Greetings!
Did you know that riktig guldgruva för dansälskare means "a real gold mine for dance lovers" in Swedish? Neither did we, but it was important to find out what Nancy Westman was calling our new online resource in a recent piece she wrote for Sweden's Dans.
"Many things could be said about the ephemeral world of media of today, not all of it positive,
but a loud BRAVO is due when looking at the new interactive archives presented by the oldest
dance festival in the US, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival."
Westman goes on to decree that "all of it is continuously fun, beautiful, touching, and interesting." As the Swedes would say, Tack! (Thanks!)
Norton Owen
Director of Preservation Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival |
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Ballet Theatre in Jerome Robbins' Interplay 
Jacob's Pillow enjoyed a particularly cozy relationship with Ballet Theatre (as American Ballet Theatre was then known) in 1949. The ballet components of both the Festival and the School were under the company's supervision, and Ballet Theatre artists appeared on six of the nine Festival programs. Included were two works by Jerome Robbins, and a representative excerpt may be seen here. (Make sure you watch until the end in order to savor the extraordinarily vibrant John Lindquist photo, preferably displayed in full-screen mode.)
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Rasta Thomas and Bad Boys of Dance 
One of the featured artists in Ron Honsa's new film Never Stand Still, currently playing the festival circuit, is the amazing Rasta Thomas. You can see him here in a virtuoso solo from Roger C. Jeffrey's Heartbeat on Repeat, recorded during the company's world debut at the Pillow in 2007. And you can find out how to see more of Rasta on the film's brand-new website: http://www.neverstandstillfilm.com
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Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Clarinade
 Another featured company in Never Stand Still, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet now joins the ever-growing list of companies represented in Dance Interactive. While we already offered four different excerpts of George Balanchine's work, this fifth example is a true rarity, a "lost" pas de deux from Clarinade which has not been revived by New York City Ballet since the work's initial season in 1964. Because Farrell originated the role, this is the most authoritative look we're ever likely to have.
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Louise Lecavalier Dances Édouard Lock
It was exactly thirty years ago that Montreal native Louise Lecavalier joined Édouard Lock's groundbreaking company, La La La Human Steps, and she remained Lock's resident muse for nearly two decades. A new compilation called A Few Minutes of Lock was presented at the Pillow this past summer in its U.S. premiere, and an excerpt is now available online. Lecavalier describes this retrospective as a chance "to discover what the body remembers or doesn't remember; to know what memory has let go, flattened, or embellished."
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Getting the Most from Dance Interactive
 Are you aware of all the features that are built into Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive? This 4-minute narrated demonstration provides an easy introduction.
In this video you will quickly learn how to:
-Expand a performance excerpt to full screen
-View a performance excerpt in High Definition
-Search by ARTIST, GENRE and ERA
-Just DIVE IN
-Play the GUESS game
-Return to the homepage
-Look at the full collection in chronological order
And if you still have questions after viewing, just use the video comments feature and we will be sure to respond.
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| In Case You Missed It (links from past Virtual Pillow Views)
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Header Photo Credits (left to right): Ted Shawn, photo Shapiro Studios; Drew Jacoby, photo Liza Voll; Cynthia Gregory, photo ©Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos; Savion Glover, photo Len Irish; Shantala Shivalingappa, photo C.P. Satyajit |
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