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Storytelling

Even as many dances contain narrative elements, there’s no single way to tell a story through movement. Highlighted here are some examples of Pillow performances that embody different kinds of storytelling.

16 performances

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Storytelling

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Stephen Petronio

Another Kind of Steve, 2025

This autobiographical solo was a featured offering in the Petronio Company’s final performances, with wry reflections on Petronio’s place in the dance world.

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Playing 1 of 16

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H.T. Chen & Dancers

"Some Ol' Day" from Mott Street, 2025

With its title referencing the main street of New York City’s Chinatown, this signature dance by the late H.T. Chen weaves together the real-life stories of Chinatown residents to create a multi-dimensional performance work.

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Playing 2 of 16

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BODYTRAFFIC

Flyland, 2025

The stories in David Middendorp’s multi-media work are fantastical ones—outstretched arms creating a stairway, and dancers hitching a ride with a huge bird—but they are recognizable stories nonetheless.

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Playing 3 of 16

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David Dorfman Dance

(A)Way Out of My Body, 2024

While dealing more broadly with out-of-body experiences, this work also focuses attention on Dorfman telling stories about his mother, who lived with multiple sclerosis.

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Playing 4 of 16

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Big Dance Theater

Alan Smithee Directed This Play: Triple Feature, 2015

The narrative in a typical Annie-B Parson work is often picked apart and reassembled in surprising ways, in this instance combining elements from two Hollywood films: Doctor Zhivago and Terms of Endearment.

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Playing 5 of 16

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New York Theatre Ballet

Cinderella, 2015

This climactic moment from Donald Mahler’s Cinderella illustrates how a traditional fairy tale can be translated into dance terms, in a ballet premiered at the Pillow by the Metropolitan Opera Ballet more than 30 years before the revival seen here.

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Playing 6 of 16

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David Roussève / REALITY

Stardust, 2014

The lead character in David Roussève’s Stardust appears onstage only through his text messages, creating a coming-of-age story for today’s generation of young people.

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Playing 7 of 16

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Daniel Ulbricht / Ballet 2014

Fancy Free, 2014

The wartime plot of Jerome Robbins’s Fancy Free was so engaging that it was expanded into a classic Broadway musical (and later a movie) called On the Town, depicting the same trio of sailors on leave in New York City.

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Playing 8 of 16

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Companhia Urbana de Dança

Na Pista, 2014

Rather than one through-line narrative, Sonia Destri’s Na Pista combines the individual stories of its Brazilian-based dancers to create a montage of personal histories.

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Playing 9 of 16

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Dance Theatre of Harlem

Act III Pas de Deux from Swan Lake, 2013

Though often presented as a standalone showpiece known as the Black Swan Pas de Deux, this scene from Swan Lake is essential to its plot, showing how the lovesick prince is deceived by the evil Odile as she impersonates his beloved Odette.

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Playing 10 of 16

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Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM

Dark Matters, 2011

The structure of Crystal Pite’s Dark Matters is unusual for a contemporary dance, with two acts separated by an intermission, and a first act that focuses on a demonic puppet interacting with Peter Chu.

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Playing 11 of 16

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Ballet Maribor

Radio and Juliet, 2009

Retelling the tale of Romeo and Juliet in an entirely new way, this company from Slovenia used the music of Radiohead in Edward Clug’s wildly popular Radio and Juliet.

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Playing 12 of 16

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Irma Omerzo

Mi-Nous, 2003

This Croatian dancer/choreographer used her own experience of a separation to create a very personal duet, whose title represents a bilingual wordplay, as the words for “we” are “mi” in Croatia and “nous” in France, while “minou” is a Croatian term of endearment.

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Playing 13 of 16

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Martha Clarke

Vers la Flamme, 1999

This riveting excerpt from Vers la Flamme juxtaposes a story by Anton Chekhov and a Scriabin Prelude, played live by pianist Christopher O’Riley.

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Playing 14 of 16

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Nora Kaye & Hugh Laing

The Gods Go a-Begging, 1951

This rarity by George Balanchine was created for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1928 and became a great success in its time. The premise of the dance is that a shepherd and serving-maid are actually divine beings in disguise.

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Playing 15 of 16

Jacob's Pillow Dancers

The Dreams of Jacob, 1949

Pillow founder Ted Shawn turned to the Bible for this dance, depicting the very story that gave the Pillow its name. We see Shawn as Jacob, laying his head upon the rock known as Jacob’s Pillow, with angels ascending and descending between Heaven and Earth. The prominent French composer Darius Milhaud wrote the music, commissioned for Shawn by philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.

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Playing 16 of 16

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