{"id":6391,"date":"2019-06-21T13:46:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T17:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=6391"},"modified":"2019-06-21T22:33:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T02:33:47","slug":"dancing-in-the-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2019\/06\/dancing-in-the-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing in the Green"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Attendees enjoying the Jacob’s Pillow “campus.” Photo: Grace Kathryn Landefield<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It rained the day before the\nJacob\u2019s Pillow Gala. It rained the day after the Jacob\u2019s Pillow Gala.\nFortunately, the rain gods were too busy elsewhere to cause trouble in Becket,\nMassachusetts on Saturday the 15th<\/sup> of June at 5:00 P.M. Pink\numbrellas hung on the chairs for the banquet in the gigantic tent, just in\ncase, but the sunny landscape could rouse in your mind the refrain of Federico\nGarcia Lorca\u2019s poem \u201cRomancero Sonambula:\u201d \u201cGreen, how I want you green.\/Green\nwind. Green branches. . . \u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brandon Barker and Evita Arce trying out the steps of Wild Rhythm<\/em>. Photo: Cherlynn Tsushima<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wandering around the lawns and into some of the buildings, drink in hand, you might come across one or some or all of the six dancers of Wild Rhythm (Evita Arce, Latasha Barner, Brandon Barker, Nathan Bugh and the co-choreographers Gaby Cook and Elena Valencia) as they tapped smartly to Ray Charles or Count Basie on tape. You (well, I for sure) could remember the old days, when the Pillow\u2019s founder Ted Shawn had stretched a gated fence across the premises; you could go into the theater of course, but almost everything else was off limits, and some of the buildings didn\u2019t exist yet. No library back then. No place to eat dinner either. Or wander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One group of the dancers of Jacob’s Pillow’s Contemporary Ballet Program in Matthew Neenan’s World Premier<\/em>e. Photo: Christopher Duggan
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As director Pamela Tatge\ninformed the 2019 crowd in the theater, Matthew Neenan had composed and\nrehearsed the opening number for twenty-one students enrolled in the School at\nJacob\u2019s Pillow\u2019s Contemporary Ballet Program in only four days (concerted gasp\nfrom the audience). Co-director of the program with Alexandra Damiani, he\nshowed off the accomplished young dancers with skill and sensitivity (he must\nhave been very<\/em> well prepared and they\nbeyond diligent). To excerpts from \u201cIn Gabriel\u2019s Garden,\u201d performed on tape by\nWinton Marsalis, Anthony Newman, and the English Chamber Orchestra, the dancers\noften assembled in two groups\u2014one group keeping relatively still and the other\nmoving\u2014and shifted the audience\u2019s attention between precise unison phrases and\ncomplex tangles, or thrust an occasional pair into prominence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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L to R: Taimy Rodriguez, Eoghan Dillon, and Amber Martin in Trey McIntyre’s Less Amor<\/em>. Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Trey McIntyre’s Less Amor <\/em>was also a world premiere and a Jacob’s Pillow Commission. It involved two chairs, two dancers (Taimy Rodriguez and Eoghan Dillon) and a fine singer-composer Amber Martin, who was at times joined by recorded material. It seemed to me that there was plenty of \u201camor\u201d on view\u2014at least, if you might relate the unexpected merging and entangling of two bodies to an act of love depicted by imaginative athletes. Martin was part of their world\u2014observing them, reaching out to them, perhaps even guarding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before Tatge presented Annabelle Lopez Ochoa with the 2019 Jacob\u2019s Pillow Award, Oliver Greene-Cramer and Grace Morton of Ballet Austin performed Lopez Ochoa\u2019s Symbiotic Twin <\/em>(originally created for New York City Ballet\u2019s Ashley Bouder and Taylor Stanley). Lopez Ochoa, half Belgian and half Colombian, has created over ninety works for more than fifty different companies worldwide\u2014works that combine the ballet vocabulary with more contemporary material. Symbiotic Twin <\/em>presented her two dancers as intensely aware of each other, and intimately\u2014at times uncomfortably\u2014connected, once opening their mouths as if calling silently for help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grace Morton and Oliver Greene-Cramer of Ballet Austin in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Symbiotic Twin<\/em>. Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The award of $25,000 to Lopez\nOchoa amounts to half the ongoing, annual anonymous donation that supports the\nPillow\u2019s commitment to developing new work. The Gala itself raises money to\nsupport its various endeavors, and the live auction that took place in the\ntheater during the program could get you a trip for two to the Zulu Nyala Game\nLodge or a Rhine Getaway Cruise for two, while the twenty-five items displayed\nin the silent auction could treat you to art, meals, classes, trips, shows,\nget-togethers with friends and people you\u2019d like to know (such as dinner for\nten with Governor and Mrs. Deval Patrick). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caleb Teicher’s Bzzz . <\/em>L to R: Naomi Funaki, Brittany DeStefano, Caleb Teicher, Demi Remick, Luke Hickey, and Tamii Sakurai. Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Heady from all the money\nbeing solicited during the bidding by auctioneer Audrey Smaltz, you could sit\nback, breathe deeply, and watch the last number on the program: Bzzz <\/em>by Caleb Teicher, who performed\nwith members of his small company, five of whom were, like the choreographer,\nalumni of Jacob\u2019s Pillow: Brittany DeStefano, Naomi Funaki, Jabu Graybeal, Luke\nHickey, Demi Remick, and Tamil Sakurai. The piece, which took place on three\nlow, intersecting red platforms included lively solo improvisations by various\nof the dancers. And their finely organized shenanigans were goaded on by the\nremarkable vocalizing of Chris Celiz, who crooned and spat and clicked into his\nmicrophone a litany of sounds that evoked an alien world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t yet dark when,\nreplete with food, drink, art, and conversation, we made our way to our car and\nthe open road. This week, Jacob\u2019s Pillow began its summer season of\npresentations. And, today, June 21, we can all celebrate the summer solstice\nand be grateful for fertility in nature, as well as in the arts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It rained the day before the Jacob\u2019s Pillow Gala. It rained the day after the Jacob\u2019s Pillow Gala. Fortunately, the rain gods were too busy elsewhere to cause trouble in Becket, Massachusetts on Saturday the 15th of June at 5:00 P.M. Pink umbrellas hung on the chairs for the banquet in the gigantic tent, just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,109,580],"tags":[2259,2419,3156,1656,2433,2420,2732,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-6391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ballet","8":"category-contemporary-dance","9":"category-tap-and","10":"tag-annabelle-lopez-ochoa","11":"tag-caleb-teicher","12":"tag-gaby-cook","13":"tag-jacobs-pillow-dance-festival","14":"tag-matthew-neenan","15":"tag-nathan-bugh","16":"tag-pamela-tatge","17":"tag-trey-mcintyre","18":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6409,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391\/revisions\/6409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}