Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, and robotics innovator Huang Yi (黃翊) will captivate audiences with his groundbreaking work “Ink” at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, the United States, from Aug. 20 to 24. These performances mark Huang Yi’s debut at Jacob’s Pillow and are part of the inaugural season of the newly rebuilt Doris Duke Theatre, set to open in July 2025 after being destroyed by fire in 2020.
Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2011, Huang Yi is renowned for creating poetic partnerships between humans and robots. In “Ink,” he collaborates with pioneering Japanese audiovisual artist Ryoichi Kurokawa to reinterpret the fluid brushstrokes of iconic Taiwanese calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze (董陽孜)’s “Silent Music” series. This collaboration transcends traditional boundaries, resulting in a striking multidisciplinary performance that blends dance, robotics, calligraphy, and immersive media.
“It’s this kind of immersive experience where the dancers are triggering projections in front of your eyes, so there’s a real dialogue between that visual image and the body,” said Jacob’s Pillow Artistic and Executive Director Pamela Tatge.
Jacob’s Pillow, hailed by TIME Magazine as “a hub and mecca of dancing,” is home to America’s longest-running international dance festival. Its newly rebuilt Doris Duke Theatre is designed as a “living lab for the future of dance,” one of the most technologically advanced venues in the world, dedicated to artists working with AI, robotics, extended reality, and immersive media.
Tickets & info: https://www.jacobspillow.org/events/huang-yi