Personal Stories
Acknowledging that every dance reveals something about its choreographer, these selections are more intentionally biographical or autobiographical.
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Brinae Ali
Baby Laurence Legacy Project: Tracing Steps, 2026
Brinae Ali utilizes music, movement, and technology to shine a light on her dance ancestors, focusing here on the largely forgotten tap artist known as Baby Laurence.
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Urban Bush Women
SCAT!... The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, 2026
This recent work by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar joins previous works in drawing upon her own heritage, a pantheon that includes Self-Portrait and HairStories.
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Stephen Petronio
Another Kind of Steve, 2025
On the occasion of his company’s final performances in 2025, Stephen Petronio reflected on his life and career in this autobiographical solo.
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The Royal Ballet
Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, 2024
The British ballet choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton would seem to have little in common with the American modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan. But he never forgot seeing her perform and created this solo decades later to evoke her spirit.
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Archie Burnett
Life Encounters, 2021
Archie Burnett was a fixture in dance clubs in 1980s New York, reflecting on his history both in this dance and in an informal conversation with Sally Sommer.
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David Roussève/REALITY
Halfway to Dawn, 2019
The music and life of Billy Strayhorn are the twin inspirations for Halfway to Dawn, exploring the emotional undercurrents of his journey through video, dance, and Strayhorn’s own compositions.
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Nicola Gunn
Piece For Person and Ghetto Blaster, 2018
A performance artist, writer, director, and dramaturg based in Melbourne, Australia, Nicola Gunn based this work on a real-life encounter that she experienced while out for a jog in Belgium.
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BalletX
Sunset, o639 Hours, 2016
Inspired by the real-life story of pioneering airline pilot Edwin Musicker and his ill-fated flight from California to New Zealand in 1937, Matthew Neenan’s ambitious contemporary ballet includes movement segments like this one entitled “Week Off in Hawaii.”
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Ira Glass, Monica Bill Barnes, Anna Bass
Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, 2015
As the host of This American Life, Ira Glass specializes in telling real-life stories, and here he teams up with Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass to physicalize these stories.
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Carmen de Lavallade
As I Remember It, 2014
In the retrospective presentation seen here in its premiere, de Lavallade references her role in John Butler’s classic Portrait of Billie and juxtaposes it with Robert Lowell’s translation of “The Old Lady’s Lament for Her Youth,” a 15th-century poem by François Villon.
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BODYTRAFFIC
And at midnight the green bride floated through the village square..., 2013
Choreographer Barak Marshall is the son of seminal Yemeni dancer-choreographer-singer Margalit Oved (1930-2026), and he lovingly features her in this work, based in part on the true story of a family with eight sisters and a brother who lived near his mother in Yemen.
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The Men Dancers: From the Horse's Mouth, 2012
Created by Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham, From the Horse’s Mouth is a celebratory dance/theater production that features personal anecdotes from a wide range of performers, with this edition focusing exclusively on men as a tribute to Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers in the Pillow’s 75th season.
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Doug Elkins and Friends
Fräulein Maria, 2012
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Yin Mei
Empty Tradition / City of Peonies, 1999
Born in China and now based in New York City, Yin Mei created this work to reflect on having been “robbed of history” during China’s Cultural Revolution.
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David Gordon/Pick Up Performance Co(s)
"One Part of the Matter" from Parts of a Retrospective and A Work in Progress, 1996
David Gordon’s work was frequently self-referential, as seen in this excerpt featuring his wife and muse, Valda Setterfield, recreating her role from a 1972 dance. A few years later, Gordon returned to the Pillow with Private Lives of Dancers.
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Ralph Lemon
Solo, 1991
This Solo springs from an interview with LaVaughn Robinson, an acclaimed tap dancer whose career began on the streets of Philadelphia in the 1930s.
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Blondell Cummings
Chicken Soup, 1989
Designated as an American Masterpiece by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006, Chicken Soup utilizes a poem by Pat Steir to evoke Cummings’s memories of her grandmother.
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Barton Mumaw
O Brother Sun and Sister Moon (A Study of St. Francis), 1981
Ted Shawn created this solo for himself in 1931 as “a study in dynamic stillness,” seeking to portray the simple life and ideals of St. Francis of Assisi.
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José Limón
Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, 1946
This Doris Humphrey classic was inspired by the life and death of Spanish bullfighter Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, and more specifically by the poem by Federico García-Lorca, whose words are recited as part of the dance.
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Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers
Jacob's Pillow Concerto, 1940
As the final work that Ted Shawn created for his Men Dancers, this was intended as a summation of the company’s lifespan, depicting work in the studio, showing excerpts of important dances, and ending with the dancers leaving Shawn alone onstage.