Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, summer dance concert series held annually near Lee, Mass., in the Berkshires. The site, originally an 18th-century farm, was purchased by the American modern dancer Ted Shawn in 1930, and three years later it became the home of his Men Dancers Company. A dance festival was inauguated here in 1940, and in 1942 the Ted Shawn Theater, the first in the United States designed specifically for dance, opened its doors. Today, the Jacob's Pillow complex includes three performance venues, a professional dance school, exhibition spaces, and other facilities. Dances at the festival have traditionally been eclectic and continue to include ballet, modern, ethnic, tap, and jazz.