Post-Show Talk: Brinae Ali

This Post-Show Talk is moderated by Scholar-in-Residence Janet Schroeder in conversation with Brinae Ali, Nicholas Van Young, Sean Jones, Wendel Patrick, and Sarah Berns-Zieve (BZ). Recorded on August 13, 2026, following the company's performance in the Doris Duke Theatre. Following her rousing performance on the outdoor stage in 2023, tap dancer, choreographer, and vocalist Brinae Ali returned to Jacob’s Pillow with "Baby Laurence Legacy Project," developed during a Pillow Lab residency in 2024. The show explores and celebrates the artistic genius of “Baby Laurence" Jackson, a Baltimore innovator whose impact on tap dance and jazz music is legendary. This evening-length production traces Laurence’s life from Baltimore to Harlem and Washington, D.C. to share his largely forgotten story with audiences, featuring songs by Laurence including “Baby at Birdland” and “An Afternoon of Percussion” reimagined with new arrangements and choreography— interspersed with technology that brings Laurence himself into the production. With music played live by the Baltimore Music Collective, Ali reveals how Laurence embodied the bebop aesthetic, reflecting a defiance of the white gaze and a self-referencing Black consciousness akin to the music of Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, and Charlie Parker. This work was the recipient of Jacob’s Pillow’s 2026 Joan B. Hunter New Work Commission. This work was supported by Chamber Music America New Jazz Works, National Dance Projects, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Johns Hopkins University Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts, and the Peabody Conservatory Jazz Department. Video by Nel Shelby Productions.