Jacob's Pillow Culminates an International 2009 Season
BECKET, Mass. - In a globally challenging economic year, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, a National Historic Landmark and America’s longest-running dance festival, celebrates the completion of a successful season of artistic excellence and experimentation, internationalism, world class education programs, and an impressive number and quality of free performances, talks, and events.Executive Director Ella Baff continued her programming mission to bring never-before-seen artists and performances to the United States, encouraging audiences to expand their notion of dance and embrace adventurous new experiences. Fifty-two dance companies from France, Spain, Slovenia, Canada, Taiwan, and all corners of the United States took part in the 77th Festival season.
Fulfilling its mission to engage and deepen public appreciation and support for dance, the Pillow also presented more than 200 performances, events, exhibits, and talks which were free and open to the public. Patron attendance numbers rose for several Festival offerings including the Doris Duke Theatre performances; Inside/Out, the Pillow’s free outdoor performance series; pre-performance talks; PillowTalks, a free event series offered twice a week throughout the season; Sunday Master Classes; and the annual Community Day. Jacob’s Pillow hosted more than 81,000 visitor experiences in 2009, exceeding 2008 by nearly 2,000.
A diversity of dance styles were enjoyed by the public this season including a two-week sold-out engagement with tap star Jason Samuels Smith and his company, A.C.G.I.; Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in the world premiere of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Orbo Novo; Doug Elkins’ poignant and hilarious dance-theatre work, Fräulein Maria; ballet from Slovenia set to the music of Radiohead;and hip-hop master Rennie Harris. The Pillow’s free events were no less varied; highlights of the 2009 season included an exclusive exhibit featuring the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer; free performances by Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Avi Scher and Dancers, and Wire Monkey Dance; and a PillowTalk about the importance of the role of the arts in society with Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.
This expansive and inventive programming was noted by journalists around the world. Victor Swoboda of The Montreal Gazette noted, "Nowhere in North America is dance as a developing art form more revered and recognized than Jacob’s Pillow,” and VOGUE.com named the Pillow’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet engagement one of the summer’s top 10 cultural events. In July, Alastair Macaulay, chief dance critic for The New York Times, spent a week at the Pillow and commented, “The tradition of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is to be splendidly eclectic… any one day is likely to offer a different cross-section of dance.” Apollinaire Scherr of The Financial Times also visited in 2009, and remarked, “the festival has long had a deliberately eclectic bent, never limiting itself to a single lineage.”
Executive Director Ella Baff comments, “Our goal is to expand horizons and access to dance, and this season we did just that. We are overjoyed that attendance for many of our free performances, talks, and events grew, despite a very rainy and cool summer. This was a very difficult year for everyone, and we are not immune by any means – we experienced some decline in paid events and membership donations. We made a series of painful budget cuts, but very consciously strove to maintain the quality and quantity of our artistic and educational programming.”
This season marked the third annual presentation of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award which includes a $25,000 no-strings-attached cash gift presented to an outstanding artist or choreographer, made possible by a generous anonymous donor. In June, legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham was honored with the Award. The Pillow celebrated Cunningham’s 90th birthday July 22-26 with a week of performances, events, exhibits, and talks. The engagement, a retrospective of works that paid homage to Cunningham's vision and groundbreaking choreography, marked the company's final performances during Merce Cunningham's lifetime.
