Latine Dance Artists
In celebration of the many Latine artists who have been embraced by Jacob’s Pillow since the 1940s, this playlist encompasses those with roots in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Represented here are multiple genres, with complementary and entirely distinct playlists celebrating Hispanic Heritage and Flamenco.
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Ballet Hispánico
Otra Vez, Otra Vez, Otra Vez, 2026
A Chicago-based contemporary ballet choreographer with both Mexican and Native American roots, Stephanie Martinez’s inspiration for this work started with a Picasso painting.
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Kalindá
Zafra: A Tribute to Afro-Puerto Rican Heritage, 2026
Based in central Florida, Kalindá is led by a seventh-generation descendant of the Cepeda family, the legendary musical dynasty who performs and preserves bomba as Puerto Rico’s oldest musical and dance tradition.
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BOCA TUYA
Caress them in a way that hurts a little, 2025
Prolific Puerto Rican choreographer Omar Román de Jesús was selected to participate in the Pillow’s Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows Program in 2020, bringing his New York-based company back five years later.
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Orlando Hernández and the Knee-Heart Connection
Too Soon to Discover Planets, Too Late to Discover Islands, 2025
The son of a a Puerto Rican father from Moca and a Jewish mother from Rhode Island, Orlando Hernández was lauded in The New Yorker as “a onetime tap prodigy who’s grown into a history-mining experimentalist.”
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Calpulli Mexican Dance Company
Viñedos: A Story From Monarcas, 2025
This full-company work was inspired by the real-life families who immigrated to the U.S. as laborers from Mexico and became California wine makers.
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Sekou McMiller & Friends
Mambo Inn, 2024
Since 2022, the collective known as Sekou McMiller & Friends has fused Afro Latin dance and music with traditional West African, urban, classical, contemporary and abstract theater dance.
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Ballet Nepantla
"La Malagueña" from Valentina, 2022
Founded by Andrea Guajardo and Martín Rodríguez in 2017, Ballet Neplanta is a New York-based company that fuses contemporary dance with Mexican folklórico.
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Nélida Tirado
Dime Quién Soy, 2022
A New Yorker with roots in Puerto Rico, Nélida Tirado trained at Ballet Hispánico from the age of six, here presenting a work that was partly developed in a Pillow Lab residency.
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CONTRA-TIEMPO
joyUS justUS, 2021
Founded and directed by Cuban-American artist Ana Maria Alvarez, CONTRA-TIEMPO draws upon a diverse group of performers to create works that are physically intense and politically astute.
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ARIAS Company
a rather lovely thing, 2016
Bryan Arias, born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City, created and premiered the full-evening work seen here at Jacob’s Pillow. His aim was “to leave the viewer questioning their logic of identity, and thinking of the connections that define them.”
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Companhia Urbana de Dança
ID: Entidades, 2013
Founded by Sonia Destri Lie and Tiago Sousa in Rio de Janeiro as a community-based dance company, Companhia Urbana de Dança is seen here in its Pillow debut.
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Luna Negra Dance Theater
Bate, 2012
Brazilian dancemaker Fernando Melo’s Bate was inspired by the spirit of Brazilian soap operas and the masculine world of samba, where men express not only their love and devotion to women, but also their troubles and melancholy.
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DanzAbierta
MalSon, 2011
One of Havana’s most prominent companies, DanzAbierta is seen here in its Pillow debut, with elaborate projections bringing their home city to life on stage.
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Mimulus Dance Company
Do Lado Esquerdo de Quem Sobe, 2007
Based in the same Brazilian city that’s home to Grupo Corpo, Mimulus is directed by Jomar Mesquita, who directed a 2011 program for The School at Jacob’s Pillow devoted to samba.
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Tania Pérez-Salas Compañía de Danza
Waters of Forgetfulness, 2006
The entire stage of the Ted Shawn Theatre was submerged in water for the U.S. premiere of this work by a Mexico City-based company, aiming to reflect the symbolic role water plays as a vital, life-giving force.
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A Poc A Poc Danza
Voz Sumergida (Submerged Voice), 2005
Although this company was founded in Barcelona in 1994, choreographer Jaime Camarena moved the group to his native Mexico City five years later, and in 2005 brought them to the Pillow for their U.S. debut.
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Grupo Corpo
Parabelo, 1999
The opening work of this company’s Pillow debut engagement, Parabelo refers to a Brazilian modernist movement of the 1920s which adapted foreign culture to local modes.
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Manuel Alum
Made in Japan, 1981
Born in Puerto Rico, Manuel Alum created the work seen here as “a kinetic diary, made up of observations, reactions, imagery and impressions that Japan revealed to me.”
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Tanaquil LeClercq & Nicholas Magallanes
La Valse, 1951
Nicholas Magallanes was born in Mexico and, at the age of five, immigrated with his family to the U.S. where he made his professional debut at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and created roles in dozens of works for New York City Ballet.
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José Limón
Chaconne, 1948
Seen here just two years after his Pillow debut, iconic Mexican-American dancer-choreographer José Limón was indelibly shaped by his childhood in Mexico.