Beyond the Proscenium
While the playing spaces for these performances run the gamut from outdoor sites to in-the-round, they all defy the standard orientation between dancers and audiences. Because many of the works seen here brought together performers and the public in unusual ways, audience members are glimpsed in many of these clips.
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Brian Brooks
Viewpoint, 2021
During the same week when the Brian Brooks Moving Company was performing on the Pillow’s Henry J. Leir Stage, Brooks himself was showing some of the work he has been doing at the intersection of dance and technology. The tent where this presentation took place was a temporary structure set up on the Great Lawn.
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Dorrance Dance
Ways to Now, 2021
As part of an ambitious engagement called “Dorrance Plays the Pillow,” Dorrance Dance presented a site-specific work including this section with Josette Wiggan-Freund in and around a cabin built in the 1930s by Fred Hearn, one of Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers.
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Cirque Barcode and Acting for Climate Montréal
Branché, 2021
This Canadian ensemble sees performance as a way to call attention to climate change and other cultural issues, situating their Pillow presentations in wooded areas not usually experienced by the public.
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Emily Johnson / Catalyst
"land / celestial" from Portals Into, Being Future Being, 2021
Emily Johnson brought focus to lesser-known areas of the Pillow grounds in three separate site-specific performances, all components of her project entitled Being Future Being.
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Brother(hood) Dance!
Black on Earth, 2021
To commemorate the opening of Jacob’s Garden, Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine created an outdoor work that considered the importance of food and those who grow and prepare it.
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Freshwater Dancers
Eastern Blanket Dance / Canoe Dance, 2021
As part of the Eastern Woodland Dances program, this presentation of traditional Indigenous work was offered in the Perles Family Studio with fellow performers and audiences surrounding the action.
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Abby Z and the New Utility
abandoned playground, 2019
The close proximity between dancers and audiences in this work by Abby Zbikowski made her virtuosic movement all the more thrilling—especially for those seated in the first row.
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Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Happy Hour, 2018
Inhabiting a space that mimics an after-work office party, this atmospheric work, in fact, took place in the Pillow’s Ben and Estelle Sommers Studio.
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Paramodernities by Netta Yerushalmy
Revelations: The Afterlives of Slavery, A Response to Alvin Ailey’s "Revelations" (1960), 2018
In this section of Netta Yerushalmy’s multi-part work entitled Paramodernities, scholar Thomas DeFrantz delivers his own text while the dancers embody movements from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations.
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Faye Driscoll
Thank You For Coming: Attendance, 2017
While some can be wary of “audience participation,” Faye Driscoll conquered the fears of all who experienced Thank You For Coming: Attendance, as witnessed in the jubilant faces on display here.
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Eiko Otake
A Body at the Pillow, 2017
Best known as part of the groundbreaking Eiko & Koma team, Eiko Otake has been creating solo works since 2014. Here she presented the site-specific A Body at the Pillow to celebrate the 85th Anniversary Season.
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Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion
Dearest Home, 2017
In one of his most personal dances, Dearest Home, Kyle Abraham allows his audiences an up-close look at the dynamics at play in relationships of all kinds.
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Compagnia TPO
Bleu!, 2014
As evidenced by the photo that concludes this clip, this family-friendly presentation invited audiences to physically interact with the performers.
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Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company
Chapel/Chapter, 2008
The Doris Duke Theatre is almost unrecognizable in this setting which included a custom floor and voluminous red fabric that masked the natural wood walls in this space.
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Compagnie Felix Ruckert
Deluxe Joy Pilot, 2003
This path-breaking Berlin-based choreographer presented the U.S. premiere of his Deluxe Joy Pilot, allowing dancegoers to choose what level of participation they preferred.
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Wally Cardona Quartet
Morph: Live Remix, 2002
Whether you view it as audience members onstage or dancers in the audience—it all depends on how you perceive Morph: Live Remix and its especially intimate setting.
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Ann Carlson
Night Light, 2001
The audience was constantly on the move to experience unique tableaux vivants created for the site-specific Night Light, presented throughout the Pillow grounds.
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Beppie Blankert
Dubbelspoor/Double Track, 2000
The ingenious Dubbelspoor (Doubletrack) literally sandwiched its audiences between two stages and employed a large mirror to create the illusion of magical appearances.
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Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
Site Specific Improvisation, 1995
This unconventional Inside/Out presentation interspersed the performers among audience members, dancing on rocks, benches, and tree stumps.
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Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks, 1987
Yoshiko Chuma’s company was in the midst of a multi-week residency at the time of the 1987 Season Opening Gala, and this special presentation was part of the Gala festivities.
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Peter Maxwell & Vicki Regan
Miller Melange, 1982
For a special Gala appearance in 1982, competitive ballroom dancers presented this excerpt from a group work, with audience members seated at café tables in the Sandra & David Bakalar Studio.
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Manuel Alum
Made in Japan, 1981
A traditional Japanese platform known as a hanamichi transformed the Ted Shawn Theatre into a custom Kabuki-like environment for Manuel Alum’s Made in Japan.