Inside the Pillow Lab: Taylor Stanley

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. Already a celebrated principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, Taylor Stanley had a breakout moment in 2018 with what Dance Magazine called an “epic” performance in Kyle Abraham’s The Runaway, a commission for NYCB that featured Stanley dancing to music by Jay-Z and Kanye West. Stanley now joins a growing number of ballet stars who are pursuing new movement frontiers, coming to the Pillow with a team of artists including Lloyd Knight (Martha Graham Dance Company), Jacquelin Harris (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Allysen Hooks (Gallim Dance), and Ned Sturgis (Dušan Týnek Dance Theater) in a new Pillow-commissioned ensemble work by postmodern choreographer Jodi Melnick. Recent Pillow Lab artist and 2020 Guggenheim Fellow Shamel Pitts will also choreograph a solo for Stanley. With an unpretentious movement style noted as being “elegantly forceful…calm, confident, divinely cool,” (Brian Seibert, The New York Times) Stanley is a natural fit for these exploratory contemporary ventures. Taylor Stanley with Choreographer Jodi Melnick RESIDENCY DATES: January 15-22, 2021 MOVEMENT MADE IN COLLABORATION WITH: Taylor Stanley Jacquelin Harris* Allysen Hooks* Lloyd Knight Ned Sturgis *Indicates alumnus of The School at Jacob’s Pillow MUSIC: Petting the Ram Music by Sam Barsh Freaky Wednesday Music by Sam Barsh Thank you Music by Demure Unexpected Revelation Music by Peter Sandberg Sunny Delight Music by High Street Music New Frontier Music by Flashing Lights Karlo Malo Music by Sam Barsh FILMING: Caroline Haidet Taylor Stanley Jodi Melnick Lloyd Knight NEL SHELBY PRODUCTION CREDITS Produced by Nel Shelby of Nel Shelby Productions Edited byCaroline Haidet Graphic Design by Benjamin Richards Nina Gershonowitz, Project Manager Special thanks to Dr. Wendy Ziecheck for supporting this residency. 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.