Jacob’s Pillow Free Live Stream Series

BECKET, Mass. — Jacob's Pillow is pleased to announce the launch of a new free livestream series, Jacob's Pillow Live, which will feature nine select performances from this summer's 92nd annual international Dance Festival.

Jacob's Pillow Live will provide audiences the opportunity to tune in from anywhere in the world to enjoy live performances on the scenic outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage and in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre.

According to a press release:

Live performances will occur each week of the festival between June 22 and Aug. 24—from the celebrated repertoire of The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom to the unique thrill of Princess Lockerooo & The Fabulous Waack Dancers—with advance online registration available. Out of the nine livestream events, five will include access to a free "Encore" stream released the following week, allowing an additional 24 hours to watch the performance on-demand.

This new series provides livestream access to arts lovers and families who are not able to travel to experience these events in person, while affording local and regional audiences more opportunities to blend at-home viewing with in-person visits to the festival this summer. Registration for these free livestreams is now open to everyone at http://jacobspillow.org/live.

"Our dance and live music events really shine because they are brimming with creative talent from around the world," said Jacob's Pillow Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge. "We want to honor the fact that our visiting audience is global as well, and always has been. We are delighted to bring lovers of dance this expanded, and more flexible, series of chances to experience live performances at our festival this summer for free, no matter where they are watching from."

Livestreams will include access to Jacob's Pillow's Gala performance, as well as other  performances from inside the historic Ted Shawn Theatre—which opened in 1942 as the first performance space in America designed exclusively for dance—and from the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage.

The livestream on July 6 will bring viewers a performance by The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom, from the Ted Shawn Theatre, on the company's sole engagement in the United States this year—and their first touring performance in the country since 2015. In addition to classical and contemporary ballet, the series will feature performances that range in styles from Afro Latin and jazz to tap, flamenco, tango, contemporary, musical theater, hip-hop, house, vogue, waacking, and Indigenous masked dance. All livestreams in this series are family-friendly, and all include English-language captioning, available in browser while viewing.

Jacob's Pillow Live comprises the following livestreams for summer 2024, in chronological order. Select livestreams also include an Encore stream, to be made available after the performance.

• Saturday, June 22 at 6:15PM EST — Performances from the Season Opening Gala

  • From the historic Ted Shawn Theatre

  • This event will include performances by members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, pianist Craig Baldwin and dancers from the New York City Ballet, Sekou McMiller and Friends, Caleb Teicher and Conrad Tao, Soles of Duende, and a world premiere by The School at Jacob's Pillow Contemporary Ballet Program. Details at jacobspillow.org/gala.

• Saturday, June 29 at 6PM EST — The School at Jacob's Pillow Contemporary Ballet Program

  • From the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage

• Saturday, July 6 at 8PM EST — The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom

  • From the historic Ted Shawn Theatre

  • Includes an Encore stream, available from 12pm on Wednesday, July 10 to 12pm on Thursday, July 11.

• Saturday, July 13 at 6PM EST — The MasterZ at Work Dance Family

  • From the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage

  • Includes an Encore stream, available from 12pm on Wednesday, July 17 to 12pm on Thursday, July 18.

• Thursday, July 18 at 8PM EST — Social Tango Project

  • From the historic Ted Shawn Theatre

  • Includes an Encore stream, available from 12pm on Wednesday, July 24 to 12pm on Thursday, July 25.

• Saturday, July 20 at 6PM EST — The School at Jacob's Pillow Contemporary Program

  • From the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage

• Saturday, July 27 at 6PM EST — Dancers of Damelahamid

  • From the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage

  • Includes an Encore stream, available from 12pm on Wednesday, July 31 to 12pm on Thursday, August 1.

• Saturday, August 17 at 6PM EST — The School at Jacob's Pillow Musical Theatre Program

  • From the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage

• Saturday, August 24 at 6PM EST — Princess Lockerooo & The Fabulous Waack Dancers

  • From the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage

  • Includes an Encore stream, available from 12pm on Wednesday, August 28 to 12pm on August 29.

Jacob's Pillow has been experimenting with access to online performances and livestreams for several years, explained Tatge. Building on more than a decade of online access through Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive, the Pillow took its first real steps in 2020, when health and safety concerns required pivoting to an all-digital summer festival. This work continued in 2021, when Jacob's Pillow aired an online series of streaming performances from the outdoor Leir Stage roughly two weeks after filming. In 2022 and 2023, Jacob's Pillow produced a series of performance streams that aired during the fall, winter, and spring. "As we look toward the opening of our reimagined Doris Duke Theatre in 2025," Tatge said, "we are excited to build and deepen our world of digital productions, livestreams, and interactive online events. We want to make these available to any arts lover, anywhere, who wants to see what the future of dance can look like."

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.