Gotta Laugh!
Starting with comic icons such as Iva Kitchell in the 1940s and Lotte Goslar in the 1950s, Jacob’s Pillow has long carved out a place for humor in dance. The excerpts seen here span more than four decades and encompass a range of dance genres.
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Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Paquita, 2024
This virtuosic ballet showpiece demonstrates that it’s possible to interweave comedy and technical brilliance.
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Miguel Gutierrez
sueño, 2024
As a playful and deft sendup of Ted Shawn’s Kinetic Molpai, this portion of Miguel Gutierrez’s Pillow-commissioned work uses humor as a form of social commentary.
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MOMIX
If You Need Some Body (Remix), 2024
Moses Pendleton’s exuberant closing work manages to poke fun at any and every modern dance that utilizes upbeat classical music.
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Alex Tatarsky
Americana Psychobabble, 2022
Alex Tatarsky’s blend of dance, comedy, and performance art was described by The New York Times as “a slip-of-the-tongue descent into the American id.”
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Nicola Gunn
Piece For Person and Ghetto Blaster, 2018
This Australian soloist blends performance, visual art, and anthropology to explore the human condition with subversive humor, taking “audience interaction” to a new level.
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Faye Driscoll
Thank You For Coming: Play, 2018
This was the second part of a trilogy examining the relationship between artists and audiences, following the previous season’s Thank You For Coming: Attendance.
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The Wondertwins
Broadway to Hip-Hop, 2014
Humor is built into every presentation by identical twins Billy and Bobby McClain, who returned to the Pillow two years after this debut appearance with That’s Entertainment.
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LEO, 2013
A comic sensibility pervades this gravity-defying solo presentation by Tobias Wegner, employing a gimmick most famously used by Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding.
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Doug Elkins and Friends
Fräulein Maria, 2012
The movie version of The Sound of Music inspired this affectionate romp, featuring the choreographer himself as an improbably hip Mother Superior.
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Barak Marshall's MONGER
MONGER, 2010
When two men seem to create a female companion out of thin air, the interactions between all three of them are both ingenious and hilarious.
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Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Another Parade, 2010
In addition to enjoying this rollicking excerpt, you can watch part of a PillowTalk with Monica Bill Barnes entitled “What’s So Funny About Dance” in this online essay by Maura Keefe.
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Ballet Boyz
Yumba vs. Nonino, 2008
Former Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt use deadpan humor to brilliant effect in this duet, which The New York Times described as “a high-jinks tango choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, the feared judge of the BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing.’”
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Aurélia Thierrée
Aurélia’s Oratorio, 2007
How could there not be humor in a work devised by the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin? The sequence seen here was literally just the beginning of a magical evening-length experience.
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Martha @ The Pillow
Debate 2002 / Three Seascapes, 2002
While dance renegade Yvonne Rainer and Martha Graham were actually acquainted (and were famously photographed together with other iconic choreographers), this conversation features Richard Move channeling Graham alongside Rainer playing herself.
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The Seven Deadly Sins
Gluttony, 2001
Choreographer Lawrence Goldhuber donned a fat suit to play the central role in this section of a Pillow-produced anthology program, sharing the stage with dancers costumed as drumsticks, a hot dog, and Hershey’s kisses.
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Joe Goode Performance Group
Doris in a Dustbowl, 2001
Though he envisioned this work as a way to consider the AIDS epidemic in perspective, Joe Goode also demonstrated how to address a serious subject with humor.
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Inbal Pinto
Oyster, 2001
The surrealistic clowning in Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto’s work is a way of commenting on the absurdity of the world she grew up in, fashioned into a full-evening work that was seen here in its U.S. premiere.
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The Flying Karamazov Brothers
The Gypsy and His Son, 1985
Considered to be part of a contemporary genre known as “new vaudeville,” these performers rely on both visual and verbal comedy in creating their unique presentations.
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Leon Collins
Flight of the Bumblebee, 1983
Much of the fun here is in the choice of music (greeted with laughter as soon as the audience recognizes the well-worn tune) and how Leon Collins cleverly adapts it for his purposes.