Jacob's Pillow Reveals 10 Pillow Lab Artists Selected for 2024/25 Seaso

Jacob’s Pillow has announced the artists selected to participate in 10 onsite residencies this fall through next summer, as part of the Pillow Lab residency program. Artists participating in this series, in chronological order, are: Hélène Simoneau Danse; Emily Coates, Ain Gordon, and Derek Lucci;  Music from the Sole; Andy Blankenbuehler and Kate Quinn; Brinae Ali; dani tirell; Peter Rockford Espiritu and Roberta Uno; Joanna Kotze; The Choreodaemonic Collective; and Rosy Simas. Programming and dates are subject to change.

The Pillow Lab is a residency program that supports U.S.-based and international dance artists in the crucial development, research, and technical stages of choreographic projects, and offers the opportunity for artists to work in the Pillow’s retreat-like atmosphere, studio spaces, and generative landscape. Lead support for the Pillow Lab is generously provided by the Mellon Foundation. 

“As the Pillow’s year-round incubator of new work, the Pillow Lab plays a significant role in the creation, presentation and preservation of dance.” said Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge. “This program is a vital component of Jacob’s Pillow mission and decades-long history as a hub of artistic development and exploration. We are proud to nurture the choreographic process, while cultivating opportunities for artists to debut new works at the Pillow and beyond.”

Pillow Lab artists and their collaborators receive unrestricted use of Jacob’s Pillow’s iconic site, founded more than 90 years ago in the bucolic landscape that characterizes the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Artists live on campus and receive in-kind housing, an artist fee for each collaborator, a grocery stipend, and access to the Pillow’s extensive Archives. Certain residencies may include video documentation and/or the creation of a fully produced short form documentary about the artists’ work.

Residency programs have existed at Jacob’s Pillow in various forms since the organization’s founding in the early 1930s. Now heading into its ninth year in 2025, the Pillow Lab began as an anchor of a five-year strategic plan called Vision ’22, and continues into the future. Built from a field-wide scan that included interviews with a diverse group of choreographers, as well as examinations of existing choreographic residency programs at peer institutions, the Pillow Lab sets an industry example with a distinctive mission, vision, set of values, and approach.

Choreographers selected for residencies through the Pillow Lab are chosen by Tatge as well as Associate Artistic Director Kim Chan and Associate Curator Melanie George. Most residencies include an informal, in-person, work-in-progress showing. Showings are limited to an intimate, invited audience of Jacob’s Pillow Members as well as faculty, staff, and students from the College Partnership Program, community members, and artists’ colleagues. For more information, visit jacobspillow.org/pillowlab.

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