About
Mission & Vision:
Mission Statement
To support dance creation, presentation, education, and preservation; and to engage and deepen public appreciation and support for dance.
Presentation
World premieres, U.S. debuts, exceptional and diverse artists, and collaborations with composers, visual artists, and writers comprise over 150 performances presented each Festival season.
Creation
New work and the development of the art form are supported through commissions, the Pillow Lab, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.
Education
The School at Jacob’s Pillow provides training by eminent faculty that not only produces great dancers, but also great artists. The Intern Program, Public School Programs, and Community Programs educate people of all ages about the art of dance.
Preservation
The Pillow is a National Historic Landmark with rare and extensive dance Archives encompassing materials from 1894 through today. The photography collections, films, library, exhibits, and video viewing stations are free and open to the public.
Engagement
The general public, students, scholars and artists are invited to experience dance through more than 200 free performances and talks, rehearsals, class observation, tours, and interaction with artists, scholars, writers, filmmakers, and composers.
Company Info:
Modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn, bought the Jacob’s Pillow farm in 1931. Shawn had long harbored a dream of legitimizing dance in America as an honorable career for men, and in 1933, he recruited eight men for a new dance company. In July 1933, Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers started offering “Tea Lecture Demonstrations” in their barn studio (now known as the Bakalar Studio) to promote their work, establishing roots for what was to evolve into Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.
