Ice Dance International, Querencia Dance Company, waheedworks, and The MasterZ At Work Dance Family to Perform on the Henry J. Leir Stage
June 7, 2023 (BECKET, Mass.)—In the second week of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2023, the internationally renowned Dutch National Ballet will make its historic debut in the Ted Shawn Theatre, July 5-9. Week 2 of the Festival will also feature several one-night-only performances on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, including Ice Dance International on July 5, Querencia Dance Company on July 6, waheedworks on July 7, and The MasterZ At Work Dance Family on July 8—tickets for which are available on a Choose What You Pay model. Tickets for all performances are now on sale.
In addition to these onsite and online performances, two PillowTalks will be offered free of charge in Blake’s Barn. Great Barrington’s Du Bois Freedom Center and the Du Bois Forum will spend the evening of July 7 honoring David Levering Lewis with a PillowTalk from 4:30 pm-5:30 pm and dinner at 7:30pm. On Sat., July 8, Dutch National Ballet member and former Bolshoi Ballet star, Olga Smirnova, will join a PillowTalk discussion about the dance world’s responses to the war in Ukraine.
On Sat., July 8, the annual Pillow Pride Party, a LGBTQIA+ celebration, will return with a dance party and performances from the Dragon Sisters, surprise presentations, and more, following the evening performance of the Dutch National Ballet in the Ted Shawn Theatre. And on Sunday morning, intermediate/advanced dancers 12+ can participate in a workshop with Rachel Beaujean, the Associate Artistic Director of Dutch National Ballet.
“It’s a big week at Jacob’s Pillow as we host the exclusive East Coast engagement of the Dutch National Ballet,” said Pamela Tatge, Executive and Artistic Director of Jacob’s Pillow. “This will be a rare opportunity to showcase these stunning dancers. We are also honored to be hosting Great Barrington’s W. E. B. Du Bois Center’s celebration of writer David Levering Lewis and the Pillow debut of Philadelphia’s waheedworks performing a stirring tribute to the movement of bodies in protest in conjunction with this collaboration. On Saturday, Pillow Pride takes over our campus with great performances and dancing under the stars.”
In a historic debut, Dutch National Ballet—one of the world’s most critically acclaimed ballet companies—comes to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time. Works will include: Variations for Two Couples, choreographed by Hans van Manen; Two & Only (Wubkje Kuindersma); The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (William Forsythe); Grand Pas Classique (Victor Gsovsky); and Five Tangos (Hans van Manen, music by Astor Piazzolla). The performance will feature the company’s newest member, former Bolshoi Ballet star Olga Smirnova, who joined Dutch National Ballet after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Internationally acclaimed, award-winning ice skaters Ice Dance International bring Berkshire audiences a rare opportunity to enjoy ice skating in the summer, performing in ice skates atop a special flooring. Ice Dance International showcases skating as a performing art for communities across the United States. The company will be premiering a new work, Energy Flow, in which performers explore multi-dimensional skating, flight patterns, pathways, and the release of friction with the goal of gliding toward a state of grace. Edward Villella, one of the company’s founders, will attend the performance.
Boston salsa troupe Querencia Dance Company performs on the outdoor stage on Thursday, with high-energy dances by performance teams as well as a duet by company leaders Michelle Garcia and Julian De Las Nieves. The performance will include audience engagement and a mini social dance at the end of the performance, where audience members will be invited to salsa dance together.
On Friday, waheedworks will present Bodies as Site of Faith and Protest, a work that explores the idea of bodies uniting in protest, moving alongside and within Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “We Shall Overcome.” This performance directly follows a free onsite PillowTalk, presented with Great Barrington’s Du Bois Freedom Center and the Du Bois Forum, titled “Legacies of the Black Berkshires: An Evening in Honor of David Levering Lewis.”
A dance collective of fierce young performers from different dance backgrounds, The MasterZ at Work Dance Family will ignite the Leir Stage with jazz, hip-hop, street jazz, house, African, vogue, and contemporary dance. Led by Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington Balenciaga—a legend in the ballroom community—the company creates dances that represent resilience and which foster community in under-resourced areas of Brooklyn.
ABOUT DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET
Formed in 1961, the Dutch National Ballet, the official ballet company of the Netherlands, strives to spread the art of ballet, at the highest level, far and wide to the public and today’s audiences. This premier company combines classical and modern dance to create performances that have captivated audiences for ages. Director and choreographer Ted Brandsen has contributed to rejuvenating the full-length repertoire and increasing the company’s international presence.
In 2013, the Dutch National Ballet was ranked as one of the top five dance institutions in the world (The New York Times). The company regularly performs at prestigious international venues and festivals.
Over the past 60 years, Dutch National Ballet, the only ballet company in the Netherlands, has evolved into one of the world’s foremost ballet companies. With a unique and wide repertoire, a tradition of innovation, and around 80 dancers from all over the world, the company plays a leading role in Dutch cultural life and beyond.
The presentation of Dutch National Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow is supported by the Dutch Culture USA program of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York.
ABOUT ICE DANCE INTERNATIONAL
Founded in 2014 as a nonprofit and based in Maine, the organization has built its local, national, and global image through live and virtual performances, including the company’s recent 18-city U.S. tour of GRACE; the creation of two hour-long public television specials that aired nationally on PBS; and its educational and engagement programs. Ice Dance International (IDI) has been highlighted in The New York Times and Boston Globe critics picks.
IDI looks to “build a bridge from sport to art” while bringing the artistry of ice dancing into the public consciousness. Their programs are filled with grace, power, and artistry, as dances cover the ice with euphoria and dynamism. Endorsed by U.S. Figure Skating and the Professional Skaters Association, Ice Dance International works to continue developing ice dancing as a performing art through performance, community engagement programs, clinics, and their dance school, Skate 360.
ABOUT QUERENCIA DANCE COMPANY
Querencia Dance Company was founded in 2021 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Co-founders, Michelle Garcia and Julian De Las Nieves, have a shared goal of inspiring people through the arts and continuing to put Latin dance on not only a more visible map, but also an academic one. They founded Querencia with the objective to bring more prestige to the genre of Salsa around the city of Boston, and to spread that both nationally and internationally as well. Since 2022, the company has started to travel and teach internationally as choreographers, instructors, and performers, constantly eager to broaden the variety of their audiences.
Querencia Dance Company consists of three different teams who perform energetic, positive pieces. Their goal is to bring visibility to Latin dance, while establishing it as an academic art form.
ABOUT WAHEEDWORKS
Tommie-Waheed Evans is a queer Black dance maker who merges urban street dance and contemporary dance through movement propelled by gospel music and polyrhythmic sounds. Evans established waheedworks in Philadelphia in 2006 with a mission to create a radically collaborative body of work that speaks to human life through movement.
“Evans’ performance is challenging and playful, reflecting his core creative values. It engages and challenges those involved, both on the stage and sitting in the crowd. It is a work that deemphasizes a linear narrative in favor of rhyming, echoing, and looping movements which elicit an emotional and empathetic response to how it feels to be a fellow human” (Surrealism Today).
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California amongst gang warfare and racial divide, Evans creates work that explores Blackness, queerness, liberation, and spirituality. Evans is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow who has received numerous accolades and honors, such as the Joffrey Ballet Winning Works and the Princess Grace Honoraria Award in Choreography.
ABOUT THE MASTERZ AT WORK DANCE FAMILY
Founder and choreographer Courtney Washington Balenciaga fuses genres together to express her experiences as a queer teenager, represent resilience, and encourage community in Brooklyn’s under-resourced areas. For Balenciaga, her work is built on the foundation of dance’s impact in providing her refuge during her gender transition, which sparked a creative, emotional, and physically liberated transformation.
Balenciaga is founder of the Kiki House of Juicy Couture, leader of The House of Balenciaga, and 2022 Latex Ball Avis Penda’vis Angel Award winner.
Members of The Masterz at Work Dance Family span a multitude of backgrounds. These young, fierce performers are all individually highly technical dancers, and together they ignite the stage. Street dance, jazz, ballroom, vogue, and hip hop all come together to make unique artistic performances. Their performances advocate for gender equality while giving a voice to their community.
Jacob’s Pillow Connections
Ice Dance International made their Pillow debut in 2019 as part of the Inside/Out series, performing In Flight, choreographed by Douglas Webster. They also performed Cool and Easy (2019) and Luminous (2019).
Hans van Manen’s work was first performed at the Pillow in 1965, presented as part of the U.S. debut of Nederlands Dans Theater, a company that van Manen then co-directed. This was likely the first time that van Manen’s work had been seen in America.
PERFORMANCE & TICKET DETAILS
Dutch National Ballet
July 5-9, Wed., Thurs. and Sat. at 8pm; Fri.-Sun. at 2pm
Ted Shawn Theatre
Tickets from $60
Tickets are on sale now; online at jacobspillow.org and via phone at 413.243.0745
Ice Dance International
Wed., July 5, 6pm
Henry J. Leir Stage
Choose What You Pay
Tickets are on sale now; online at jacobspillow.org and via phone at 413.243.0745
Querencia Dance Company
Thurs., July 6, 6pm
Henry J. Leir Stage
Choose What You Pay
Tickets are on sale now; online at jacobspillow.org and via phone at 413.243.0745
waheedworks
Fri., July 7, 6pm
Henry J. Leir Stage
Choose What You Pay
Tickets are on sale now; online at jacobspillow.org and via phone at 413.243.0745
The MasterZ At Work Dance Family
Sat., July 8, 6pm
Henry J. Leir Stage
Choose What You Pay
Tickets are on sale now; online at jacobspillow.org and via phone at 413.243.0745
ALSO THIS WEEK
Legacies of the Black Berkshires: An Evening in Honor of David Levering Lewis
July 7, PillowTalk: 4:30-5:30pm; Dinner: 7:30pm
Join Great Barrington’s Du Bois Freedom Center and the Du Bois Forum for an evening in honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning Du Bois biographer and historian David Levering Lewis. Scholars, writers, musicians, and artists will reflect upon the impact of Dr. Lewis’ scholarship and public engagement. Later that evening, join James Beard Award-winning chef Bryant Terry, author of Black Food, for a Du Bois-inspired menu under the stars. This event also features a performance by Lecolion Washington and staff/faculty at Community Music Center of Boston, the largest outside provider of arts education to the Boston Public Schools. This PillowTalk is free, dinner reservations are required. Dinner pricing to
be announced.
PillowTalk: Dancers in Exile
Sat., July 8, 4pm
Blake’s Barn
FREE
Youth America Grand Prix extends vital lifelines to Ukrainian dancers, while the Bolshoi’s Olga Smirnova has left Russia in protest, with both responses to the war shared here.
Pillow Pride Party
Sat., July 8, 9:30pm
Our annual LGBTQIA+ celebration returns with a dance party and performances from the Dragon Sisters, following the evening performances of the Dutch National Ballet in the Ted Shawn Theatre. Attend our most popular dance party of the summer, as well as free events, surprise performances, and a special tour honoring Pillow founder Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers.
Workshop with Festival Artists: Dutch National Ballet
Sun., July 9, 10-11:30am
Intermediate/advanced dancers, ages 12+ Join Associate Artistic Director of Dutch National Ballet Rachel Beaujean for a Vaganova-based classical ballet class. Participants will be led through a ballet barre, followed by center and across the floor exercises. Form fitting clothing and ballet flats are encouraged.
In Studio Observation in The School
Perles Family Studio
Quiet observation of classes and rehearsals inside the Perles Family Studio will be open from 10:45am-12:15 p.m. and 2:30-4pm, Tuesday through Friday, June 20–Aug. 18, on a first come, first served basis. In the case of inclement weather, School observation hours will not be held.
FESTIVAL 2023 EXHIBITS & ARCHIVES—ONGOING
Welcoming the World
Blake’s Barn
Tuesday-Sunday, noon through final curtain
FREE
From the first international artists who performed here in the 1940s to today, Jacob’s Pillow has long
worked to connect audiences with all kinds of dance. As people now emerge from extended isolation,
the need for cultural exchange is keener than ever. Using historic photos and moving images that span
the globe and transcend time, this exhibition demonstrates the wide-ranging definition of dance that has always epitomized the Pillow’s worldview. Co-curated by Tanisha Jones, Hari Krishnan, and Norton Owen.
Envisioning a Theater
Ted Shawn Theatre Lobby
Open daily, noon through final curtain
FREE
An international team of architects and designers/consultants are now busily planning a new Doris Duke Theatre to re-imagine the beloved structure consumed by fire in 2020. On display here are color
renderings, a scale model, video simulations, and other resources to help audiences visualize this
exciting new building project and its design process. With a projected opening in 2025, the Doris Duke Theatre is envisioned as a versatile home for dance-making and performance in the 21
st century. Co-curated by Katy Dammers and Norton Owen.
Fantasy Meets Reality: The Far East Tour
Ted Shawn Theatre Lobby
Tuesday-Sunday, noon through final curtain
FREE
Denishawn’s Asian tour in 1925-26 proved pivotal in the artistic evolution of Ted Shawn and Ruth St.
Denis, as their famous oriental dance fantasies encountered authentic Asian dances and audiences.
Shawn and St. Denis spent months studying with local artists, buying up hordes of set and costume
pieces. Their return set off a renaissance of Western interest in authentic Asian dance, opening doors for Asian and Asian American artists. Today, costumes from the Far East Tour challenge us to grapple with how to share culture with integrity. Co-curated by Phil Chan and Caroline Hamilton.
Online Exhibit: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive
This evolving online resource features breathtaking video highlights of Pillow performances from the
early 1930s through today, with an expanded section of multimedia essays featuring talks, photos, and
other exclusive content organized into various themes. Danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org.
Jacob’s Pillow Archives/Norton Owen Reading Room
Blake’s Barn
Tuesday-Sunday, noon through final curtain
FREE
This spacious, informal library and reading room allows visitors to view videos, browse through books, access the Pillow’s computer catalog, or peruse permanent collections of Pillow programs and
photographs from the Archives. The Reading Room and new Special Collections Room also feature recent donations and more archival treasures from the Stephan Driscoll Collection.
ABOUT JACOB’S PILLOW:
Jacob’s Pillow acknowledges that it rests on the unceded lands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok, or Mohican people. Today, their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and we honor their elders past, present and future. We also recognize the Agawam, Nipmuc, and Pocumtuc who also made their homes in what is now known as Western Massachusetts. Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and home to America’s longest-running international dance festival, currently in its 91st season. Each Festival includes national and international dance companies and free and ticketed performances, talks, tours, classes, exhibits, events, and community programs. The School at Jacob’s Pillow, a prestigious professional dance training center, advances the careers of the upcoming generation of performers and choreographers; during the Festival, 100 international dancers evolve as artists in ballet, choreography, contemporary, musical theatre, tap, and other genres, and year round, artist faculty and accomplished alumni nurture younger dancers in a series of Jacob’s Pillow 360 workshops and intensives offered in partnership with leading dance institutions worldwide. The Pillow also provides professional advancement opportunities across disciplines of arts administration, design, video, and production through seasonal internships and a year-round Administrative Fellows program. Through its community engagement programs, the Pillow serves as a partner and active citizen in its local community. The Pillow’s extensive Archives, open year-round to the public and online at danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org, chronicle more than a century of dance in photographs, programs, books, costumes, audiotapes, and videos. Notable artists who have created or premiered dances at the Pillow include choreographers Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Kevin McKenzie, Twyla Tharp, Ralph Lemon, Susan Marshall, Trisha Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Wally Cardona, Andrea Miller, and Trey McIntyre; performed by artists such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Carmen de Lavallade, Mark Morris, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Edward Villella, Rasta Thomas, and hundreds of others. On March 2, 2011, President Barack Obama honored Jacob’s Pillow with a National Medal of Arts, the highest arts award given by the United States Government, making the Pillow the first dance presenting organization to receive this prestigious award. The Pillow’s Executive and Artistic Director since 2016 is Pamela Tatge. For more information, visit www.jacobspillow.org.
Jacob’s Pillow is grateful to its global community of supporters and Members for their ongoing support for our mission. Major institutional support for Jacob’s Pillow is provided by the Alphadyne Foundation, Arbella Insurance Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Arnhold Foundation, Barr Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Mill Town Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Jacob’s Pillow Business Partners (as of May 23, 2023).