Schedule of Events:

2:00pm: The Center Will Not Hold: A Dorrance Dance Production:
Jacob's Pillow fan favorites and close collaborators Michelle Dorrance and Ephrat Asherie kick off Festival 2025 with a lively celebration of street, club, and vernacular dances, born from their many years of creating together. Originally crafted in 2022 as a short duet, The Center Will Not Hold premiered as a 30-minute piece at New York City Center's 2023 Fall For Dance Festival.​​

Now, in this reimagined evening-length work, Dorrance and Asherie offer an eclectic ensemble of 11 performers, each deeply rooted in regional music and movement—from tap dance and hip hop to breaking, house, Chicago footwork, Detroit jit, litefeet, Memphis jookin', and body percussion. The Center Will Not Hold features original music composed by Donovan Dorrance with live percussion by world-class drummer and percussionist John Angeles.

Jacob's Pillow has long been an artistic home for Michelle Dorrance, a tap performer, choreographer, teacher, and the Artistic Director of Dorrance Dance, which has headlined at the festival nine times, most recently in 2021 and 2023. An artist "with a transcendent strength of spirit" (The Washington Post), Dorrance received the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award in 2013 and a MacArthur "Genius" Award in 2015. Ephrat Asherie is a b-girl dancer and choreographer whose works are hailed as "a magnificent celebration of movement and art" (Charleston City Paper). She has performed at Jacob's Pillow numerous times since 2013, and her company, Ephrat Asherie Dance, developed its break-out work Odeon in the Pillow Lab in 2017 and had its world premiere at Festival 2018. Both based in New York City, Dorrance and Asherie have also served as Program Directors at The School at Jacob's Pillow.

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5:30pm :The School at Jacob’s Pillow: Contemporary Ballet Performance Ensemble: Henry J. Leir Stage:
Performances by The School at Jacob’s Pillow Performance Ensembles showcase the work of the next generation of dance artists. This performance is the culmination of a two-week Contemporary Ballet Program, featuring original repertoire by leading choreographers who serve as Artist Faculty: Program Director Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Guest Choreographer Durante Verzola.

Dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow are apprentices, trainees, pre-professionals, and early-career professionals from around the world. The School’s professional advancement programs are held onsite during the Festival to nurture the artistic voices and growth of the dancers.

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