 1938, she founded the pioneering dance program at Adelphi University. She published several articles on spiritual dance and the mysticism of the body.
Ted Shawn was a male pioneer of American modern dance. He created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. With his innovative ideas of masculine movement, he was one of the most influential choreographers and dancers of his day. He was also the founder and creator of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, and "was knighted by the King of Denmark for his efforts on behalf of the Royal Danish Ballet."
The United States of America is the home of the hip hop dance, swing, tap dance and its derivative Rock and Roll, and modern square dance and one of the major centers for modern dance. There is a variety of social dance and performance or concert dance forms with also a range of traditions of Native American dances.
Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) is an American professional ballet company and school based in Harlem, New York City. It was founded in 1969 under the directorship of Arthur Mitchell and later partnered with Karel Shook. Milton Rosenstock served as the company's music director from 1981 to 1992. The artistic director has been Robert Garland since 2022. The DTH is renowned for being both "the first Black classical ballet company", and "the first major ballet company to prioritize Black dancers".
Jack Cole was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as "the Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance" for his role in codifying African-American jazz dance styles, as influenced by the dance traditions of other cultures, for Broadway and Hollywood. Asked to describe his style he described it as "urban folk dance".
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The terms dance technology and Dance and Technology refer to application of modern information technology in activities related to dance: in dance education, choreography, performance, and research.
Barton Mumaw was an American dancer and choreographer who performed in modern dance concerts and musical theater productions. He was the muse of Ted Shawn, pioneer of modern dance.
Kyle Abraham is an American choreographer and dancer. He founded his own company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2006 in New York City and has produced many original works for A.I.M such as The Radio Show (2010), Absent Matter (2015), Pavement (2012), Dearest Home (2017), Drive (2017), INDY (2018), Studies on Farewell (2019), and An Untitled Love (2021). Kyle has also been commissioned to create new works for international dance companies such as Untitled America (2016) for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Runaway (2018) for New York City Ballet, The Bystander (2019) for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Only The Lonely (2019) for Paul Taylor American Modern Dance and Ash (2019).
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Judith Chazin-Bennahum is a ballet dancer, choreographer, dance historian, writer, and educator. A leader in the field of dance scholarship, she spent her academic career at the University of New Mexico, where she now holds the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita of Dance.
Michelle Dorrance is an American tap dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher and director. Awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant", she is the Founder and artistic director of Dorrance Dance. Dorrance is known for her creative ensemble choreography, rhythm tap style and ambitious collaborative projects with fellow tap dance choreographers and musicians. She is currently a 2017 Choreographic Fellow at New York City Center and an Artist in Residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation. Dorrance lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Virginia Bosler, known to friends by her childhood nickname "Winkie", was an American actress born in Newton, Massachusetts. She was known for acting in Broadway musicals.
Sarah Michelson is a British choreographer and dancer who lives and works in New York City, New York. Her work is characterized by demanding physicality and repetition, rigorous formal structures, and inventive lighting and sound design. She was one of two choreographers whose work was included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, the first time dance was presented as part of the bi-annual exhibition. Her work has also been staged at The Walker Art Center, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Kitchen, and the White Oak Dance Project. She received New York Dance and Performance awards for Group Experience (2002), Shadowmann Parts One and Two (2003), and Dogs (2008). She has served as associate director of The Center for Movement Research and associate curator of dance at The Kitchen. Currently choreographer in residence at Bard's Fisher Center, she is the recipient of their four-year fellowship to develop a commissioned work with Bard students and professional dancers.
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