Jacob’s Pillow is in full swing, and more local arts news
With the festive gala and last week’s season-opening programs, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is now in full swing. So, while the Boston area is hopping with crowded Fourth of July hoopla, dance lovers may want to avoid the multitudes — and perhaps beat some of the heat — by heading west to the Berkshires, where headlining the dance festival this week is Urban Bush Women’s provocative, high-energy “SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar” (through July 5). The 42-year-old company brings a different kind of heat to our country’s history.
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The work is a dance-driven musical that melds song, dance, storytelling, and an original jazz score performed by a live band and two vocalists. Set in a fictional jazz club, it portrays the love story of two people making their way out of the Jim Crow south during the Great Migration. Co-choreographer and director Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the founder of Urban Bush Women (who Pillow director Pamela Tatge calls one of most important choreographers of our time) conceived the work based on the experiences of her parents. But Zollar says it is also a collective story that recalls a time and a journey in which dreams grappled with reality in America during the ‘40s and ‘50s. Collaborators include co-choreographer Vincent Thomas and the talented company’s dancers, with original music composed by Craig Harris. “By the end of the piece, it just lifts the roof off,” says Tatge. The work also will be livestreamed.
While Urban Bush Women rock the festival’s Ted Shawn Theatre, Boston-based choreographer Ilya Vidrin makes his Pillow debut in the Doris Duke Theatre with the world premiere of his “Proxies” (July 3-5). Developed over eight years, partly during residencies at the Pillow Lab, the work draws on research into the intersection of technology and human relationships, questioning what happens when our emotional lives and personal connections are increasingly invaded by our devices and algorhythmic data. The dancers will wear custom-designed sensors on their hands and feet to trigger live music and create a “continuous loop of responsiveness.” Tatge calls it “unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket. www.jacobspillow.org — Karen Campbell
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Catch a special “Eddie Coyle” screening
Eddie Coyle doesn’t really have any friends. But “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” (1973) is still the ultimate Boston crime movie, a lean, dialogue-rich tale about a small-time crook (Robert Mitchum) in a vise he can’t even see. Based on George V. Higgins’ novel, with killer performances from Mitchum and Peter Boyle, it’s also a time capsule of gritty, early-’70s Boston. Boston Globe TV/Pop culture critic Chris Vognar (hey, that’s me) and former Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr (who now writes the newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List) will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion at 6:30 p.m. Thurs., July 9 at West Newton Cinema. For tickets and more information visit westnewtoncinema.com — Chris Vognar
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