PillowVoices: Dance Through Time

Christian Warner hosts this episode focused on the human body’s capacity to navigate collective grief, moving toward not only healing,  but self-actualization. Warner is a Black interdisciplinary performer, choreographer, and director. He shares his own  experiences as well as excerpts from conversations with dance artists Dormeshia, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, and their collaborators.

https://www.christianawarner.com/

In this episode of PillowVoices, we bring you an interview with choreographer Yin Mei. PillowScholar Suzanne Carbonneau sat down with Yin Mei to discuss her work titled Empty Traditions / City of Peonies in August, 1999. 

In a 1999 interview with Pillow Scholar Suzanne Carbonneau, Yin Mei talks about growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, which stripped people of their history and traditions. She speaks of how her work combines her past with contemporary concerns, as she investigates and reclaims her heritage. 

Watch a clip of Empty Traditions / City of Peonies: https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/yin-mei/empty-tradition-city-of-peonies/

In this episode, professor and choreographer Silvana Cardell contextualizes the work of the Mimulus Dance Company through the lens of adjacent histories and influences: Cardell from Argentina and Mimulus from Brazil.

Watch a clip of Por Um Fio:
https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/mimulus-dance-company/por-um-fio/

Insights and influences, Silvana Cardell:
In Buenos Aires, Cardell learned under the mentorship of Chilean choreographer Ana Itelman and grew up attending  Oscar Araiz’s performances. From them, she understood what it took to become an artist. Their work was influenced by German expressionism's emotional depth and American dance's physicality. Iteman and Araiz were former students of German soloist dancer Dore Hoyer and American choreographer Miriam Winslow, who was strongly connected to Jacob Pillow, first as a Denishwan student in 1932 and later returning in the 1940s to perform her own work. These influences, along with a strong foundation in contemporary dance forms, ballet training, and traditional Argentinean dance forms, determined the quality of Cardell's early work, which connects to the Mimulus Dance Company’s style. Pursuing artistic growth, influenced by teacher Ana, who had been faculty at Bard College, Cardell moved between Buenos Aires and the U.S. throughout the late 1980s, first as a student at The University of the Arts,  finally settling in the U.S. in 2004 after graduating with an MFA at Temple University.  Her educational journey in Philadelphia led to work with key figures in the dance community, such as Manfred Fishbeck and Merian Soto, mentors and collaborators who fostered a creative dialogue that extends into her creative work, today.
 

Jennifer Edwards hosts this episode honoring the life and legacy of former New York City Ballet dancer, Jacques d'Amboise, in his own words. Recorded during his only Pillow appearance in 2008, d'Amboise reflects on his beginnings as a dancer and his efforts to welcome more young people into his beloved art form.

Lisa Niedermeyer hosts this episode exploring the connections between puppetry in contemporary dance and emerging technologies such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence and spatial computing. The episode focuses on a  piece titled "Underground River" which was conceived and directed by Jane Comfort and developed in residency at Jacob’s Pillow. We hear from puppet artist Basil Twist, the director and choreographer Jane Comfort, and one of the performers, Stephen Nunley.

Watch an excerpt of Underground River: https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/jane-comfort-and-company/underground-river/

Jacob's Pillow Associate Archivist Patsy Gay hosts this episode featuring excerpts of a 1998 PillowTalk. In this conversation between choreographers Ralph Lemon and Susan Marshall, we hear insights about their own beginnings in dance along with their individual ways of creating work.

Poet and dance writer Karen Hildebrand hosts this episode focusing on how text and spoken word are used in dance. Included are examples from works by Liz Lerman, Joe Goode, and Carmen de Lavallade. Hildebrand is the former editorial director for Dance Magazine, and a past editor in chief of Dance Teacher magazine.

*Of note: the music that underlies Martha Wittman's monologue in Liz Lerman's piece, "Of Fertile Fields," was composed by Robert Een.

Christy Bolingbroke, Executive / Artistic Director of the National Center for Choreography - Akron, hosts this episode focused on the the relationships of choreographic practice and various technologies. Referenced in this episode are works by David Parsons, David Rousseve, Compagnie Kafig, Rennie Harris/Puremovement American Street Dance Theater, and Ragamala Dance Company.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive
David Parsons Caught
David Rousseve/REALITY Stardust

Jennifer Edwards hosts this episode honoring Gus Solomons jr, the celebrated choreographer, writer, and teacher. As the first Black dancer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Solomons was both a trailblazer and a trendsetter, forming his own company and making more than 150 works before his death in August 2023 at the age of 84.

In this episode: Excerpts from Mondays with Merce: Episode 14 Merce as Model (2010). Director/Producer: Nancy Dalva. (c) Merce Cunningham Trust. All rights reserved.

Resources:
Mondays with Merce #14: Merce as Model, with Gus Solomons, Jr.

Remembering Gus Solomons Jr. 1938 - 2023

Gus Solomons Jr., 84, Dies; a Rare Black Presence in Experimental Dance

Choreography in Focus: Wendy Perron and Gus Solomons Jr.