Made in Becket
Dance artists have been creating works at the Pillow ever since Ted Shawn first converted a barn into a studio in the 1930s. Now under the umbrella of The Pillow Lab, artists are offered two of the dance world’s most precious resources: time and space.
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Andrew Schneider
Here, 2025
The world premiere seen here was remade in the three weeks before its first performance due to extraordinary circumstances caused by new U.S. immigration regulations, preventing Schneider’s two co-creators from entering the country.
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Ryan K. Johnson & The School at Jacob's Pillow Contemporary Performance Ensemble
RawSoundz, 2025
An “occasion piece” created especially for the opening of the Doris Duke Theatre, this joyous dance was presented for one spectacular performance only.
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Camille A. Brown & Dancers
Throwback #2 (from I AM), 2025
After its world premiere at the Pillow in 2024, this section of I AM returned to the Ted Shawn Theatre stage as part of the 2025 Season Opening Gala.
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Miguel Gutierrez
sueño, 2024
sueño was developed during a Pillow Lab residency which included time in the Pillow Archives viewing and reflecting on icons of early 20th century modern dance, especially Ted Shawn, Harald Kreutzberg, and Isadora Duncan.
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Liz Lerman
Wicked Bodies, 2022
In development for nearly a decade, Wicked Bodies has been described by Liz Lerman as “a history of sly, grotesque, sensual, wildly creative women that every culture carries in clichés, stereotypes, and fictions because they are actually very real and very present.”
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Taylor Stanley
These Five, 2022
Jodi Melnick‘s world premiere was one of two group works on a program developed especially for the Pillow by New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Taylor Stanley.
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Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE
The Equality of Night and Day, 2022
This world premiere with music by Jason Moran was supported by a Pillow Lab residency, as was Brown’s 2018 work, New Conversations.
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Irene Rodríguez
My Roots, 2022
Rodríguez created this work at the Pillow just as she was emigrating to the U.S. from her native Havana, inspired by a time of mixed emotions.
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Sara Mearns and Honji Wang
No. 1, 2019
No. 1 grew out of a Pillow Lab residency allowing New York City Ballet’s Sara Mearns to experiment with Company Wang Ramirez, and it was first presented as part of the Pillow’s 2017 Gala.
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Reggie Wilson / Fist and Heel Performance Group
POWER, 2019
POWER was inspired by Reggie Wilson’s research into the history of Black Shakers and it grew out of residencies at Jacob’s Pillow and at nearby Hancock Shaker Village.
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Adam H. Weinert
Dance of the Ages, 2018
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Ted Shawn’s Dance of the Ages, Adam Weinert restaged this full-evening work in the same Pillow studio where it was created and first presented.
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Pilobolus
Branches, 2017
The artists of Pilobolus set out to create a work that would evoke the natural setting of the Pillow, making Branches especially for the iconic outdoor stage at Jacob’s Pillow.
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Dance Heginbotham
The Principles of Uncertainty, 2017
Taking its title from a book by artist-illustrator Maira Kalman, this is a Pillow-commissioned collaboration between John Heginbotham and Kalman, who is both seen and heard in this excerpt.
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MADBOOTS DANCE
BEAU., 2015
This extended duet features MADBOOTS co-founders Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz in a much more complex view of masculinity than was possible in Ted Shawn’s era.
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zoe | juniper
A Crack in Everything, 2011
Led by the husband-and-wife team of choreographer Zoe Scofield and visual artist Juniper Shuey, this collaborative work grew out of a 2010 Creative Development Residency and is seen here in its world premiere.
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Jane Comfort and Company
Underground River, 2011
The Bessie Award-winning Underground River was commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow and partly created onsite, with composer Toshi Reagon and puppeteer Basil Twist.
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Susan Marshall & Company
Kiss, 2005
Created nearly two decades before the performance seen here, this signature duet by Susan Marshall was developed in residence at Jacob’s Pillow, and has since been staged on companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Pacific Northwest Ballet.
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Wally Cardona Quartet
Morph: Live Remix, 2002
Morph: Live Remix was commissioned by the Pillow, where audiences in the original Doris Duke Theatre were encouraged to view it from multiple vantage points and invited to “walk, sit, or stand anywhere in the space.”
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Urban Bush Women
HairStories, 2001
Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar collaborated with the dancers, poet and recording artist Carl Hancock Rux, and filmmaker Carmella Vassor on HairStories, and the work is examined in depth in this online essay.
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Ann Carlson
Night Light, 2001
Ann Carlson’s Night Light is remembered today as one of the most ambitious and unusual undertakings ever attempted at Jacob’s Pillow, comprising a series of tableaux vivantes around the Pillow grounds.
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Dianne McIntyre & Lester Bowie
Invincible Flower, 1998
This work-in-process by choreographer Dianne McIntyre and composer Lester Bowie was partly developed during a residency at Jacob’s Pillow, later receiving its official world premiere at Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center in the spring of 1999.
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Zaccho Dance Theatre
Invisible Wings, 1998
This powerful site-specific work was created by choreographer Joanna Haigood during multiple Pillow residencies, inspired by the Pillow site’s history as a stop on the Underground Railroad
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Mark Morris Dance Group
Falling Down Stairs, 1994
Mark Morris created Falling Down Stairs in the Pillow’s original Doris Duke Theatre for a film by Barbara Willis Sweete, conceived as a component of Yo-Yo Ma’s PBS series, Inspired by Bach.
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Judith Jamison
Scene Seen, 1988
In 1988, Judith Jamison established her own company known as The Jamison Project, administered and nurtured by Jacob’s Pillow, and commissioned Garth Fagan to create a solo for her, the last she would undertake in her performing career.
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Marta Renzi & Dancers
What Practice Makes, 1983
Marta Renzi helped inaugurate the Pillow’s outdoor stage with the dance seen here, created while in residence in 1983.
Explore Playlists
Ted Shawn's Men Dancers
Sixth Prelude from The Well Tempered Clavichord, 1933
This brief film fragment documents one of the first dances to be created and performed at the Pillow, seen here in the only known footage from the Pillow’s inaugural season.