THE COMPANY     OUR WORK      EVENTS     CONTACT

Our Vision

The Pillow Project is an ongoing experiment for the founding of new
ideals in multimedia choreography, movement and performances.
The company’s resident artists are driven to design vibrant works
that rebel against conventional approaches to dance presentation.
By creating unique visual experiences in open, public environments
and in casual, intimate spaces, we use our work as our voice to convey
passionate, thought-provoking ideas that reflect and react to the
sociological, psychological and emotional environments extant. The
Pillow Project intends to establish our own unique artistic philosophy
in Pittsburgh’s dance landscape by exposing a deeply-rooted
posturing and emotional sincerity within our work.

Company Artists

PEARLANN PORTER (Purl'AN • Pôr'ter), n.
1. Artistic Director 2. Creator of choreography 3. Inventor of words

Porter is the founding Artistic Director and principle choreographer of The Pillow Project. In the past decade, Pearlann has choreographed and taught for The Dance Alloy, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Point Park University, The University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Xpressions Contemporary Dance Company, LABCO Dance, Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh and H2O Contemporary Dance Company. Her choreography has been featured on KDKA-TV’s “Pittsburgh Live” and WQED’s “On Q” program, and in Fanfare Magazine (2006) Pittsburgh Magazine (2008) and in all the local newspapers. She currently serves as a professional dance consultant for the Father Ryan Cultural Arts Center in McKees Rocks and helped develop their after-school and summer dance programs. Pearlann graduated from Point Park University in 1999 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance and is presently on faculty at her alma mater teaching modern-jazz technique. Pearlann is currently writing a book on dance and movement theory.

ABBY GLEASON (āb'bē • Glē'sŭn), n.
1. Managing Director 2. Intern wrangler 3. Mixed-medium dancer

As the establishing Managing Director of The Pillow Project for two years, Abby has organized the company administratively, effectively overseeing the company’s public relations, marketing, and managing the volunteers and interns. She is also currently pursuing a freelance web and graphic design career.

PJ RODUTA (Pē'jā • Rō'dōōt'ə), n.
1. Company percussionist 2. Sound designer 3. Banger of random objects

     Roduta received a BA in music from Bennington College,
      where he realized his affinity for improvisation while studying
      under the legendary American percussionist Milford Graves.
         His study of improvisation eventually led him to study
          dance accompaniment, which led to working relation-
           ships with Dance Alloy, Attack Theatre, and Point Park
            University. He currently continues to investigate the
             marriage of music and dance with The Pillow Project.

           JESSI SEDON (Jěs'ē • Sē'děn), n.
           1. Director of Video & Effects 2. Production Manager 3. Creator of galaxies

          Sedon, The Pillow Project's Director of Video & Effects,
       graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2004 with
      a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Effects & Motion Graphics. She
    co-founded Pillow’s video department and has also created
  original video work for The Pittsburgh Playhouse, Attack Theatre and Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater.

BETH RATAS (Běth • Rāt’ěs), n.
1. Company dancer 2. Office designer 3. Food stealer 

Ratas graduated with a BA in Musical Theater with a Dance minor from Point Park University. Beth is a founding member of The Pillow Project, having danced with the company since 2004, and has recently danced with many other Pittsburgh companies including Attack Theatre, Xpressions Contemporary Dance Company and Zany Umbrella Circus.

MIKE COOPER (MiK • kōōp'pr), n.
1. Facilities Manager 2. Video artist 3. Guy behind the bar

Cooper graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2004 with a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Effects & Motion Graphics, and joined The Pillow Project in the Spring of 2006 for The SwankEasy. He assists the Artistic Director in developing the company's themes and statements, in addition to supporting the Video Department and coordinating operations at The Space Upstairs.

Support

The Pillow Project would not be possible without the help of many friends and supporters, including the following. 

	Construction Junction	PA Council on the Arts
	The East End Food Co-op
	Max Hurwitz, Body Mechanic

Company History

The Pillow Project was first conceived by Artistic Director Pearlann Porter while attending Point Park University in the late '90s while dreaming on her pillow. In 2004, Porter pulled together a handful of her students and collaborated with friend and local artist Ryan Hose to create a mixed media show incorporating dance, graphic design and illustrative art. The idea was that all the work presented could have a singular theme and concept, linking the 2-D graphics with the 3-D performances. The show also featured a video by Derek Stoltz of the young dance company in action - improvising around Pittsburgh’s downtown architecture - and included live beats cut by DJ Sorta to link the evening together. The debut event of The Pillow Project (entitled
kindasorta) created a unique gallery-style event of dance,
art, music and video that was met with great enthusiasm
from its audience, and would lay the groundwork for every-
thing the company eventually became.

By the following year, the company had developed a con-
siderable collection of video artists drawn to The Pillow
Project’s work, all recent graduates from the Art Institute of
Pittsburgh. The Concept Album Tour, making its ‘single-city
stop’ in Shadyside's historic Hunt Armory, was the company’s
first large-scale production and first collaboration with light-
ing designer Bob Steineck, who helped created the over-the-top classic rock concert extravaganza. The Concept Album Tour was supported in part by a Seed Award from The Sprout Fund and was featured in an on-air segment with Stephen Balm of WQED-FM Pittsburgh. The show was an overwhelming success and showed the impressive range that the new dance company in Pittsburgh was capable.

In the Spring of 2006, Porter presented Pillow's popular tribute to jazz (and the beginning of its fruitful relationship with Construction Junction) with The SwankEasy. Gaining much attention with its television documentary on WQED’s “On Q Magazine” (reported by Mike Lee), the production was the company’s first show to have fully interactive live music and theatrical elements to create a unique, intimate event which would later become a staple for The Pillow Project’s style of performances. The SwankEasy was awarded a grant by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Fund, and saw Pillow's first inclusion on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Best of Dance list (2006). The Swankeasy’s iconic neon sign still glows from behind the bar at The Space Upstairs.

Later that Fall, The Pillow Project returned to the vast Hunt Armory one more time for Striped: a large-scale installation based on the music of The White Stripes. This ambitious project, made possible by a grant from The Heinz Endowments, incorporated just about every facet of The Pillow Project on an enormous scale, testing the multimedia production abilities of the company on an interactive, 70 ft. set. Choreography from the show, as well as an interview by Kristine Sorenson with Artistic Director, Pearlann Porter, was featured on KDKA-TV’s “Pittsburgh Live”. While Striped was a critical and audience success, the production ultimately proved that The Pillow Project felt much more at home creating smaller, more intimate events back in their warehouse gallery-loft above Construction Junction, and helped shape the current mission and vision of the company.

Rather than work for months toward a single, finished performance, 2007's by volume series was a four-part examination of the company’s evolving creative and collaborative process. This low-key gallery-style format in their resident location above Construction Junction (officially coining the title of The Space Upstairs) would lay the groundwork for what would later become the Second Saturdays series. Experimenting with the idea of ‘performance/art happenings’ where the audience feels free to come and go as they please in a comfortable, non-traditional setting, the by volume series helped The Pillow Project craft their unique take on art events in Pittsburgh and would fosters the exposure and networking of many emerging, local guest artists.

With a permanent base of operations in The Space Upstairs, and thanks in part
to a sharpened organizational and artistic focus, 2008 began with a successful
launch of the Second Saturdays series: the ongoing, monthly series of perfor-
mance/art happenings at The Space Upstairs that featured not only experi-
mentation by the company itself, but prominent guest appearances by
numerous dance companies and traditional artists from across the Pittsburgh
region. Featuring guest artists such as LABCO Dance, choreographer Gia
Cacalano, Balafon West African Dance Ensemble, artists Michelle Gregio,
and H2O Contemporary Dance, to name just a few.

Concluding the 2008 season, The Pillow Project’s Twenty Eighty-Four was
the company’s original full-length performance installation entirely satur-
ated in innovative and interactive video projection. Over seven years in the making, Twenty Eighty-Four was the company’s most ambitious and well received project to date, making complex statements about the condition of thought in modern society from both broad societal perspective and an intimate, intensely personal perspective. Inspired by the anthems of George Orwell’s seminal novel 1984 and the philosophical work of the late Carl Sagan, Twenty Eighty-Four echoed universal themes of optimism, pessimism, idealism and realism in our increasingly disconnected society.

Over its three-week run, Twenty Eighty-Four catapulted Pillow to a new level of regional acclaim, being called “a breakthrough for The Pillow Project” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and "one of the most captivating and unexpectedly brilliant productions [of the year’s dance season]” by the City Paper. Twenty Eighty-Four went on to land the company on both publications’ Best of 2008 lists – one of the few local companies to do so.