“Caleb Teicher & Nic Gereiss,” to be performed in the Doris Duke Theatre, will mark the first performances to take place at the Pillow since then.
In a recent interview with the Globe, Tatge discussed how the festival has moved forward in the aftermath of a workplace tragedy.
Tatge described Sirico’s death as “something that there is no rulebook for.” She continued, “we had to navigate day by day, with ups and downs — and the downs being deeply down.”
“The staggering loss of Kat has absolutely reverberated throughout the staff and our whole community.”
“There have been lots of staff discussions, and they will continue,” she said. “We are always taking a look at sustainability in a festival environment. I think anyone who runs a festival has to regularly recalibrate, re-examine. And that examination is definitely taking place.”
But the Pillow’s director also emphasized a need to return to programming, to keep moving. “We need to bring the community back,” said Tatge, “in honor of Kat, their love for this place.”
Tap dancer-choreographer Caleb Teicher is considered Pillow family, and his fall performances with Nic Gareiss had been planned since long before this summer’s events.
In a recent interview, the New York-based dance artist said they had been to the Pillow almost every year since they were 16. They studied tap at the school with Michelle Dorrance and have performed on all the Pillow’s stages.
For this appearance, Teicher, who is trained in tap, Lindy Hop, and vernacular jazz is collaborating with Gareiss, a student of percussive dance forms from Appalachia, Canada, and Ireland.
“It’s sort of like a folk music concert but we dance instead of holding instruments,” Teicher told the Globe.
“There’s no recorded music. Everything is live, and it’s just me and Nic, and we dance and we talk and we sing.” Teicher said, “it’s a conversation between our forms and between each
The two have known each other for 15 years, and as Tatge put it, “know how to finish each other’s sentences artistically.”
Teicher spoke with a deep admiration for Gareiss’s artistry, “He’s so well respected in the music world that he works in, but he’s not necessarily out and about in the dance world.”
Gareiss, who holds a master’s in ethnochoreology from the University of Limerick, has an extensive performance resume, but his most frequented stages are at music venues. He’s performed solo or as the only dancer among musicians at traditional folk music festivals across the country and Europe.
“I’m the only dancer that Nic performs with,” Teicher said, so the upcoming Pillow engagement is an uncommon appearance for Michigan-born Gareiss. It’s also a rare moment to catch Appalachian clogging and flatfooting on Pillow stages — the traditional American dance form hasn’t been performed there since the mid ’90s.
Teicher spoke about the importance of uplifting rural American dance forms, saying, “a lot of the dance that’s done in dance presentation these days comes from urban spaces.”
To Teicher, the Berkshires’ gentle mountainous terrain is the ideal setting to bring Appalachian clogging to a concert dance theater.
This fall‘s programming will include a Pillow Lab residency for Boston-based educator, composer, and performance maker Grisha Coleman. The Pillow is also co-presenting the New Orleans-based dance project “ZAZ” by SOLE Defined at Williams College Sept 26-27, and post-modern dance luminary Deborah Hay at Mass MoCA in December.
While the summer festival is certainly the busiest time on the Pillow’s campus, the organization is a year-round institution; and as the only winterized theater on campus the Doris Duke is integral to year-round programming.
In the five years since the original Duke was destroyed in a fire, the Pillow had to trim its programming due to a lack of facilities, Tatge says. With the newly rebuilt theater up and running, the Pillow intends to expand their fall on-campus performances in the years to come.
“We are committed citizens of Berkshire County,” said Tatge, and to the Pillow’s leader that means presenting dance for the Berkshire’s year-round residents, as well as visitors.
“For people to experience the Pillow in the fall, it’s a completely different beautiful landscape,” she said.
“Caleb Teicher & Nic Gareiss” at Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Theatre, Becket, Oct. 24-26. Tickets start at $65. 413-243-0745. www.jacobspillow.org