Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Welcomes Parsons Dance

01:09PM / Saturday, August 03, 2024Print Story | Email Story

BECKET, Mass. — Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival welcomes the internationally-touring modern dance company Parsons Dance back to the Ted Shawn Theatre, 25 years after their last engagement with the festival in 1999.

Parsons Dance will perform pieces choreographed by founder David Parsons, Robert Battle and Jamar Roberts from Wednesday, Aug. 7, through Sunday, Aug. 11. Tickets start at $65.

Also during this week — the seventh of Jacob's Pillow's nine-week festival this summer — contemporary dance company Gibney Company will perform on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage from Wednesday, Aug. 7, through Sunday, Aug. 11. Tickets start at $40. All performances are now on sale.

On Saturday, Aug. 10, a PillowTalk will be held in Blake's Barn featuring Diana Byer, founder of New York Theatre Ballet, unveiling a new initiative documenting the teachings of Margaret Craske, a famed ballet teacher and core faculty member at Jacob's Pillow for more than 20 years.

An additional PillowTalk in Blake's Barn will follow on Sunday, Aug. 11, which will highlight the current Pillow photographic exhibition "John Lindquist: As of Today." This Sunday talk will include Lindquist's protégé, Stephan Driscoll, and exhibition curator Norton Owen, in addition to an excerpt from a documentary film on John Lindquist.

Also on Sunday, Jacob's Pillow will offer a modern dance workshop with Parsons Dance Company, which welcomes participants ages 16 and up and with all levels of dance experience.

"The return of Parsons Dance to the Pillow is a gift to all of us," said Pamela Tatge, executive and artistic director at Jacob's Pillow. "They have put together a program of greatest hits along with the Pillow debut of choreographer Jamar Roberts, who has created a stunning work for the company set to music by jazz great Miles Davis. On the Leir Stage, we will host the return of a re-imagined Gibney Dance Company, presenting masterworks by Twyla Tharp and Swedish choreographer Johan Inger's Bliss with music from 'The Köln Concert' by Keith Jarrett. I can't wait to see this joy-filled piece presented against the iconic backdrop of the Berkshire hills."

This seventh week of the Festival also includes the final two events in this summer's free Jacob's Pillow On the Road series: a performance on Railroad Street in Great Barrington on Friday, Aug. 9, at 7 p.m. (as part of Berkshire Busk!), and a lecture/demonstration at the Becket Arts Center on Saturday, Aug. 10. Both events will feature the Boston-based salsa troupe Querencia Dance Company.

Jacob's Pillow On the Road was created in 2021 as a series of free pop-up performances across Berkshire County, featuring touring and Berkshire-region dance artists. Lead support for Jacob's Pillow On the Road is provided by Mill Town Foundation.

Tags: dance, jacobs pillow,

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Friperie Berkshires Moves to New Great Barrington Location

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:27PM / Tuesday, February 10, 2026

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Friperie Berkshires has moved to new quarters on Bridge Street and will reopen this Friday, Feb. 13.

Owner Elizabeth Conkey has relocated her store from Lee above the Berkshire Co-op at 34 Bridge St., in Suite 101.

The space is twice the size of her former spot in Lee, which is better for her, she said, because she needed it to add more services for her customers.

"I've been looking for a permanent space to land, and this space is perfect, because it's twice the size of where I was and I needed more room because I'm going to start doing men's and children's clothing as well," she said.

Besides adding more clothing, she will also be implementing a wardrobe service for her customers.

"In addition to just constantly stocking the store and finding treasures, I started offering a capsule wardrobe service," Conkey said. "So it has three tiers, and basically, people can hire me depending on what tier of offering they're interested in, and I will go and thrift specifically for them based on a mood board that they send me from Pinterest, or just a file folder of photos that they like."

Conkey kept the Lee storefront through the summer and had been renting a space in Great Barrington from a friend. She finally found her new space around New Year's, and will be launching a website.

She is excited to open just a short distance from where she was.

"I've really grown pretty exponentially in the past six months. I'm launching a website. I'm so thrilled with the growth. So it just seems like appropriate to finally move into the forever space, and have room to spread out and offer more categories of clothing," she said.

She also wanted to express her gratitude for her customers and friends' support to keep her dream alive.

"I am just so grateful to the people who have continued to shop in my store from the day it opened. Through the holidays, I had an incredible holiday season, and I just felt so grateful to everybody for telling their friends at my store, sharing about what they bought on Instagram, encouraging co-workers to come in," Conkey said. "It's been such a gift to feel welcomed by the community, and I feel like now my customers are becoming my friends, and I'm just excited to start this new chapter and never have to move all of this inventory ever again."

She will be open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. She encourages people to check her Instagram for updates on clothes and her store.

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