Month: January 2023

First Visit to Jacob’s Pillow in 1956 and Virtual Visit 2023

JoAnne Tucker / / Current Dance Events, Dance History, Personal Life

Some memories stay vividly with you even after 67 years. The memory of my first visit to Jacob’s Pillow in 1956 is such a memory.

I was attending Belgian Village Camp located in Cummington, MA.  While I was only thirteen, a close friend of my Mom’s knew of my strong interest in teaching dance.   She had a good friend who ran the camp and contacted her, sharing my interest.  I was given a scholarship with the understanding that I would teach the younger kids dance.  I was thrilled.

It was a wonderful summer and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the young girls creative movement, much as I had learned from my teacher Genevieve Jones. And the highlight was when a group of us was taken to Jacob’s Pillow for an afternoon performance.

In a rustic theatre, the performance began with Ted Shawn introducing himself to us and telling us about Jacob’s Pillow.  I don’t remember his exact words, but my thirteen-year-old self knew he was a very important person and spoke to us in a very dignified manner.

Later I would learn just how important a figure he was in the creation of American modern dance.  A New York Times article written by Clive Barnes shortly after his death gives good insight into his role:

THE death of Ted Shawn shortly after his 80th birthday brings to an end a whole era in American dance. Shawn, together with his wife, the late Ruth St. Denis, was largely responsible for the creation of American modern‐dance.

It was in 1915 that Shawn and his wife started the original Denishawn School in Los Angeles, and from this school emerged the first generation of American modern dancers, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. These were the new pioneers of American modern‐dance, and Shawn was their spiritual father.   https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/16/archives/ted-shawn-18911972.html

The current Jacob’s Pillow website points out that in 1930 Shawn purchased a “rundown farm in the Berkshires known as Jacob’s Pillow … and that laid the groundwork for both his revolutionary company of men dancers and America’s oldest dance festival.”

On YouTube you can watch a piece of his company of men performing

When our camp visited the Pillow, Shawn said the performance that day would let us see three different kinds of dance: modern, ethnic and ballet. I do not remember the modern or ethnic dance performances at all, but having the opportunity to see Alicia Markova dance “The Dying Swan” was breathtaking.

Markova was 46 when I saw her perform, and the emotion and delicacy that she exhibited, especially in her arms, stood out.  She had begun performing when she was just 14, discovered by Diaghilev.  After her time with the Ballet Russes she moved to London and danced with the Sadler Wells Ballet Company and was noted for her partnership with Anton Dolin.  On YouTube you can find excerpts of her dancing The Dying Swan and also Giselle with Anton Dolin as her partner.

Link to The Dying Swan

Link to Giselle 

The summer at Belgian Village opened my eyes to new possibilities ahead and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to begin exploring my teaching abilities and to visit Jacob’s Pillow.

                   Age 13 at Belgian Village Camp

Now living in Costa Rica, I don’t get many opportunities to see dance, so I am very glad that Jacob’s Pillow is now making so much available online.  Some videos and films are free and that includes the short films that are a part of Inside the Pillow Lab and some longer films that are part of Pillow Talk.  It is a great resource both for gaining a historical perspective and for knowing what is happening now.  For example, one film of historical note in Pillow Talk is “Ann Hutchinson Guest: A Century +”:

Celebrating the life of dance notation pioneer Ann Hutchinson Guest (1918-2022), her legacy and deep Pillow roots are explored by friends, family, and fans including Norton  Owen, Michael Richter, Tina Curran, and Melanie Dana, with many video clips of Guest herself.  (1:00:37)

The Pillow Lab videos are short interviews with choreographers, about the work they created while at Jacob’s Pillow.  While they are talking, we see dancers moving with phrases from the developing piece.  The videos are short and informative with a diverse group of choreographers.

There is also a pay-for-events section where one can select films of past performances at Jacob’s Pillow.   Currently streaming now and available for a fee of $15 is the Limon Dance Company which is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary.  It was added on January 9th and will be available until February 19th.  Once you pay you may watch the performance as many times as you like.   Also available are pre- and post-show talks related to the performance, and these are free.

So even if you can’t make an in-person trip to the Pillow, you have lots of options to watch, many for free and some costing $15.

If you have studied at Jacob’s Pillow, performed there or attended a memorable performance, I invite you to add a comment — or better yet, to contact me to do a guest post about your experience.

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Guest Blog – Tara Stepenberg: First visit to Jacob’s Pillow – l953 – I am 10 years old

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Guest Posts

I am pleased to welcome Tara Stepenberg as a guest blogger.  Tara responded enthusiastically to my last blog about Jacob’s Pillow, when I invited anyone who had a memorable experience at the Pillow to contact me about doing a guest blog.  Thank you, Tara, for sharing your experience.  JoAnne

One evening in August of 1953, my mother and I went to Jacob’s Pillow for a performance.  It was before dusk when we arrived. What first struck me were the rustic wooden cabins where students were staying. As we walked on the path by the cabins, the open windows allowed one to see inside.  The rooms had lights on, and I could peer in, seeing pointe shoes hanging in the rooms (perhaps hanging down from rafters).  I loved the look of that; it has stayed with me all these years and was experienced like some kind of “touchstone” for the future.

As was mentioned in a previous post, the place where the performances occurred was the “barn” and the program had different dance styles: classical ballet, modern and “ethnic” dance. (Each style was given equal weight. This was an important vision of Ted Shawn’s and was not lost on me).   The performances were by the best representatives of these styles.  I believe I saw Alicia Markova and perhaps one other ballet performer.  For the “ethnic” portion, I saw the dynamic Jean Leon Destine (1918-2013) and his Afro-Haitian company.   (For more information, google danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org to see photographs of this company.) He performed with Katherine Dunham and established his own company emphasizing dances/rituals from Haiti.

What I remember most about the performance is Giselle’s Revenge by Myra Kinch.  I had seen the ballet Giselle in Rochester, but this Giselle was hilarious, dressed in all black, looking like the Addams Family, and there was a coffin and a hammer! (Giselle seduces her Albrecht into the coffin and nails it shut.) For photographs, google “Myra Kinch Giselle’s Revenge,” and photographs from Getty Images appear. (I could not find videos). Myra Kinch (1904-1981) was a modern dancer born in LA who trained with La Meri. She was known for her humor and satire – the focus of her choreographic output.  She was head of the Modern Dance program at Jacob’s Pillow for 25 years beginning in l948.

The trip to Jacob’s Pillow was particularly memorable because it solidified for me what I wanted to do with my life.  The affirmation occurred at dinnertime a day after the Jacob’s Pillow performance during our summer’s visit to a “farm” in Great Barrington. For several years, my family went to the Berkshires to spend a week on the “farm” of a family who were friends of my parents’ from their days with the American Labor Party.  This lovely “farm” in Great Barrington, MA, was a beautiful place with many blackberry bushes, a nearby brook, and a run-down one-room schoolhouse filled with “old” books.  The primary family also housed refugees from time to time and during this summer I noticed a person, a woman who had numbers on her forearm, and I learned that this woman had been in Auschwitz. (This was my first encounter with a survivor from the camps.)

I can see myself standing at the dinner table with many people around it.  Someone asked me what I wanted to do or be when I grew up (I don’t remember the exact question).  My response was, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a dancer, graduate high school early and go to New York.”  And in fact I graduated high school just after turning 16, went to the Boston Conservatory of Music for a year, then Juilliard, and after graduating, performed with Anna Sokolow for a year.

Tara, age 11, the year after she visited Jacob’s Pillow.

Bio. Tara Stepenberg (ne. Francia Roxin)  Tara (M.Ed., CMA, RMT) a former Education Director of LIMS, has been deeply engaged with movement for over 50 years, as a performing, creative artist, university professor, reconstructor from Labanotation, movement coach, somatic and authentic movement practitioner. She founded & directed the Dance Department at Hampshire College, taught at SUNY Brockport, The Naropa Institute, Antioch New England, Wesleyan Summer Program and Southwestern College. She currently is on the conditioning staff of Pacific Northwest Ballet, has a private practice Somatic Resonance, and in January (2022) completed the Ways of Seeing program with Suzi Tortora. Tara loves the places and spaces that engagement with the bodymind reveals.

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