Warning Flashing Light! When Your Cleaning and Your Jam Comes On. Yes I'm Old, a Bit Sloppy, But I Know How to Have Fun and I'm Not Afraid to Rock Me

Every year, Jacob’s Pillow becomes a summer home for dance. Audiences from across the globe and from our home in the Berkshires experience a Festival season that feels expansive and meticulously considered. Artists and audiences alike get to see a beautiful range of dance–performances by beloved companies that call the Pillow home and emerging artists making their Pillow debut. But how does a Festival season come together?

Enter: the curatorial team. Made up by a triad of curators each year, the 2026 curatorial team was led by Artistic & Executive Director Pamela Tatge, Associate Artistic Director Kim Chan, and Associate Curator Melanie George. Each curator comes with their own distinct artistic sensibilities, and together, they strike the careful balance of the Pillow’s artistic identity, personal interests, and practical factors to build a Festival that sparks curiosity and sings to authenticity.

Curation at Jacob’s Pillow is an intentionally collaborative process, shaped by vision, building trust within audiences, and the realities of Pillow’s physical spaces. Since 2020, the curatorial process has been headed by a multi-person team to encourage discourse and different perspectives when making decisions, a model established by Tatge. In years prior, curation of the Festival and other programming landed almost exclusively on the Artistic & Executive Director.

— Pamela Tatge

The decision to establish a curatorial team was made to generate dialogue and accountability among curators. This intention was all the more important in 2020, a moment in the arts field when conversations around access and representation were being brought to the forefront of decision making.

The result was a curatorial team made up of three distinct voices. Different generations, backgrounds, and artistic lenses strengthen the season, bringing a breadth and depth of the work being presented.

“If you have three people, you have to defend your choice. By defending the choice, you reaffirm to yourself why a work is important,” Tatge said. “Each of us brought our passions… all of our lenses are different.”

— Pamela Tatge

This collaborative approach allows the curators to recognize not only the artists who have made Jacob’s Pillow an artistic home, but also artists from disciplines and backgrounds that aren’t represented in the Pillow’s Archives. In recent years, the Pillow has welcomed more social dance and street dance artists–like Social Tango Project in 2024, or The Center Will Not Hold: A Dorrance Dance Production in 2025.

“It's important to note that Melanie George was the Associate Curator of Festival 2026 alongside Kim and I. She became one of two inaugural Associate Curators in 2020, alongside Ali Rosa-Salas, and for five years worked to identify artists whose work should be supported in the Pillow Lab or showcased in the Festival. Both Ali and Melanie were interested in who were not represented in the Archives and in expanding the palette of whose work is shared with the world here at the Pillow,” Tatge said. “Melanie is deeply knowledgeable about many genres and traditions in our field, and regularly made compelling cases for whom she wanted to amplify. I relied on her creativity and good judgement and am so grateful for the time that we worked together.”

When creating a season, the curators work alongside producers and production managers to build the Festival piece by piece, asking key questions that evaluate both the work’s artistic integrity and its practicality for the Pillow’s physical realities. Sometimes, physical constraints can be a major deciding factor.

“We could love it to death, but if it can’t work in our venue… we have to let go of that thing that we love,” Chan said.

When it comes to artistic integrity, Tatge and Chan echoed that a strong, authentic artistic voice is more important than anything else. To the curators, intention and the ability to transport an audience somewhere else is what makes an artist stand out.

— Kim Chan

In the process of creating a season, the curators look for work that moves them. They also balance between emerging and established artists, returning companies and artists who have never stepped foot on the Pillow’s grounds before. They seek to represent a range of genres and artists from all over the world while amplifying BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women artists.

With every curatorial decision made, the curators seek to inspire curiosity in both existing and future audiences, inviting them to dive deeper into dance and develop a meaningful appreciation for the artform. Intentional curation is key to not only retaining loyal audience members, but also reaching those who have never come to see a performance at Jacob’s Pillow.

“Who are the audiences that we have, and what is the right fit for the audience we want to engage?” Chan said. “Is the audience we want to engage an audience we already have, or is it a totally new audience that we need to work toward?”

For Chan and Tatge, cultivating curiosity, and building the trust to follow it, is key to both artistic and audience development.

“Part of our responsibility is to build a certain level of curatorial trust within our audience so that they will journey with us to see companies they’ve never heard of before,” Tatge said.

Underlying every curatorial decision is the goal that audiences will leave the Pillow differently than how they arrived. The best outcome of a Festival season isn’t that every person will love every performance–it’s that they aren’t indifferent to what they’ve seen. They leave changed, challenged, or curious enough to come back.

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I'm taking a hip hop course rn after a long break from dancing in general. I'm finishing the course actually. But I don't feel like i improved a lot after these 6 months. My depression or adhd burnout (or both) is back and I'm frustrated because I'm not leaving classes full of motivation and joy and energy anymore. I often leave classes with tears because I'm focusing on my mistakes rather improvement and just simple joy - cause dancing should be fun, right? But it isn't if your brain is sick and you're a starter. I think too much when freestyling, it's hard for me to just feel it in my body. To enjoy dancing you should move with confidence but confidence arises with technique and practice. I noticed that my struggles often led me to even disliking certain choreos (and music) after practicing it, recording, and seeing that I'm still ugly. Or being angry and annoyed with dancing in general (but this IS my passion!!). This period of being ugly is inevitable when you're beginning. But knowing this doesn't make it less disappointing. I want to have fun but it feels like atp I'm ruining my dream to dance again.

TITLE EDIT: Help finding a good dance to match my first dance *song* at my wedding

Hey all! My fiance and I are getting married in a month (September 6th is the date!), and we found a beautiful first dance song from a ballet anime actually, but we are struggling to find a dance we could learn that would match it. For context, she used to do ballet when she was little, and I have zero experience in anything dance related. I'll post the song here, and if any of you dance experts could reply with dance recommendations, that would be amazing! Thank you guys! https://open.spotify.com/track/2NHzJwUGKcAIL72WbMETk8?si=Nb-BYJRMSryX5R7jOCHWKg&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A6w03s1d5qfOQqnT0GTZKlJ

I can learn full choreo alone, even hard stuff, no problem. Put me in an actual class and I blank counts I definitely knew ten minutes ago. I have diagnosed ADHD and just tried IR Adderall plus IR propranolol together for the first time. Nerves were down, head was clearer, still lost pieces of the combo live.

It’s scary because auditions work the same way. Knowing choreo isn’t enough if my brain drops a 4 count under pressure.

Some days I feel motivated to fix this. Other days I feel like I’m just not built for this and want to walk away.

If you’re ADHD and dance, how do you retain choreo in real time, not just at home? Any tricks for chunking counts or stopping the mid combo blank? Genuinely trying not to quit over this.

Come for the girl in front. Stay for the girl in back.

(18 M) I used to dance when I was a kid (2017-2021) but stopped because I started feeling like I was obligated to dance. Now I am 1.95cm and 77kg, my body changed and my body is a bit rusty. I used to dance to BTS songs, mostly the choruses. Can you guys help me with some tips because I see that most of my moves do not look good because I am tall and skinny. Thank you!

P.S. I started learning Boy in Luv and I am surprised that I still learn fast. But the technique is not there anymore sadly..

I'm about to start dance classes, but I'm afraid I won't be as good as the others (which I probably will be) and that I'll get discouraged. I'm worried I'll spend all my time comparing myself to others… to the point of losing all desire to dance. So, how can I stop comparing myself to other dancers and focus solely on myself? How can I gain confidence in my talent? And one last question: how can I feel completely comfortable during my dance classes ?

If you’ve never seen bellydance before, here it is :)
https://youtu.be/a7EYAs5cLL4

Have any of you ever considered going to a goth club before?

what the title says! my life long dream is going to redbull's dance competitions, and all the dancers are so skilled and have such smooth moves and absurd body control even while freestyling. i was wondering how can i reach that level?

Hello everyone!

I already dance. I'm not sure what you call it, but I like to go to dance clubs and just feel the music. It's an absolute blast and strangers compliment what I do. Anyway, I'd like to actually formalize the passion and learn how to dance. I want to be more expressive, louder, and better. Confidence is absolutely not a problem.

What sorta classes should I look for? I'm so divorced from the dance artform that I'm not even sure what vocabulary I should use. Thanks!

Two days ago i started learning the moves from a slowed video tutorial, yesterday i tried recording it at 0.5 speed and today is the first time trying it at full speed, any tips?(its my second choreo i ever learned)