Jukly 15, 2015 performance reviewed by Iler McGrath.

Eric Gauthier, former soloist with Stuttgart ballet and current artistic director of Gauthier Dance, brought his company to Jacob’s Pillow for their first performance in the United States. This troupe is filled with versatile and charismatic dancers, and the program they brought to the Doris Duke Theater was inventive, humorous, and fresh, and was executed with technical precision. The majority of the program was made up of duets and solos, highlighting the power of the troupes members to hold the stage and the attention of the audience without mass numbers. The middle of the program is subject to change, introducing themes of fluidity and impermanence before the performance has even begun.

The show opens with Gauthier’s work Ballet 101 a humorous and lighthearted spoof in which the soloist is guided by voice-over through the “100 positions of ballet” which are then rearranged, resulting in a hectic and fun to watch variation as the poor man scrambles to keep up with the steps. This piece is entertaining and easy to understand, serving at once as a crash course in contemporary ballet composition and the deconstruction of classicism as well as dispelling any preconceptions of over-seriousness or pretentiousness. It is a strong and clever opening that sets the tone for the rest of the show.

Now and Now, Two Become Three, and Floating Flowers, choreographed by Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, and Po-Cheng Tsai respectively, were the three duets featured in the evening. Inger’s piece was serious and emotional while avoiding melodrama, and satisfying despite (or because) of its abstraction. The duet by Ekman, who is known for his freshness of approach and humor, lived up to his reputation, provoking bouts of laughter from the audience. Floating Flowers by Po-Cheng Tsai played in a middle ground between humor and expression, presenting a quirky and undefinable world in which two dancers merge and split.

PACOPEPEPLUTO by Alejandro Cerrudo celebrates male power and virtuosity while remaining aware of the constant background of insecurity experienced by the performer. Three soloists explode, scamper, and twist across the stage to the familiar sounds of Dean Martin and Joe Scalissi, raising questions about what it means to be masculine onstage and the vulnerability of the individual. I Found a Fox is a solo in the same vein, choreographed by Marco Goecke and set to music by Kate Bush. Compressed movement gives way to complex and intricate phrase work, conveying internal struggle and the tension between the desire to be seen and the complications of achieving this goal.

The evening closed with Malasangre (“Bad Blood”), a high-powered work for eight dancers by Spanish Choreographer Cayetano Soto. An homage to the Cuban singer La Lupe, this piece finds driving energy in the salsa beats and throaty vocals of her music. The stage is strewn with green scraps of cloth, perhaps dollar bills or shredded military fatigues, while the dancers writhe flawlessly and contort their faces toward the audience. This piece could be seen as both commentary on La Lupe’s career, while she enjoyed fame in her lifetime she died penniless, and as a celebration of her charisma and talent.

Overall this company presents a varied and engaging program of contemporary dance. The repertory and thematic elements are both subversive to the over-seriousness and drama the genre has become known for in the U.S. while holding true to a strong core of movement ideas executed with superb precision by the dancers. At risk of falling into a trap of jadedness, Gauthier avoids this pitfall by staying true to the art form with verve and passion.

Jacob’s Pillow tickets and directions

• Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
• 358 George Carter Road
• Becket, MA 01223
• Phone: 413.243.9919
• Fax:413.243.4744
• Web: jacobspillow.org

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Jukly 15, 2015 performance reviewed by Iler McGrath.

Company Wang Ramirez made their Jacob’s Pillow debut on Wednesday night with the evening-length work Monchichi. Sebastién Ramirez, a Frenchman with Spanish roots, and Honji Wang, a German woman of Korean descent, are easy to watch onstage, and the duet they have created has many pleasantly surprising moments. The production included an incongruous LED-lit tree designed by Ida Ravn, a score of hip-hop beats by Ilia Koutchoukov (aka Everydayz/+?), and was adequately – if heavy-handedly – lit by Cyril Mulon.

The program notes suggest that this company sees their approach to movement as a fusion of hip-hop and contemporary influences, however for the most part this piece was dominated by b-boy style hip-hop movement. Mr. Ramirez is a self-taught b-boy, while Ms. Wang trained in ballet and martial arts before transitioning into urban dance. It often seemed like she was holding back in order to better match the more limited, though virtuosic, movement vocabulary of her partner.

There were moments of partnering that stood out as the inventive highlights of the piece, bringing much-needed novelty and excitement to the work. However, for the most part contact was limited to the hands, which were used to manipulate the other performer in complex series of hip-hop isolations, giving the effect that the two were not dancing together but rather against or despite one another. Overall there was far less creative range than could be hoped for movement-wise from a fusion style of choreography.

This is not only a dance piece though, but a work of what Wang and Ramirez have coined “urban tanztheater.” As such, Monchichi features spoken word elements, costume changes onstage, and choreography which has the dancers regularly break the fourth wall to gaze purposefully toward the audience. As dance historian Maura Keefe notes in the program “dance writer Norbert Servos defines tanztheater as ‘the union of genuine dance and theatrical methods of stage performance, creating a new, unique dance form (especially in Germany), which, in contrast to classical ballet, distinguishes itself through an intended reference to reality.”

In this case, that reference is autobiographical in nature, exploring the intricacies and nuances of a multicultural relationship. There is high potential for dramatic tension here, much of which remains undiscovered in this piece. There is a Pina-esque section in which the duo addresses the audiences while cycling through six languages between the two of them, however they never speak to one another directly, relying on dance to interact. This is in keeping with their statement that movement is a universal language through which they communicate with one another, but instead of synthesizing the various elements of the production this approach reduces the narrative to “boy meets girl, they six-step.” What’s missing is a sense of emotional stakes, of love strong enough to surpass external differences and bond two people together. The choreographers’ note finishes with the cryptic question, in bold, “Our love. Our psychosis?” but by the time the work finished in just under an hour the presence of either of those extremes was nowhere to be found.

Jacob’s Pillow tickets and directions

• Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
• 358 George Carter Road
• Becket, MA 01223
• Phone: 413.243.9919
• Fax:413.243.4744
• Web: jacobspillow.org

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April 1, 2015 Article by Dave Read

Jacob’s Pillow 2015 schedule is highlighted by Martha Graham Dance Company’s 90th Anniversary, including a world premiere by eminent choreographer Mats Ek; a pre-Festival dance and radio stage production hosted by Ira Glass; the return of Nederlands Dans Theater 2; the U.S. debut of the German groupGauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart; the world premiere of American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Daniil Simkin’s INTENSIO; Cuban contemporary ensemble Malpaso Dance Company, performing with pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. Tickets went on sale April 1.

Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host – June 13 and 14, Ted Shawn Theatre

The venerable Ira Glass, host of public radio’s This American Life, hosts this new stage production which will appear at Jacob’s Pillow for two special pre-Festival performances. Glass is joined by dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass of contemporary dance ensemble Monica Bill Barnes & Company in an evening of dance and storytelling.

Season Opening Gala – June 20, Ted Shawn Theatre

The exclusive Gala performance will include American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Daniil Simkin, New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns and soloist Russell Janzen, the legendary Martha Graham Dance Company, and the dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow Ballet Program in a world premiere by BalletX co-founder and co-Artistic Director Matthew Neenan.

Ballet BC – June 24-28, Ted Shawn Theatre

From Vancouver, Canada, Artistic Director Emily Molnar and the dynamic dancers of Ballet BC work with top contemporary choreographers from across the globe. They open the Festival with William Forsythe’s intricate Work Within Work; Cayetano Soto’s Twenty Eight Thousand Waves with music by David Lang and Bryce Dessner; and the U.S. premiere of Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s interpretation of The Rite of Spring, score by Igor Stravinsky.

New York Theatre Ballet in Cinderella – June 24-28, Doris Duke Theatre

New York Theatre Ballet opens the Doris Duke Theatre season with Donald Mahler’s popular version of the classic story ballet, Cinderella. Cinderella is a treat for all ages, with skilled dancers, beloved Sergei Prokofiev music, and imaginative costumes and sets. $10 youth tickets are available for every family-friendly performance.

Dorrance Dance, Toshi Reagon, BIGlovely in The Blues Project – July 1-5, Ted Shawn Theatre

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award winner Michelle Dorrance and Dorrance Dance return with The Blues Project, which premiered here in 2013. The Blues Project cast includes co-choreographers and soloists Derick K. Grant and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and the production features music composed by renowned singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon, performed live by Reagon and her band BIGLovely.

BODYTRAFFIC – July 1-5, Doris Duke Theatre

Based in Los Angeles, BODYTRAFFIC was founded in 2007 by dancers and co-directors Lillian Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett. Program features Dust by Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter; Once again, before you go by Victor Quijada of RUBBERBANDance Group; and The New 45, a jazzy duet by Richard Siegal.

Nederlands Dans Theater 2 – July 8-12, Ted Shawn Theatre

NDT2, second company of Nederlands Dans Theater, presents a program with Sara by Sharon Eyal and Dai Behar of Israel, and Schubert and Shutters Shut by Spanish-British choreographic duo Sol León and Paul Lightfoot. Plus I New Then by Swedish dancemaker Johan Inger, danced to songs by Van Morrison.

Big Dance Theater in Alan Smithee Directed This Play: Triple Feature – July 8-12, Doris Duke Theatre

In 2007, Big Dance Theater co-directors Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar were the inaugural recipients of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, given to visionary dancemakers. In their latest work Alan Smithee Directed This Play: Triple Feature the company samples films and novels including Doctor Zhivago, the film Terms of Endearment, and the 1970 French thriller Le Cercle Rouge.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet – July 15-19, Ted Shawn Theatre

Artistic Director Alonzo King presents a program with King’s Concerto for Two Violins, Men’s Quintet, and the East Coast premiere of a collaboration with natural soundscape artist Dr. Bernie Krause, author of The Great Animal Orchestra, and composer Richard Blackford.

Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang in Monchichi – July 15-19, Doris Duke Theatre

Sébastien Ramirez is a French dancer of Spanish origin who started out as a virtuosic b-boy. Honji Wang is a German dancer of Korean descent, with a rich background in ballet, contemporary, and urban dance styles. The duo questions interculturality within a couple in Monchichi, a show that combines hip-hop, contemporary dance, and unique set design.

Daniil Simkin’s INTENSIO – July 22-26, Ted Shawn Theatre

American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Daniil Simkin is joined by fellow dancers of ABT Isabella Boylston, Alexandre Hammoudi, Blaine Hoven, Hee Seo, Calvin Royal III, and James Whiteside, plus special guest Céline Cassone of Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal. In INTENSIO, a Jacob’s Pillow co-commission, they perform four world premieres by choreographers: Nederlands Dans Theater 2 associate choreographer Alexander Ekman of Sweden, American dancemaker Gregory Dolbashian, resident Boston Ballet choreographer Jorma Elo of Finland, and Colombo-Belgian artist Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart – July 22-26, Doris Duke Theatre

Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart presents a program including PACOPEPEPLUTO by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, Alexander Ekman’s Two Become Three, the solo Ballet 101 by Artistic Director Eric Gauthier, and other dances.

Daniel Ulbricht & Stars of American Ballet – July 29-August 2, Ted Shawn Theatre

New York City Ballet principal dancer Daniel Ulbricht and soloists from New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Houston Ballet present a program that includes In the Night by Jerome Robbins, Distractions by New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck, and Les Lutins by Johan Kobborg.

Jessica Lang Dance in The Wanderer – July 29 – August 9, Doris Duke Theatre

Jessica Lang returns for a two-week run of a new evening-length ballet, The Wanderer, which was created in part during a Creative Development Residency at the Pillow. The ballet is set to Franz Schubert’s famous song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, which will be performed live at the Festival. Set designed by Mimi Lien, costumes by fashion designer and former Mark Morris Dance Group company member Bradon McDonald, and lighting by Nicole Pearce.

Malpaso Dance Company with Arturo O’Farrill and Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble – August 5-9, Ted Shawn Theatre

Despedida, choreographed by Artistic Director Osnel Delgado, is a new work for ten dancers with an original score composed by pianist/composer Arturo O’Farrill and performed by O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, the resident ensemble of the nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. Despedida takes inspiration from the eponymous poem by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The second work on the program, co-commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow and The Joyce Theater, will be created by ever-popular contemporary ballet choreographer Trey McIntyre, whose dance ensemble Trey McIntyre Project gave its final performances at the Pillow last season.

The Sarasota Ballet – August 12-16, Ted Shawn Theatre

The Sarasota Ballet, directed by Iain Webb, performs Sir Frederick Ashton’s iconic, artful trios Monotones I and Monotones II, Christopher Wheeldon’s The American set to the Dvoák music of the same name, and a world premiere by Brazilian resident choreographer and company member Ricardo Graziano.

La Otra Orilla – August 12-16, Doris Duke Theatre

From Montréal, Canada, La Otra Orilla embodies a deep mastery of traditional flamenco dance and the music of Andalusia, married with a contemporary twist. Myriam Allard, soul-stirring vocalist Hedi Graja, and a cast of vocalists, guitarists, and percussionists present a world premiere full of flamenco and contemporary dance, multimedia and video effects, and live music.

L.A. Dance Project – August 19-22, Ted Shawn Theatre

In their Pillow debut, L.A. Dance Project, founded by Benjamin Millepied, perform Murder Ballades by New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck, Millepied’s new ballet Hearts and Arrows, and the U.S. premiere of Roy Assaf’s II Acts for the Blind.

Liz Gerring Dance Company in glacier – August 19-23, Doris Duke Theatre

Liz Gerring’s contemporary dance, glacier, is a 65-minute work features set design by Robert Wierzel and is danced to an original score by company resident composer Michael J. Schumacher, whose piece “Glacier” originated during a summer stay near Colorado’s Glacier Lake.

Martha Graham Dance Company – August 26-30, Ted Shawn Theatre

The legendary modern dance company launches its 90th Anniversary, celebrating a pioneering past and trail-blazing future. This spectacular program includes Martha Graham’s dramatic classic work Embattled Garden, Echo by choreographer Andonis Foniadakis, Depak Ine by Nacho Duato, and the world premiere of AXE, by Mats Ek.

MADBOOTS DANCE – August 26-30, Doris Duke Theatre

MADBOOTS DANCE was founded in 2011 by Austin Diaz and Jonathan Campbell. Their program will include work created during a February Creative Development Residency at Jacob’s Pillow.

Further programming announcements will be made in April for more than 200 free events, including Inside/Out performances, PillowTalks, and exclusive exhibits.

Jacob’s Pillow map and directions

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Annual exhibits in four venues throughout the Pillow’s National Historic Landmark grounds display photographs, video, artifacts and other engaging visual material that enrich the visitor’s experience of dance. The Archives, documenting dance and Pillow history from 1894 to the present, welcome both the general public and artistic and scholarly researchers to view videos of recent performances or historic films from years past, and browse dance or related art and history books. The full resources of the Archives are available to the public free of charge on a drop-in basis Tuesdays through Sundays, from noon until final curtain.

PillowTalks are brief Pre-Show Talks which introduce audiences to the performance they are about to attend, and Post-Show Talks with the artists just after they step offstage. All talks are free and open to the public. PillowTalks take place in Blake’s Barn, Thursdays at 5pm and Saturdays at 4pm, providing varied opportunities to gain insight from dancers, choreographers, musicians, filmmakers, visual designers, historians, and other experts.

Free guided tours of the 163-acre Jacob’s Pillow campus leave from the Welcome Center every Friday and Saturday at 5:30pm, and patrons can pick up a self-guided tour map anytime to explore the grounds on their own. Patrons are also welcome to visit The School at Jacob’s Pillow and observe renowned artist faculty working with emerging professional dancers, either on a drop-in basis or pre-arranged for groups larger than four.

Jacob’s Pillow offers many dining options including the Pillow Café, a full-service open air restaurant on The Great Lawn; the Pillow Pub, offering casual fare, ready-to-go picnics, and a full bar; and the Coffee & Ice Cream Bars. Many visitors bring a picnic lunch or dinner from home and dine on The Great Lawn or while taking in a performance on the Inside/Out stage.

March 22, 2014 Article by Dave Read

Jacob’s Pillow presents more scores of ticketed performances every summer, as well as a wide range of free events and activities related to dance. The Inside/Out series includes presentations of emerging dance companies, artists from all over the world, and informal showings by the professional-track students of The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 6:15. Roster of performers to be announced in April; visit jacobspillow.org for additional information.

2014 Jacob’s Pillow program details by the month:

• Jacob’s Pillow 2014 season schedule overview
• Jacob’s Pillow schedule June 2014
• Jacob’s Pillow schedule July 2014
• Jacob’s Pillow schedule August 2014

Ticket sales for Jacob’s Pillow members begin January 13, 2014; subscriptions for five or more performances go on sale to the public March 17, 2014 and single tickets for Festival 2014 go on public sale April 1, 2014.

Further programming announcements will be made in April for more than 200 free events, including Inside/Out performances, PillowTalks, and exclusive exhibits.

Jacob’s Pillow Contact info. and links

• Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
• 358 George Carter Road
• Becket, MA 01223
• Phone: 413.243.9919
• Fax:413.243.4744
• Web: jacobspillow.org

Annual exhibits in four venues throughout the Pillow’s National Historic Landmark grounds display photographs, video, artifacts and other engaging visual material that enrich the visitor’s experience of dance. The Archives, documenting dance and Pillow history from 1894 to the present, welcome both the general public and artistic and scholarly researchers to view videos of recent performances or historic films from years past, and browse dance or related art and history books. The full resources of the Archives are available to the public free of charge on a drop-in basis Tuesdays through Sundays, from noon until final curtain.

PillowTalks are brief Pre-Show Talks which introduce audiences to the performance they are about to attend, and Post-Show Talks with the artists just after they step offstage. All talks are free and open to the public. PillowTalks take place in Blake’s Barn, Thursdays at 5pm and Saturdays at 4pm, providing varied opportunities to gain insight from dancers, choreographers, musicians, filmmakers, visual designers, historians, and other experts.

Free guided tours of the 163-acre Jacob’s Pillow campus leave from the Welcome Center every Friday and Saturday at 5:30pm, and patrons can pick up a self-guided tour map anytime to explore the grounds on their own. Patrons are also welcome to visit The School at Jacob’s Pillow and observe renowned artist faculty working with emerging professional dancers, either on a drop-in basis or pre-arranged for groups larger than four.

Jacob’s Pillow offers many dining options including the Pillow Café, a full-service open air restaurant on The Great Lawn; the Pillow Pub, offering casual fare, ready-to-go picnics, and a full bar; and the Coffee & Ice Cream Bars. Many visitors bring a picnic lunch or dinner from home and dine on The Great Lawn or while taking in a performance on the Inside/Out stage.

Jacob’s Pillow map and driving directions

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Aug. 11, 2010 performance reviewed by Jocelyn McGrath.

The Trocs are simply magnificent, as only a troupe of alternative-reality Russian divas can be. Great-hearted athleticism meets historically-steeped, gestural devotion/parody, and takes a pratfall. It is hard to pin down exactly what makes it all work so powerfully, because there’s so much happening at once, so many cues and directives, the dramatic content changing on a dime from one moment to the next. Some of what you can reasonably expect: slapstick; cross-dressing; extreme bravado and exuberance; bunhead wigs and turbans; over-the-top virtuosic ballet technique; not-so-great, but passable ballet technique; bringing attention to the not-so-great technique with comic effect; hairy chests peeking out of bodices; and some of the largest pointe shoes you are ever likely to see. 2014 Jacob’s Pillow schedule, Contact info. and links

At the time it was founded in 1974, Les Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo’s alternative status meant that a dancer wouldn’t generally consider the company until his career in the conventional ballet world was wrapping up. This pattern altered in the 1990s, and for the last twenty years or so younger dancers have made it a primary career choice, allowing for slow but appreciable rise in technical excellence.

The evening’s program is extensive, the show running for two hours and twenty minutes with two intermissions. Some of the pieces are super famous—selections from Swan Lake, The Dying Swan, as well as a beautifully partnered pas de deux and solo variations from Le Corsaire. The other selections, La Vivandiere: Pas de Six (1844), after Arthur Saint-Leon, and Raymonda’s Wedding (1898): A Traditionally Confusing Divertissement in Two Scenes, after Marius Petipa, are the sorts of ballets that seem to have dropped out of the repertoire of most contemporary ballet companies for good reason. And yet, the penultimate and the mediocre are both fertile ground for the Trocs.

Nor do they limit themselves to only romantic three-act ballets. We were treated to an interpretation of Merce Cunningham’s Patterns in Space, complete with black-clad, live musicians performing a cutting-edge soundscape with the most cutting-edge instruments—at one point literally using a scissors and hair buzzer. Also used: a paper bag, a rattly box that seems like a metal lozenge container, bubble wrap, and, oh yes, barnyard sounds also figured in the mix.

The Troc’s best moments involve stretching the laws of physics with a joyous rapture, resulting in hilarity. In the four cygnets variation of Swan Lake, though continuously arm-linked to her fellow birdlings, one odd duck ballerina dances to the beat of a different drummer with a kind of insane abandon, transforming all of the usual tightly controlled synchronicity with her special bungee cord inspired counterpoint.

Other gorgeous moments involve reversing our accepted notions of size and gender; a monumental ballerina is paired with a petite male partner. The social ramifications pale in the face of the physical leverage required to support and promenade so much ballerina beauty. A satirical take on sustained balances on pointe follows. The ballerina prepares to take a balance en arabesque, quickly balances, claps her hands as if between push-ups, and then immediately grabs for her partner again, beaming at the accomplishment. In motion, she smiles beatifically, revolving slowly in her turns like a planet, sailing majestically through space in her jumps. Her weighted grace is stunning.

The predominant gender bending goes in many directions with many different effects—men playing men who actually look like women; men playing women who look like women; men playing women who look like men. For a traditional art form in which a dancer’s biological sex is usually destiny, and huge swathes of vocabulary and technique are rigidly gender-based, the effect of mixing and matching has the effect of revealing what is neither wholly male nor female, but what at the heart of it all, is truly human. Ultimately, a sliding scale androgyny breaks open the conventions of the art, leaving the Trocs free to revel in a fresh and vibrant joy of ballet.

Les Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo on the Jacob’s Pillow schedule through Aug. 15, 2010. Find hotels near Jacob’s Pillow.

July 21, 2010 performance reviewed by Jocelyn McGrath.

Serenade/The Proposition (2008) is the second piece in a three-part series of evening-length dances, conceived and directed by Bill T. Jones and commissioned in honor of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Choreographed by Mr. Jones with Janet Wong and members of the Company, Serenade/the Proposition deftly incorporates dance, historical language, video imagery and live music composed and performed by Jerome Begin, Lisa Komara and Christopher Antonio William Lancaster. Additional music by Mozart and Julia Ward Howe, traditional folk tunes, as well as spoken text written by Abraham Lincoln, Clement Sulivane and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., all are layered into a dense, evocative structure – key words and images resonating between motion, sight and sound. 2014 Jacob’s Pillow schedule, Contact info. and links

This performance is a tender and tense exploration of the nature of history as collective human memory. Some ideas are hard to grasp logically, and the feeling that history is something far away, something distant from us, is a common perception.

Using the intuitive intelligence that brilliant art accesses, Mr. Jones radically demonstrates that history doesn’t just rest “back there” in time and space, but exists in complicated relationships between location, culture, and personal narrative.

Clear, iconic images repeat throughout the piece—columns, fire, bare branches tracing patterns against the sky, ruined brick walls of bombed out buildings. Excepting the contemporary introduction of the piece, a starting point in our own place and time, the palette on stage is a strong contrast of black, white and red. The costumes are period, but not straightforwardly authentic—they are oddly detailed or half-constructed—as if to emphasize that they too are only interpretations of another time’s style.

Light and darkness is used to define space, and to show time passing. A glowing strip of space cuts the stage in two, and this corridor becomes the intermittent site for shifting tableaux of characters. A couple embraces. A man raises his arm, finger pointing to the sky. A woman cradles the head of another who seems to weep.

In motion, the dancers’ configurations alternate between struggle and support—the relational weight-sharing tells a story that changes so quickly we are left with a sense of emotional overflow. Pulling, lifting, leaning, struggling, reaching—the ferocity, longing, and desire are manifest in the vital importance of these actions. In one scene, a woman fights her way through a slowly advancing line of people to dance on the other side, then fights her way back through the line to be on the first side again, then repeats this desperate mission over and over again. A man runs to catch falling dancers, one by one, laying each gently on the ground.

The one striking modern video image is that of a median line flashing by as if we are driving on the highway—a graphic metaphor of history as a road to be traveled. As such, the same portion of history looks very different living forward in time or traveling back into memory. In the dance, retreat and reversal are played out literally, as bodies jump forward, then immediately jump back winding and unwinding like special effects in a primitive movie. Real events can’t be undone, but there is a sense of backing up into previous moments to seek a true beginning.

The most recent of many awards, Bill T. Jones was honored with the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award at the start of this summer’s festival (2010 Jacob’s Pillow schedule). Mr. Jones is quite simply an exceptional artist fully realizing his powers of creation. To see this living work is to experience something to remember and cherish.

This piece runs an hour and a half without intermission.