Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival & School

I want to LIVE here all summer long! Beautiful, relaxing, unpretentious, stunning and intimate performances. My New England bones were HOME here. Beautiful museum and library, too.

Ballet BC was amazing! Beer & Tacos at «The Barre» were a great finish to a wonderful day! This is looking to be a yearly vacation spot…

this place is the pits. the chairs are for tiny people and are so uncomfortable, there are bugs and mosquitos everywhere in the theatre, and it is suffocating in the summer. never again.

I love the performing arts, and my daughter is a dancer so I was able to watch her perform on the Inside/​Out stage which is an outdoor theater with the Berkshire Mountains as the backdrop. So amazing! Jacob’s Pillow is a place filled with history both performing arts & civil war history. I did not get a chance to tour the entire grounds & have not attended a performance in the indoor theater, but intend to go back in the near future. It is a place filled with energy & appreciation for the arts which offers performances (fee & free), education & classes for all ages, and much more in the peaceful setting of the Berkshires. A must for any artist young & old!

This is the second year we’ve been here. We both love dance and this place has some of the best! The grounds are lovely and just wandering around is a pleasure (and you can do that free). They also have the free Inside/​out series which is a short outdoor dance program in a lovely amphitheater with the mountains as a backdrop. We saw two shows in that series over the 3 days we were at the pillow. Also saw Tero Saarinen company’s «Borrowed Light» which was an amazing combination of dance, lighting and music (the Boston Camarata on stage with the dancers). This is hard to describe but well worth seeing. We were blown away. Also saw the Men Dancers: Tales from the horses mouth. We were expecting recreations of Ted Shawn dances but instead it was a compelling juxtaposition of short persona stories told by the dancers and them dancing. Only 4 people on stage at any point but as the newest one would come on to tell a story the one who had been on stage the longest (each did 3 variations) would go off. Another amazing and moving performance.

First. I wanna say that the dance itself was interesting and different.
As for the outside facility it was beautiful.
I’m giving this place 2 stars for two reasons.
1. Interior stage design flaw. My family and I had second row seats and had peoples heads in our way. The indoor theater we were in definitely needs a better audience layout.
2. Food. When I got to the place I thought it was a restaurant. Not by any means. Its a shack with a restaurant menu but pre packaged food. I’ve had lean cuisine better than the junk we got. Don’t bother giving their food shack any money.

80 min of pure visual captivation — Pichet Klunchun Dance Company was world class quality!
Don’t use Unilocal directions unless you have a 4×4 but make this visit for nothing that comes through this venue will disappoint.

Some enchanted evening, if you are lucky, you will find yourself at Jacob’s Pillow. And you will never forget it. There really is something mysteriously magical about this place which is hard to describe. It might be a combination of the gold and purple light as evening approaches, along with the flowers, trees and pastoral landscape filled with pathways and meandering trails. The space is sprinkled with assorted buildings, each with their own distinct charm and character. It may sound totally weird, but this place really does feel enchanted.
Even if you do not like watching dance performances, preferring to take in the Red Sox or the Patriots, leaving dance to others, give it a try. I don’t think anyone would be unimpressed or uninspired by the performances. Talk about athleticism. I have been lucky enough to see some world class performances here, all in this exquisite setting that is just beyond unique.
I also got to see some documentary films about Jacob’s Pillow at the Great Barrington Film Festival. The films went into great detail about the history of Jacob’s Pillow. I believe they sell them in the gift shop there. If you have a dancer in your life, he/​she would really appreciate these movies.
You can picnic, watch dance rehearsals outdoors and get to see some well-​known and emerging dancers. Plus this setting is just unforgettable. A trip to western Massachusetts would be incomplete without a visit to this stunning piece of enchantment.

When I was young, my mother dragged me kicking and screaming to dance lessons, she dressed me in a furry mink coat and I got beat up because of all this. It wasn’t until she took me to see a show from Jacob’s Pillow Dance Theater that I really enjoy dance lessons because the dancers were so athletic and I saw them as true athlete that I got good and my mom put me in advance ballet class where I got in more fights but by then I started hurting those that picked on me and so my mother punish me by taking away my dance lessons. If I knew I had to win my fights to get out of dance class, I would have done it earlier. But, that was then and this is now.
And after many years, Jacob’s Pillow still puts on an amazing show. Just a couple of phone calls while working on the east coast and I was able to get some tickets and we watch and was captivated by the shear athleticism and beauty of emotions in motion. It is good to see a national landmark still has fire and energy to give to audiences.
Jacob’s Pillow is the longest dance festival with it’s history connected to the underground railroad and famous dancers and dance from all over the world and bills itself as the only dance institution to be named a National Historic Landmark. Mom would be happy that I dragged my friends kicking and screaming and then watch as they was awed by the wonderful show by amazing dancers. I hope I get to see more shows by Jacob’s Pillow when I visit my bro on the east coast.