The Pillow Project (in person)

Artistic Director Pearlann Porter presents the company’s newest evening-length work entitled (in person): performing-artists improvisationally and candidly speaking in the very same instance they are dancing. Alongside a live music score by Mark Micchelli, this work reveals what is going on inside a dancer's mind, where their choices come from, and what it’s like to be swept up in an emotional ensemble experience. This uniquely experimental presentation exposes how the performers navigate through visceral and vulnerable improvisational moments together, and what it’s like relating to one another with a live audience.

As an improvisational-based company, The Pillow Project has always been asked how the dancers know what to do. This full-length performance of (in person) puts that inner story up front as 11 dancers vocalize their experience, revealing in the raw vulnerability of spoken word what movement alone leaves unsaid and informing the audience of new ways in which the moment can be perceived.

If you've ever wondered how dancers improvising comes together into a unified idea, this is a rare opportunity to witness their process of choice and chance, response and reaction, and the collective "now what?" moments shared aloud by dancers revealing the live, real-time dance of thoughts behind the dance we see on the stage?

This project has been made possible by support from The Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative and an Investing in Professional Artists award