Many of you know I have a long history working with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. I was an intern at the Pillow in 2008, and the relationships I formed that summer kickstarted my entire professional career in the arts.
My company started our current role, managing the Pillow’s social media, in November 2019, looking ahead to a full Festival season with two theaters full of dance in the summer of 2020…
Instead, we had to announce the cancellation of the Festival due to COVID-19 in March. Then, in November, the Pillow was dealt another blow: the Doris Duke Theatre was lost due to fire.
I remember vividly Mariclare Hulbert (consulting with the Pillow at the time) called me to tell me the news… We cried together briefly, then started to coordinate a communications plan with then-Marketing-Director Nicki Tomasofsky… How would we tell our Pillow audience this tragic news?
When we shared a statement on the fire that day, there was an outpouring of grief. Shared memories. Relief no one was hurt and no other buildings or artifacts lost. It was (and I believe still remains) the “top performing post” in Pillow social media history. Because this community, far and wide – every single person – sent their love. We all care deeply and passionately about the place and the people who dance here.
I will never forget sitting in my living room, personally replying to every comment and message. Connecting through sadness. Sharing in the loss.
“From the Ashes” Film Credits: Executive Producer Pamela Tatge; Producer and Writer Jared Fine; Producer and Director Nel Shelby; Editor Benjamin Richards; Music Composition Donovan Dorrance; Excerpts from the film rock is broken by Liz Sargent, Eiko Otake, and Minos Papas, commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow; with thanks to the following for film and photo capture – Christopher Duggan, Taylor Hutchison, Sydney Samson, Media and Archives team, Mecanoo, and Allegrone Construction.
Being at the Pillow, celebrating the opening of the new, beautiful Doris Duke Theatre, felt unbelievable.
I was so grateful to invite everyone who loves this place to be part of the celebration. The Pillow belongs to everyone who has danced here, attended a performance, explored the Archives, taken a class, or simply loved this place from afar. It is home to so many of us in the dance community.
To make the monumental, historic celebration of the new Duke accessible to as many Pillow community members as possible worldwide, we worked with the marketing department and Nel Shelby Productions media team to build a bridge from the in-person experience to our online audiences:
- We posted about the new theater several times leading up to opening night
- We livestreamed the ribbon cutting ceremony on Instagram
- We encouraged online viewers to register and attend a livestream of the Opening Night Program (produced by Nel Shelby Productions)
- We continued to capture and share in-the-moment Stories through the after party
- We gave a live walk-through of Katherine Helen Fisher’s “Dancing the Algorithm” exhibition on Instagram
- We conducted interviews with artists that we plan to share at a later date
- We posted photos from the first-ever symposium in the new building, FUTURE FIGURES
We hope everyone who engaged with the celebration virtually was able to feel the magic and the sense of history being made.
Video by Nel Shelby Productions; thumbnail photo by Christopher Duggan
And as always, this trip to the Pillow was full of unexpected reunions with people we know, love and admire:
As a Dance major at the University of Iowa, I took several classes with David Dorfman. We ran into him at the after party that followed the opening night program at the new Duke, and I got to tell him how much we loved his performance.
A few months ago, I had the honor of joining our client Liz Lerman and her collaborator Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (among other powerhouse dance artists) at their Legacy Unboxed creative residency at the Pillow. They both performed in Annie-B Parson’s score at the Duke opening (with David Dorfman), and watching them together is always a treat.
Eiko Otake performed a site-specific work at the new Duke as well. She began on the roof, and then took the audience through the entire building and around its perimeter. Her performance helped us all understand and appreciate the space as a whole, in addition to, of course, being moved by her art.
Sydnie Mosley is a good friend from college who has also worked at the Pillow. This summer, she returned as an artist, performing and presenting her choreography on the Henry J. Leir Stage. We interviewed her about what it meant to be there with her “artist hat” on instead of her “administrator hat,” and cheered her on from the audience.
Kate Ladenheim worked with GGM (back when we were AJM) for many years and remains a trusted collaborator and friend. She is a brilliant artist and her work as a creative technologist is being showcased in the Dancing the Algorithm exhibit in the new Duke. She also gave a presentation during the FUTURE FIGURES Symposium about the intersection of dance and technology and how it shows up in her work. We captured a short interview with her and what it means to be presented by the Pillow.
And finally, at not one but two dance parties on campus, I ran into my first ever modern dance teacher, Tom Truss. He taught me at the University of Iowa. I told him how inspiring he was to me as a young dancer, and we got to dance together once more!
We saw so many people we admire and we loved getting to celebrate with them. It’s always a gift when the work brings us back to people with whom we already share history and joy.
Here’s to the Pillow for being my dance-home, where I can always count on running into old friends, former teachers, and collaborators who remind me why I do what I do.