Jacob’s Pillow Presents Jacoby & Pronk And Dancers
BECKET, Mass. — In an exclusive engagement, independent contemporary ballet duo Jacoby & Pronk will perform at Jacob’s Pillow with four other international dance stars, from July 21-25 in the Doris Duke Theatre. Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk performed with leading contemporary ballet companies before eschewing the typical dancer’s career path to become freelance artists, touring as an independent duo and appearing as guest artists with companies such as the Dutch National Ballet and Morphoses.The duo will perform an excerpt of Christopher Wheeldon’s "Rhapsody Fantaisie," three world premieres by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Leo Mujic, and Lauri Stallings, and a pas de deux by Hans van Manen. Jacoby and Pronk are joined in this engagement by fellow international dance stars David Hallberg of American Ballet Theatre; former member of Nederlands Dans Theatre Shirley Esseboom; dancer/choreographer Leo Mujic (Béjart Ballet Lausannet, Ballett Frankfurt, Paris Opera Ballet); and Victor Mateos Arellano of Dresden SemperOper Ballett. Short films directed by noted photographer and filmmaker Alvin Booth, starring Jacoby and Pronk, serve as interludes between works.
A former dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2007, choreographer Lauri Stallings has been commissioned by American Ballet Theatre, the Juilliard School, and the Vail International Dance Festival, among others. For this engagement, Drew Jacoby and American Ballet Theatre star David Hallberg perform "Two," a world premiere duet created for them by Stallings, danced to “Falling Shadows (3)” by Max Richter.
Among the first works created for Jacoby & Pronk, "One," by Ochoa, builds tension throughout the work with increasingly quick, sharp movements inspired by William Forsythe. Ochoa recreated this work as a quartet and that quartet will premiere at the Pillow.
Originally created for a larger ensemble, "Rhapsody Fantaisie" will be presented as an excerpt performed by Jacoby and Pronk and set to “Tears” by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Van Manen’s "Déjà vu," set to “Fratres” by Arvo Pärt, will be performed by Victor Mateos Arellano and Shirley Esseboom. “Fratres,” originally composed for strings and winds, consists of a set of nine chord sequences, interspersed with a recurrent percussive theme. The chord sequences were generated using a simple mathematical formula and follow a clear pattern that ventures into rich harmonic space.
Ochoa’s second contribution to the program, "L’effleuré," is a solo set to Antonio Vivaldi’s “Stabat Mater”. L’effleuré (French for "the slightly touched one" or "the hyper sensitive one") premiered earlier this year on Rubinald Pronk and will be performed alternately by Pronk and Victor Mateos Arellano.
Mujic’s "Change Me" is a world premiere trio for Jacoby, Pronk, and the choreographer himself set to “Sonata for Violin and Piano” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Mujic has worked with Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Maurice Béjart, Nacho Duato, and Ohad Naharin. In their August 2009 cover story for Dance Magazine, Jacoby and Pronk praised Mujic, who choreographed a ”demanding and provocative” (Dallas Dance Examiner) duet for them earlier in 2009 called B Sonata, saying “he really pushed us beyond what we thought we could do.”
Jacoby and Pronk began to freelance together while both were dancing with Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson’s Complexions Contemporary Ballet. They made their debut as Jacoby & Pronk in 2008. They have premiered the work of choreographers such as Mia Michaels, Paul Lightfoot, Adam Hougland, and Peter Leung, and both dancers have been frequent guest artists with the Dutch National Ballet and performed several seasons with Morphoses. Jacoby and Pronk use their classical ballet technique to perform contemporary work with artistry, fluidity, grace, and extreme flexibility.
Jacoby received early training from the School of American Ballet in New York as well as the schools of Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. The Boise, Idaho native joined Alonzo King LINES Ballet at 17, where Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient Alonzo King created numerous original works on her. She made her first appearance at Jacob’s Pillow in 2002 with LINES, returning in 2005. After moving to New York to perform with Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Jacoby danced briefly with Complexions, where she met Pronk. She is the recipient of a 2005 Princess Grace Award and has performed works by George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, William Forsythe, Dwight Rhoden, Mia Michaels, and Lightfoot/Leon.
Pronk, originally of The Hague, Netherlands trained at the Royal Conservatory of Ballet, then joined the Dutch National Ballet as a soloist at 16, where he performed works by William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Martha Graham and Frederick Ashton. He came to the U.S. and joined Complexions in 2006, where he performed works by Dwight Rhoden and Ulysses Dove. When Jacoby joined Complexions in 2007, the two instantly recognized their artistic chemistry. Pronk is currently a guest performer with Polish National Ballet, Teatro Massimo, Dutch National Ballet and Norwegian National Ballet.
Jacoby & Pronk will be accompanied in this program by acclaimed dancers David Hallberg, Shirley Esseboom and Victor Mateos Arellano. Hallberg is a principal with American Ballet Theatre, where he has become a standout performer on the American dance scene. Esseboom danced with Nederlands Dans Theatre under the direction of Jiří Kylián, and Arellano has danced with Het Nationale Ballet and Dresden SemperOper Ballett.
While at Jacob’s Pillow, artistic personnel from Jacoby & Pronk will lead a Master Class on Sunday, July 25, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday Master Classes are open to intermediate/advanced dancers and advance registration is required; call 413-243-9919, ext. 5). Master Classes are $15 per class or $8 for dance instructors with proper identification. Observation is free and open to the public. In addition, Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk will be interviewed onstage by Scholar-in-Residence Philip Szporer following the performance on Friday, July 23.
