PillowVoices: Dance Through Time – Details, episodes & analysis

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/

Many choreographers draw inspiration from their ancestors, nature, and the spiritual world, and Teena Marie Custer explores some examples with help from Sandra Laronde, Christopher K. Morgan, Ananya Chatterjea, Michelle N. Gibson, and others.

In this second part of a 2-episode series, Dr. C. Kemal Nance examines the movements, meaning, and structure of the contemporary African dance technique known as Umfundalai.

https://www.umfundalai.net

Dr. C. Kemal Nance hosts this episode honoring Dr. Kariamu Welsh and celebrating the dance technique that she developed called Umfundalai.

https://www.umfundalai.net

Jennifer Edwards hosts this episode honoring the life and legacy of teacher and choreographic mentor, Bessie Schönberg. Included are excerpts of D.A. Pennebaker's documentary film entitled, "Bessie: A Portrait of Bessie Schönberg," with remembrances from Merce Cunningham, Jerome Robbins, Meredith Monk and from Schönberg herself.

Schönberg speaking about how to watch dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaAI6uyUn0Y

With the help of his colleague Elise Bernhardt, Stephan Koplowitz traces his early years at Jacob's Pillow, where ideas were planted that led to a fruitful, life-long career and his book entitled “On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation.” Featured are inside looks at Dancing In The Streets and Grand Central Dances, as well as Joanna Haigood's thoughts about her work process as a site choreographer. 

Book, "On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation" https://www.stephankoplowitz.com/onsitebook

Video, "Fenestrations" (1987) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxCkkMPypGc

Video, "Fenestrations2" (1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcMW78qRuSo

Poet and dance writer Karen Hildebrand hosts this two-part podcast, focusing on dramaturgy and dance. In this second part, Hildebrand explores how dramaturgs have worked with choreographers at the Pillow, focusing on works by Bebe Miller, Jane Comfort, and Rennie Harris. Hildebrand is the former editorial director for Dance Magazine, and a past editor in chief of Dance Teacher magazine.

Poet and dance writer Karen Hildebrand hosts this two-part podcast focusing on dramaturgy and dance. In this first part, Hildebrand defines the role of a dramaturg, drawing extensively upon a 2014 PillowTalk with dramaturg Anne Davison and Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe.

Dr. Iquail Shaheed offers a personal reflection on the life, work, and profound impact of his teacher and mentor, Milton Myers. Shaheed frames this exploration with thinking from his recent doctoral dissertation on Myers, a mainstay of The School at Jacob’s Pillow since 1985.