Jacob’s Pillow is putting the wraps on its summer dance festival this weekend, and this finale is bittersweet.Ella Baff has spent 17 years walking the grounds of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts.
“I think back to the earliest days of the history of the Pillow and as we’re walking and talking those images and the importance of what this place is really about come back to me full-force,” said Baff.
Following Saturday’s finale of its 83rd season, Baff will take on a new role as senior program officer for arts and cultural heritage at the New York City-based Mellon Foundation.
“This place functions as a village and in some ways, and I don’t mean to romanticize it…there are many challenges and no organization is perfect that’s for sure, but there is a spirit here at the Pillow,” said Baff.
Baff’s care for and astonishment about this “village” tucked off Route 20 is evident when strolling across its outdoor stage overlooking the mountainous landscape of Berkshire County and along the pebble pathways in between barns-turned-theaters on 220-acres of former New England farmland.
“We’ve consistently maintained it that as we’ve modernized we have made the insides of the buildings modern and put in contemporary touches to the outside, but always respected the architectural vernacular of what makes it really beautiful,” explained Baff.
Of the countless premieres and debuts on the Pillow’s three stages during the past 17 years, a number that Baff intends to figure out at some point, she claims inspiration from a rather simple feature that harkens back to the Festival’s founder Ted Shawn.
“And I think it’s quite beautiful whether or not you really know what it is,” Baff said. “It’s our weathervane on top of the Shawn [Theatre]. That is Barton Mumaw in a pose for a dance called bourrée. Bourrée is a movement, a step in ballet. Barton was Ted Shawn’s star dancer and also his life partner over a period of many years.”
The Pillow hums like a small town: it has gardens, a library, a school, offices and of course a watering hole. Most are housed in repurposed homes, cabins or barns like the store, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
“The story is that slaves were hidden in that very loft on their way to freedom in Canada,” Baff pointed out. “You see why in so many ways this feels like quote unquote sacred ground to so many people because it has a history before its dance story.”
Baff says the history of the land, from the Native Americans to the Carter family who ran the property as a farm, is part of the DNA of Jacob’s Pillow – a name linked to the grounds because of a large rock in the backyard of the Carter home.
“The Carter family called their farm Jacob’s Pillow as a reference to the story in Genesis where Jacob laid his head on a bed of stones and he had visions of angels going up and down a ladder,” Baff said. “The religious-minded New Englanders referenced that. I think many people who live here know that Jacob’s Ladder, the road itself, was this switchback road that invoked the ladder itself.”
Walking the grounds with Baff isn’t just a history lesson; it also sheds light on her favorite memories.
“That’s the backstage door where I almost always go before I come out and do my curtain welcomes,” Baff revealed. “It’s so much fun to be backstage just before a show. There’s nothing like that. That pre-show energy and seeing the different rituals the dancers go through in preparation.”
Of all the achievements, including meeting President Obama when the Pillow was awarded a National Medal of Arts, what’s Baff’s most memorable moment?
“It’s not a moment, it’s many, many, many moments,” Baff said. “It gives me great joy to see how much people enjoy this place. It’s very simple really.”
The Pillow’s board has hired a search firm to find a replacement, while Baff will program the 2016 season.
“It’s been a good run as they say in show business,” said Baff.
