By Laura Regensdorf
Above: Visionary Korean choreographer Eun-Me Ahn presents the U.S. premiere of “Dragons.”
“There is a character that comes about in a space that has been doing the same thing for a long period of time,” said Norton Owen, director of preservation at Jacob’s Pillow, the historic dance center in Becket dating to 1933. “You feel it when you go into an old church or synagogue or a farm that has been worked for generations.”
For the Pillow, its longtime venues—the Ted Shawn Theatre (1942), the mountaintop Henry J. Leir Stage (1981), and the barn-like Doris Duke Theatre (1990)—have been home to generations of dance legends. “The spirits here are very strong, let us just say,” Owen reflected.
When fire tore through the Duke on November 17, 2020, the sense of loss was collective. “There was this sense of just unfathomable silent scream in me when that happened,” recalled choreographer Faye Driscoll. Executive and artistic director Pamela Tatge rushed to the scene as firefighters from six towns battled the blaze. “The miracle of that day was that there was no wind, because we are all wood structures at Jacob’s Pillow,” she said.
A rendering of the new Doris Duke Theatre, with a flexible design for immersive experiences.
“Touch of RED,” from Shamel Pitts’ company TRIBE, is a charged duet set in a stylized boxing ring.
Andrew Schneider opens the new Doris Duke Theatre with the world premiere of “HERE.”
Without the Duke, the Pillow lost an essential space for experimental work and rehearsals. But rebuilding also meant possibility. The original venue had accessibility issues, too few bathrooms, and no proper warm-up area. Most importantly, the new theater could be designed for an increasingly digital age—supporting livestreaming, projection, and cutting-edge sound design. “We understood that artists are using myriad technologies,” Tatge explained, “so one of the key things was to really build the bandwidth—the capability to do anything in the space.”
This July, the new Doris Duke Theatre debuts. Designed by Francine Houben of Mecanoo, with New York firm Marvel and acoustic consultants Charcoalblue, the curving, landscaped structure blends into its environment. Inside, Houben calls it a “magic box”—a flexible space adaptable for immersive, technology-driven performances. Artist Jeffrey Gibson advised on the design, ensuring Indigenous perspectives shaped the project.
From the start, artists were consulted. Andrew Schneider was asked to submit tech riders—including one for a “dream project,” which now premieres as HERE. Developed with Berlin-based choreographers, the work uses wave field synthesis and 382 miniature speakers to create “audio holograms.”
The Jacob’s Pillow campus, shown from above.
Faye Driscoll’s “Weathering” puts dancers on a moving “raft” in a multisensory performance.
Meanwhile, Driscoll returns with Weathering, a work for 10 dancers centered on a spinning platform—a raft at the end of the world. It immerses audiences with sound and scent but prioritizes human instinct over digital tools.
Shamel Pitts brings Touch of RED, a boxing-inspired duet that explores intimacy, friction, and rebirth. For his Brooklyn-based collective TRIBE, which was in residence at the Pillow when the fire struck, the Duke premiere is a poignant full-circle moment.
“Nature has a lot of destruction and decay,” Pitts reflected. “That energy then translates into a rebirth.” With its new Doris Duke Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow embodies that same cycle—resilience, renewal, and a bold step into the future of dance.
