Jacob's Pillow Promises A Steamy Summer Of Dance

On Saturday, June 22, Jacob’s Pillow popped the cork on its 92nd season with an outdoor cocktail hour featuring pop-up performances by Sekou McMiller & Friends, followed by five special performances in its signature Ted Shawn Theatre. Students from The School at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Ballet program opened with a world premiere by choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Jacquelin Harris and Patrick Coker performed excerpts from Alvin Ailey’s “Pas de Duke,” which, Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge noted from the stage, was a fitting choice as the Pillow is in the process of building a reimagined Doris Duke Theatre, which suffered a fire in 2020. (Because of that, sections of the Becket campus are active construction sites, so “construction site chic” was a no-brainer theme for the gala’s decor.) Pianist Craig Baldwin and dancers from the New York City Ballet performed “Gustave Le Gray No. 1,” choreographed by the 2024 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient Pam Tanowitz, who appeared briefly in the piece and later accepted her award. Tap performances from Soles of Duende, and Caleb Teicher with pianist Conrad Tao brought the house down as the confetti canons erupted and the stage’s rear doors opened onto green forest.

Dinner catered by MAX Ultimate and dancing to live music by the Silver Arrow Band and T. Warner Artists rounded out the evening as mist settled into the woods for the night. The Pillow’s nine-week summer programming includes Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo celebrating its 50th anniversary, Chicago’s M.A.D.D. Rhythms’ Becket debut, and a “takeover” by The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom from July 3-7.