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Greetings!
I am delighted to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Virtual Pillow Views with you.
Many of you who attend performances at the Festival also enjoy its three months of free public programs - exhibits, talks with artists, film showings, and performances that build bigger, more engaged audiences for dance. Our dream has been to also build an e-audience for dance by engaging people socially and intellectually -- whether novices or scholars-- and to share the Pillow's Archives globally. A few years ago, a major grant gave us that very opportunity, and we created Virtual Pillow. Now hundreds of thousands of people from over 150 countries are experiencing dance on their mobile devices and computers through Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive, PillowTV, and our FORA.tv channel.
On this one-year anniversary of Virtual Pillow Views, I would like to give cheers and thanks to: Nonprofit Finance Fund Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Jacob's Pillow Board of Directors Virtual Pillow Advisors David Ferguson, Peter Jaszi, Jonathan F. Miller, and Michael Sagalyn
The Pillow's leap from a c.1700 farm into the 21st century would not have been possible without the steadfast leadership work of our General Manager Connie Chin and the unmatched passion and expertise of our Director of Preservation Norton Owen.
As a way of thanking YOU for your individual participation and feedback, our anniversary issue of Virtual Pillow Views focuses below on some memorable solos from past decades, several of which are newly added to the collection.
Enjoy!
Ella Baff
Executive and Artistic Director
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
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Crystal Pite / Kidd Pivot Winner of the 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, Crystal Pite first presented her own work at the Pillow in the 2009 performance seen here. This solo from Lost Action is truly virtuosic, and Pillow-goers will have a chance to see a special screening of a 3D film inspired by this work on July 1, just after the final performance this season by Pite's company, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM.
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Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Although Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Orbo Norvo was very much an ensemble work, it included some remarkable solo moments. The dance was premiered at the Pillow with a commissioned score by talented young Polish composer Szymon Brz�ska, played live by the Mosaic String Quartet, and the section seen here captures a riveting solo turn.
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Matthew Rushing The solo "I Wanna Be Ready" from Alvin Ailey's Revelations holds a special place in Pillow history, as it was seen for the first time anywhere on the stage of the Ted Shawn Theatre in 1961. The great Ailey soloist Matthew Rushing performed it for the Pillow's 75th Anniversary Gala in 2007, and this excerpt shows a different portion of the dance than the one in Ron Honsa's new Pillow documentary Never Stand Still.
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Indrani This footage represents a remarkable "hidden treasure," as it was recently donated to the Pillow Archives along with other outtakes from a documentary about photographer John Lindquist, made by Bob Brodsky and Toni Treadway in 1979. This excerpt captures Indrani's final Pillow performance, nearly 20 years after her U.S. debut on the very same stage.
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Norman Walker Known as a former Director of Jacob's Pillow during the 1970s when he was also a prolific Pillow teacher and choreographer as well as one of its most frequent performers, Norman Walker is seen here in one of his very first Pillow engagements. Performing Ted Shawn's original role in Kinetic Molpai, Walker's appearance in this 1962 clip presages his assumption of Shawn's directorial role more than a decade later.
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Compagnie K�fig
More than a dec ade after Compagnie K�fig's Pillow debut, they return in 2012 with an entirely new show. But in the meantime, here is an astounding solo from their 2001 appearance. The audience reaction to Hafid Sour's extraordinary performance is clearly audible in this video, which leaves us all in breathless anticipation for the company's return August 15-19.
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Carmen De Lavallade Now appearing on Broadway in a new revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, the one and only Carmen De Lavallade has been a recurring presence at the Pillow since her debut in 1953. John Butler created Portrait of Billie for her in 1960, and she returned to the role more than thirty years later as a special tribute to the choreographer. Here's a moment from that historic one-time-only performance.
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Anna Duncan With upcoming celebrations to commemorate the 135th birthday of Isadora Duncan, there's no better time to have another look at one of the rarest pieces of film in the Jacob's Pillow Archives. This 1942 fragment shows one of Isadora's adopted daughters, known as the Isadorables, in her final performance as part of the Ted Shawn Theatre's inaugural season - a remarkable cross-generational moment in time.
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In Case You Missed It... (still more superb solos in Dance Interactive - click text to view)
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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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