Inside the Pillow Lab: jumatatu m. poe & Jermone Donte Beacham

Inside the Pillow Lab is an intimate new film series that captures works in process and behind-the-scenes moments of what it’s like for artists to live, work, and rehearse together again in COVID-compliant residencies on the Pillow’s retreat-like campus. The Pillow Lab, the Pillow’s year-round center for research and development, provides artists the crucial space and time in development, research, and technical stages of choreography-driven projects. Choreographer and performer jumatatu m. poe is known for work that strives to engage and further dialogues with Black queer individuals, creating compelling and challenging work that recognizes History as only one option for the contextualization of the present. In the multi-year series "Let ’im Move You," jumatatu m. poe and collaborator Jermone Donte Beacham distill decade-long research of J-Sette performance, a “high step” march popularized by the women’s majorette teams at historically Black colleges in the United States. An amalgam of the performance and complexities of Black joy, poe and Beacham investigate rhythm, pattern, and attention. In August, poe, Beacham, and artist collaborators presented a site-specific iteration of the series through the works "A Study" and "This is a Success" around the Pillow’s campus as part of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2021. They continued development at the Pillow Lab with new components of the project before embarking on a five-city tour. RESIDENCY DATES: August 30–September 10, 2021 CHOREOGRAPHY: jumatatu m. poe & Jermone Donte Beacham COLLABORATORS IN RESIDENCE: Maria Bauman, Performer Jermone Donte Beacham, Co-choreographer/Performer Sanchel Brown, Performer LaKendrick Davis, Performer Thomas DeFrantz, Dramaturg/Provocateur angel shanel edwards, Videographer Zen Jefferson, DJ/Performer Nikolai McKenzie, Performer jumatatu m. poe, Director/Co-choreographer/Performer Juan "Co-eL" Rodriguez, Lighting Designer/Technical Director/Stage Manager Marýa Wethers, Managing Producer MUSIC: Sound Design by DJ Zen Jefferson FILMING: angel shanel edwards NEL SHELBY PRODUCTION CREDITS: Produced by New Shelby Edited by Caroline Haidet Graphic Design by Benjamin Richards Nina Gershonowitz, Project Manager Lead support for the 2020-21 Pillow Lab is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. With Additional Support from: Deborah & Charles Adelman Arison Arts Foundation The Barr Foundation Harkness Foundation for Dance Christopher Jones & Deb McAlister Mertz Gilmore Foundation National Endowment for the Arts © 2021 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Inc.