PillowVoices: Dance Through Time

By Jacob's Pillow ArchivesSociety & Culture Arts History Performing Arts

PillowVoices: Dance Through Time episodes

February 15, 2020 Jazz as Communal Practice
Melanie George, jazz dance scholar, choreographer, and dramaturge, hosts this episode. Highlighting voices of students from the School at Jacob's Pillow and insights from Moncell Durden and Camille A. Brown, George offers a reflection on the communal aspects of jazz dance.
21 min
January 18, 2020 Ted Shawn, Jacob's Pillow Founder, In His Own Words
Modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn tells the story of founding Jacob's Pillow in his own words, along with a fascinating first-hand account of the dance traditions he encountered in the Far East in the 1920s. Ruth St. Denis also makes a memorable cameo appearance in this episode curated by Director of Preservation Norton Owen.
21 min
December 14, 2019 The Costume Collection at Jacob's Pillow
Dance costume historian Caroline Hamilton shares her experience of exploring and cataloging the costume collection at Jacob's Pillow. She frames this episode with a conversation and oral history that she undertook during her fellowship at the Pillow, with Director of Preservation Norton Owen.
23 min
November 23, 2019 Dance Theater of Harlem: An Homage to the Work of Arthur Mitchell
Scholar-in-Residence Theresa Ruth Howard explores her own heritage in this personal look at Dance Theatre of Harlem, featuring the voices of founder Arthur Mitchell and current director Virginia Johnson—herself a founding member of Dance Theater of Harlem. Howard also danced with the company, was a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance and is the founder and curator of the Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet.
24 min
October 26, 2019 The Roots of Jazz Dance
Melanie George, jazz dance scholar, choreographer and dramaturge, hosts this episode. She offers an insightful historical overview and then dives into an exploration of this uniquely American art form. From the origins through the evolutions, George weaves the story of jazz dance with rarely heard clips, selected from the Jacob's Pillow archive, of Veta Goler (speaking about Dianne McIntyre), Moncell Durden, Camille A. Brown, Danny Buraczeski, and Billy Siegenfeld.
21 min
September 27, 2019 Adam Weinert recreates Ted Shawn's 'Dance of the Ages'
Choreographer Sydney Skybetter interviews fellow dancemaker Adam H. Weinert, focusing on the recent reconstruction of Ted Shawn's iconic Dance of the Ages, a 1938 work that had not been performed in nearly 80 years. Weinert speaks about the communal living experiences that informed Shawn's company of Men Dancers, and how these practices resonate today.
30 min
August 05, 2019 Going Gaga with Ohad Naharin
Related multimedia essay: The Israeli Delegation: Artists From The Holy Land
18 min
July 14, 2019 Merce Cunningham, Technology, and Archiving Dance - Part 2
Part 2 of a 2-part series on Merce Cunningham's innovations in making and archiving dance, hosted by Patsy Gay, Associate Archivist at Jacob's Pillow. This episode features archival audio of Merce Cunningham and his collaborators David Vaughan, Carolyn Brown, and Chris Komar.
20 min
July 14, 2019 Merce Cunningham, Technology, and Archiving Dance - Part 1
Part 1 of a 2-part series on Merce Cunningham's innovations in making and archiving dance, hosted by Patsy Gay, Associate Archivist at Jacob's Pillow. This episode features archival audio of Merce Cunningham and Sam Miller, former Director of Jacob’s Pillow.
14 min
July 06, 2019 Paul Taylor, In His Own Words
This episode, hosted by Jacob's Pillow's Director of Preservation, Norton Owen, celebrates the life and work of modern dance icon Paul Taylor, incorporating excerpts from several different talks recorded at Jacob's Pillow between 1998 and 2004.
22 min

About PillowVoices: Dance Through Time

From the publisher's feed

PillowVoices: Dance Through Time brings listeners closer to notable dance artists connected with Jacob's Pillow, from 1933 to today. Each piece exemplifies Jacob's Pillow's mission to 'support dance creation, presentation, education, and preservation; and to engage and deepen public appreciation and support for dance' by utilizing archival recordings brought to life in the personal stories and narration of current thought-leaders and scholars. Jacob's Pillow, lauded by The New York Times as "the dance center of the nation," is a National Historic Landmark, a recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, and home to America’s longest-running international dance festival, located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.