March 24, 2022

Ananya Dance Theatre at Jacob's Pillow, work-in-progress live-streaming March 26

Members of Ananya Dance Theatre and two of their artistic collaborators take up a nine-day residency this week at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts. ADT was selected as one of eight artist residencies this winter and spring at the Pillow Lab, a year-round incubator of new work.

Spirit McIntyre | Photo by Isabel Fajardo

The company will use its time in Becket to begin development of Nūn Gherāo, a full-length work of dance theater responding to the 1978-79 massacre of 10,000 refugees from Bangladesh on Marichjhapi Island in West Bengal, India, and adjacent stories of genocide and eco-displaced communities. It will premiere in St. Paul, Minnesota in September.

Two collaborators joining the ADT dancers are composer, vocalist, and cellist Spirit McIntyre and writer and author Mimi Mondal.

McIntyre (they/them), from New Orleans, created the sound score for ADT’s 2021 production “Dastak: I Wish You Me” and is performing the work on the company’s U.S. tours during 2022. They use their voice and cello to blend Blues, Soul, Folk, Classical, Reggae, and Middle Eastern sounds into unique musical landscapes. McIntyre created SpiritWerks, a multi-disciplinary arts practice, and is the Compassionate Community Architect for Trans*Visible, a network that challenges Binarism and Cis-Sexism in social justice movements.

Mimi Mondal | Photo courtesy of Mimi Mondal

Mondal was born in Kolkata, India, and currently lives in New York City. She is the author of “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light,” which was a finalist for the Nebula Award in 2020. She has also co-edited the Locus Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated nonfiction anthology “Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler,” and written a column titled “Extraordinary Alien” on Hindustan Times. Her shorter stories may be found in Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, Fireside Magazine, and The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction.

An informal showing of Nūn Gherāo will be live-streamed from the Pillow’s Perles Family Studio, Saturday, March 26, 2pm ET / 1pm CT: https://site-21495820.bcvp0rtal.com/  Password: pillowlab326

Lead support for the Pillow Lab is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and home of America’s longest-running international dance festival, currently in the midst of its transition to becoming a year-round center for dance through a five-year strategic plan titled Vision 22. For more information, visit www.jacobspillow.org.