Jacob's Pillow Announces 2005 Festival

12:00AM / Wednesday, May 04, 2005Print Story | Email Story

A performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company is among highlights of the Jacob's Pillow season

Live Music, Pillow Exclusives, Return Of Hit Companies Becket, MA - Following its record-breaking 2004 season, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival presents a highly anticipated 2005 season, featuring live music, world premieres, the return of a number of its most popular companies, and companies that are completely new to the public, June 18-August 28. Executive Director Ella Baff draws together dancers from all over the globe, along with some of America's most beloved artists, including two of last season's hits: Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de MontrÃ©al and New Zealand's all-male troupe, Black Grace. Season highlights include live music in several performances: a live jazz and R&B band with tap legend Savion Glover; five-time Grammy nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon with Ronald K. Brown/Evidence; composer Evren Celimli with Ben Munisteri Dance Projects; and Tanglewood musicians with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Three groups bring world premieres: Susan Marshall & Company and Ben Munisteri Dance Projects unveil works commissioned or co-commissioned by the Pillow; and Ronald K. Brown/Evidence brings a new work inspired by Billie Holliday. The Festival 2005 performances are heightened by myriad opportunities for learning about dance-from the Inside/Out performance series to Exhibits, PillowTalks, Pre- and Post-Show Talks-all free, open to the public, and presented in the natural splendor of Jacob's Pillow, the only dance institution recognized as a National Historic Landmark. In the Ted Shawn Theatre, the Pillow presents: tap legend Savion Glover and an ensemble of tap greats past and future brought together for one of several Pillow exclusives; the Martha Graham Dance Company in a program of masterworks and rarely-seen gems; Ronald K. Brown/Evidence premieres a new work with live music and video; Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, with their trademark sinuousness; the vibrant Garth Fagan Dance; Mark Morris Dance Group, back for its 18th year at the Pillow; the spectacular soloists and principals from Royal Swedish Ballet who comprise Stockholm/59Â° North; Aspen Santa Fe Ballet performing works by some of today's most exciting contemporary choreographers; the popular Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de MontrÃ©al; and the New Zealand company that dazzled audiences with their U.S. debut at the Pillow last year, Black Grace. The season in the Doris Duke Studio Theatre showcases fresh groups from all over the world, including Australia's Chunky Move in a witty and unpredictable dance theatre production set on a revolving stage; Rennie Harris Puremovement, a progenitor of the groundbreaking art form of hip-hop; Ben Munisteri Dance Projects, from New York's downtown arts scene; Mexico's A Poc A Poc making their U.S. debut; ASzURe & Artists, led by one of today's hottest young choreographers; the award-winning Susan Marshall & Company; the newly-created Trey McIntyre Project; the critically-acclaimed new company johannes wieland; and Project Fukurow, an innovative contemporary force from Tokyo. Season Opening Gala-June 18 The season begins on Saturday, June 18 with a Gala performance in the Ted Shawn Theatre featuring Savion Glover, Ben Munisteri Dance Projects, and a world premiere set on dancers in the Ballet Program of The School at Jacob's Pillow by genre-breaking choreographer Margo Sappington (Oh, Calcutta!, Pal Joey). The festivities begin at 5pm with a cocktail reception and preview of a new exhibit by photographer Rose Eichenbaum, Masters of Movement: Portraits of America's Great Choreographers. The Gala continues with dinner under the tent on the Great Lawn, and concludes with a dance and dessert party after the performance, featuring live music by New York's Funkestra. Week of June 21-26 For a once-in-a-lifetime, Pillow-exclusive program in the Ted Shawn Theatre June 21-26, Savion Glover assembles tap masters who have influenced his artistic development, legends Jimmy Slyde and Dianne Walker, along with his company of protÃ©gÃ©s. Walker and Slyde represent a generation of master tappers who preceded Glover in the pantheon of their art form. With a career stretching from his debut at age 12 in The Tap Dance Kid on Broadway to Sesame Street to The White House, Glover brings a program bound to appeal to dance lovers of all ages. The evening features a world-class jazz, funk, and R&B band. Week of June 29-July 3 In the Ted Shawn Theatre June 29-July 3, the twenty-five members of the Martha Graham Dance Company interpret six decades of masterworks from this giant of modern dance, and as an unusual way of pointing out themes that may have influenced her development, bring a selection of rare early works by Graham, and by Ruth St. Denis and Pillow founder Ted Shawn, with whom Graham began her performing career as a member of Denishawn. Included in this illuminating, Pillow-exclusive event are Gnossiene (A Priest of Gnossos), a male solo piece from 1919 to a score by French musical pioneer Erik Satie, and Ruth St. Denis' spiritual signature work Incense. A broad selection of works by the company's legendary founder round out the program, including her sublime piece from 1981, Acts of Light; the piercing Errand into the Maze from 1947; El Penitente, from 1940; and the first opportunity in more than 75 years to see live Graham's newly-reconstructed 1926 work, Flute of Krishna. Graham company Artistic Directors Terese Capucilli, an alumna of The School at Jacob's Pillow, and Christine Dakin-two of Graham's most luminous principal dancers-honor the group's celebrated past and affirm that its future will be as solid as its history. From Melbourne, Australia, Chunky Move brings their iconoclastic production Tense Dave to the Doris Duke Studio Theatre June 30-July 3. Called "a gale-force wind ripping through contemporary Australian dance" by The Australian, Chunky Move pairs passionate dance theatre with innovative staging to animate the inner life of protagonist Dave (who is tense), with startling and darkly humorous results. Set on a continually rotating stage, which adds a new layer to the piece with each pass, Tense Dave is unlike anything in either dance or theatre today. Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek founded the group in 1995, and since then has intrigued audiences around the world. Week of July 6-10 The fullness of Billie Holliday's spirit finds a conduit in performances by Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, joined by jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, in the Ted Shawn Theatre July 6-10. In this world premiere of Blueprint of a Lady, Brown sets his contemporary choreography to songs by Holliday, Freelon's original sung and spoken compositions, and video images by Robert Penn. With seven performing members, including Brown himself, Evidence has carved out a reputation for lush, physical, transcendent movement that shows the influence of both his African and American dance heritage. Having received commissions from Jacob's Pillow as well as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Philandanco, Brown, who last performed at the Pillow in 2002, once again shows how he has come to the forefront of choreographic innovation. The electrifying Rennie Harris Puremovement takes over the Doris Duke Studio Theatre July 7-10. Harris gained renown for taking the idiom of hip-hop to new expressive heights with Rome and Jewels, a groundbreaking work based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, seen at the Pillow in 2000. This program features highlights from many of Harris' works, and brings together a cast of popping, locking legends. Harris is also Director of The School at Jacob's Pillow's 2005 program, Cultural Traditions: In the Presence of Hip-Hop, June 27-July 10. Week of July 13-17 Called an ambassador of "the most sophisticated modernism in classical dance" by The Los Angeles Times, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet comes to the Ted Shawn Theatre July 13-17. Recognized for his eclectic choices in music and costuming, San Francisco's King unleashes nine gifted and dynamic movers in any dance genre on two pieces: Who Dressed You Like a Foreigner?, a signature work, including a percussive score from classical Indian composer Zakir Hussain; and Before the Blues, featuring songs selected, played, or composed by the inimitable Pharaoh Sanders, alongside video projections by Axel Morgenthaler. Ben Munisteri Dance Projects brings his style of contemporary modern dance to the Doris Duke Studio Theatre July 14-17. The New York Times wrote, "Ben Munisteri certainly must have fun putting dance steps together," and these performances are sure to confirm the buzz that has been gathering around this New York choreographer, who last presented his work at the Pillow on the Inside/Out stage in 2002. The Pillow co-commissions and presents the world premiere of Thunderblood, set to music by composer Evren Celimli, who will perform live. Celimli, from Lowell, Massachusetts, is internationally recognized for his scores to commercials, avant-garde theatrical pieces, and works by choreographers, including SeÃ¡n Curran. Other works on the program include Not Human, an intriguing mix of dance and musical collage. Week of July 20-24 Trailblazers of inventive dynamics, the members of Garth Fagan Dance come to the Ted Shawn Theatre July 20-24. Jamaican-born Fagan, best known as the choreographer of The Lion King, founded his company in Rochester, New York in 1970 and first brought his dancers to the Pillow in 1974. The company has since performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and PBS' Great Performances, and received worldwide commendations for dances-and dancers-that move like nothing else on the stage today. On the program is "_ _ _ _ ing," a captivating exploration of Johannes Brahms' "Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B minor," utilizing modern movements and unexpected rhythms in illuminating contrast to the composer's spare romanticism; and DANCECOLLAGEFORROMIE, Fagan's homage to the life and work of his close friend, visual artist Romare Bearden. $10 Youth Tickets are available for the Saturday matinÃ©e. In the Doris Duke Studio Theatre from July 21-24, A Poc A Poc, a finely-tuned, stylish troupe founded in Barcelona in 2003 and based in Mexico City, makes their U.S. debut at the Pillow. The company, whose name means "little by little" in Catalan, has already wowed audiences throughout Germany, Cuba, France and South America with its four classically-trained dancers in non-classical, highly sensual works. Artistic Director Jaime Camarena, an alumnus of Spain's renowned Insitut del Teatre de Barcelona, has won awards in European choreography competitions for combining unusual scenography with intelligent manipulations of the human body. The program includes CÃ³pula Negra, a stunning piece performed with the aid of nets strung above the stage. Week of July 26-31 July 26-31, the Mark Morris Dance Group returns to the Ted Shawn Theatre with the Pillow premiere of Rock of Ages, set to a live performance of Franz Schubert's quietly strong Piano Trio in E-flat. The piece captures the serenity of the music as Morris' dancers move through his characteristically inimitable formations. Since his first performance at the Pillow in 1982, Morris has become one of today's most renowned choreographers, continuing to create supremely musical pieces that display his inventive intellect and a classically modern world-view. Companies all around the globe perform his work and he has received commissions from San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Called "a fresh, arresting, and fascinating choreographer" by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Aszure Barton brings her New York-based company ASzURe & Artists to the Doris Duke Studio Theatre July 28-31. Canadian-born Barton founded ASzURe & Artists in 2002 and was the 2003 winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's prestigious National Choreographic Competition. Following a well-received performance on the Pillow's Inside/Out stage in the summer of 2004, the company returns with the celebrated Mais We, featuring buoyant music by Paul Simon. ASzURe & Artists comes to the Pillow fresh off their June residency at the new Baryshnikov Art Center in New York City, in collaboration with The Juilliard School. Community Day, Saturday, July 30 On Saturday, July 30, 10am-1pm, Jacob's Pillow holds its annual free Community Day. This year the event centers around dance by and for the kid in all of us, comprising free dance performances on two outdoor stages, as well as fun activities, giveaways, and participatory dance opportunities for everyone. Performers include the Treehouse Shakers, a lively group of actors, dancers, and musicians; and the students of Belvoir Terrace, a performing and visual arts camp in the Berkshires. $10 Youth Tickets are available for ASzURe & Artists' performance at 2:15pm. Week of August 3-7 Since 1987, when Stockholm/59Â° North was given its company debut at Jacob's Pillow, the group has been one of the Pillow's most memorable presentations, and they return to the Ted Shawn Theatre August 3-7 to present works by several of Europe's most forward-thinking dancemakers. The ensemble is composed of twenty dynamic principals and soloists from The Royal Swedish Ballet-now in its 225th year-and as an extension of that company, focus particularly on the latest by contemporary Scandinavian choreographers. The program features Pas de danse by Swedish choreographic superstar Mats Ek; In My Dream Team, by Finnish up-and-comer Jorma Elo; David Dawson's intimate Morning Ground, made for the Dutch National Ballet; and Come Out, by a leading Swedish dancemaker, Orjan Andersson. Also presented is Kenneth KvarnstrÃ¶m's flamenco send-up, Carmen!?, about which Dance Magazine raved, "Absolutely one of the most energetic and hilarious pieces choreographed for men." Lauded as "one of the most significant choreographers working today" by The New York Times, Susan Marshall & Company, founded in 1982 in New York City, offers a world premiere commissioned by the Pillow and their signature aerial duet, Kiss, August 4-7 in the Doris Duke Studio Theatre. The Oakland Tribune wrote of Kiss, set to music by composer Arvo PÃ¤rt, "The miracle of the piece is that it captures in concrete dance terms that almost palpable feeling of swimming in love, of being suspended in eternity." The program also features Arms, a classic tour de force set to music by Luis Resto. By breaking apart genres to invent her own dramatic, athletic explorations of human existence, Susan Marshall has gained widespread renown for her work, performing in festivals and theatres around the United States and Europe, receiving the 1988 American Choreographer Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 2000, a MacArthur "Genius" Grant. Susan Marshall is Co-Director of The School at Jacob's Pillow's 2005 Choreographers' Lab and is herself an alumna of the Pillow's School. Week of August 10-14 The twelve gifted dancers of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet return to the Ted Shawn Theatre from August 10-14 with a program showcasing three dynamic American and European choreographers. Founded nine years ago, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet enjoyed glowing reviews of its 2003 Pillow appearances which noted a breadth of balletic invention too rarely found in American troupes. This summer, the company presents Twyla Tharp's fusion of classical ballet vocabulary with ballroom dance in Sinatra Suite, originally choreographed for American Ballet Theatre superstars Mikhail Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo. The work is set to favorites by Frank Sinatra, including "Strangers in the Night," "That's Life," and "My Way." Also from Tharp comes a rousing ensemble work, Sweet Fields, set to 19th century New England Shaker hymns and choral works by the self-taught colonial-era genius William Billings. The program is rounded out with Thierry Malandain's 2001 version of Afternoon of a Faun, to Debussy's classic score; and Left Unsaid, by the breathtaking contemporary dance presence Nicolo Fonte. The Boston Herald's Theodore Bale proclaimed, "If there is a classically trained company of the future, it's Aspen Santa Fe Ballet." In a program of works by one of America's sizzling young choreographers, the Trey McIntyre Project comes to the Doris Duke Studio Theatre August 11-14. Kansas-born McIntyre danced with the Houston Ballet for six years while simultaneously garnering press as a choreographer whose works could advance contemporary dance while still appealing to a broad audience. In 1994, when just 24 years old, McIntyre received wide praise for his work Steel and Rain, a commission from the New York City Ballet's coveted Diamond Project. In 2004, McIntyre gained acclaim for Pretty Good Year, choreographed on American Ballet Theatre and set to music by DvorÃ¡k. This summer's performances are among the first for his new company composed of dancers featured in contemporary ballet troupes nationwide, including Alonzo King's LINES Ballet. McIntyre comes to the Pillow with a program of witty and expansive works, including High Lonesome, set to the quirky, hazy songs of Beck. $10 Youth Tickets are available for the Saturday matinÃ©e. Week of August 17-21 The fabulous dancers of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de MontrÃ©al return to the Ted Shawn Theatre for a second consecutive Pillow season, August 17-21. Les Grands Ballets made its U.S. debut at the Pillow in 1959, only two years after its founding. Since the arrival in 2000 of Artistic Director Gradimir Pankov, formerly head of the prodigious Nederlands Dans Theater II and the National Ballet of Finland, the company has acquired a distinctly European flavor in its programming. Now with a team of dancers who can interpret the purely classical and the startlingly unusual with equally crisp exuberance, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens is at the forefront of North American ballet companies. The program includes Les Noces (The Wedding), created in 2002 by Belgian choreographer and set designer Stijn Celis, to the landmark 1923 score by Igor Stravinsky. An example of the best of Les Grands Ballets, Les Noces is packed with sweeping group work and sumptuous costuming. From August 18-21, johannes wieland performs in the Doris Duke Studio Theatre. After a career dancing for leading contemporary companies in Switzerland and Germany, Wieland moved to New York and launched his company in 2002. Just one year later, The Village Voice's Tobi Tobias wrote, "Johannes Wieland has developed a singular, striking body of work. Concise and abstractâ€¦their movement is tightly controlled." The program includes Tomorrow, in which three dancers begin the piece with their heads in fish tanks and plumb the depths of their existential discontent. Also on the program: the sensitive, award-winning Shift; Trio, a dark comedy set to Gershwin; and the spell-binding Retina. Wieland is also the Associate Artistic Director of Paradigm, which enjoyed a successful engagement at the Pillow featuring Wieland's choreography in 2004. Week of August 24-28 August 24-28, Black Grace returns after last season's triumphant U.S. debut at the Pillow in performances so popular that audiences demanded an additional show. Heartening, defiant, hilarious, courageous-often all at once-New Zealand's Black Grace is a company with no real parallel in the dance world: an often all-male, always highly physical contemporary group brimming over with the joyousness of its cultural heritage. The New York Times' Jennifer Dunning singled out the company's appearance last summer at the Pillow as one of the highlights of the 2004 New York dance season, referring to them as "startlingly fresh and full of invention, humor, and infectious exuberance," and "one of the most quietly exotic troupes ever to appear at Jacob's Pillow." For 2005, Artistic Director Neil Ieremia offers fresh pieces not yet seen in the U.S. as well as some highlights from last year's program. That the first all-male dance company, Ted Shawn's Men Dancers, was founded at the Pillow in 1933 augments the significance of Black Grace's overwhelming embrace by audiences more than seventy years later. $10 Youth Tickets are available for the Saturday matinÃ©e. From August 25-28, the Doris Duke Studio Theatre draws to a characteristically adventurous close, with genre-defying performances by Tokyo's young troupe, Project Fukurow. In their evening-length work Ozma, the company's four dynamic dancers, including founder Fukurow Ishikawa, are backed up not only by a cast of highly-trained dancers, but by robots. Following the company's performance, as part of showcase at the Japan Society in 2004 in New York, Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote, "the relationship between the hollow man and the mechanical puppet under the table offered a haunting study in alienation." Imaginative set designs and an evocative electronic score complement the powerful dancing to make for a consummately theatrical experience. Festival Finale, Saturday, August 27 Join the members of Black Grace and Project Fukurow in an after-show dance party to benefit the Pillow and celebrate the closing night of the 2005 Festival Season. For more information on special ticket pricing, which includes priority seating, please call the Pillow Box Office at 413.243.0745. Ticketing Information: Subscriptions (any five shows or more) are on sale now through May 31. Single tickets for individual performances go on sale April 25. Specially priced $10 Youth Tickets for Garth Fagan, ASzURe and Artists, Trey McIntyre Project, and Black Grace are available for Saturday matinÃ©e performances for youth age 13 and under when accompanied by an adult. For information about group discounts, call 413.243.9919 x37. The Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Box Office is currently open Monday-Friday 12:00pm - 5:00pm, with additional hours during the Festival. Box Office: 413.243.0745. Online ticketing is available at www.jacobspillow.org .

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Berkshire County Arc Golf Event Raises $45K

04:18PM / Monday, July 15, 2024

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire County Arc raised $45,000 at its 29th annual Golf Classic held this summer at Berkshire Hills Country Club.

The funds raised from the event go directly to individuals with disabilities for activities such as art classes, medical equipment, wheelchair swings, concerts, assistive technology, and dream trips to places like Disney, Celtics games, and deep-sea fishing.

The money also goes to scholarships to area high school students planning to pursue human service careers.

The lead supporters of the event this year were Berkshire Bank, Health New England, Greylock Federal Credit Union, The Notch Insurance Group, Synagex Modern IT, and Advance Manufacturing.

BCArc serves around 1,000 individuals with disabilities through a range of programs that include residential services, employment support, day programs, and support for families at their homes.

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