In this episode, hosted by dance and costume historian Caroline Hamilton, we learn about the summer of 1941 and the events that led to the incorporation of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the building of the Ted Shawn Theatre.
In this episode, hosted by dance and costume historian Caroline Hamilton, we learn about the summer of 1941 and the events that led to the incorporation of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the building of the Ted Shawn Theatre.
[Music begins, composed by J.S. Bach, performed by Jess Meeker]
NORTON OWEN: Welcome to PillowVoices, a production of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival with content from the Pillow Archives. I'm Norton Owen, the Pillow’s Director of Preservation, and I'm excited to introduce dance and costume historian Caroline Hamilton. We've asked Caroline to tell the story of our pivotal 1941 festival, a nine-week season of ballet performances and training that led directly to the incorporation of Jacob's Pillow and building the Ted Shawn Theatre.
CAROLINE HAMILTON: In the summer of 1941, world famous ballet dancers Anton Dolin and Alicia Markova rented Ted Shawn’s farm and studio, known as Jacob’s Pillow. Together they ran a residency for Ballet Theatre as well as an international dance festival and school. These events led to the formal incorporation of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the building of the Ted Shawn Theatre, which opened in 1942.
I have known about Jacob's Pillow my whole life, but not through Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, or the Men Dancers. I knew about this dance oasis in the woods from a series of black and white photographs taken in 1941, showing some of the most famous names in ballet at the time posed in the grounds and old wooden buildings. I saw these images in one of my grandmother's ballet books, and from then on, I have always wanted to know more about that summer. The summer that the ballet came to Jacob's Pillow.
From 1933 to 1939 Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers had spent each summer at Jacob’s Pillow rehearsing, performing, creating new works, and preparing for upcoming tours. But by the late spring of 1940 the company had closed, and Shawn put “The Farm,” as Jacob’s Pillow was informally known, on the market.
Shawn leased the property with an option to buy, for the summer of 1940, to Mary Washington Ball an Associate Professor in Physical Education at the Cortland Normal School (now known as SUNY Cortland) in upstate New York. Ball ran The Jacob’s Pillow School of Dance and The Berkshire Hills Dance Festival. The festival was modelled after Shawn’s lecture-demonstrations and was held each Saturday afternoon with tea. The final lecture-demonstration was a performance by Shawn and the Men Dancers entitled Homecoming. This performance included the whole Men Dancers group, except for John and Frank Delmar, and was the last performance by the company.
The festival and school were an artistic success, but a financial disaster, and Ball was unable to buy the property as hoped. Disheartened, Shawn was forced to re-list Jacob’s Pillow for sale after the 1940 season.
It was two British ballet dancers who brought Jacob’s Pillow back to life in 1941. Anton Dolin and Alicia Markova were ballet superstars. They had both danced with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and had appeared together as guests for many companies before forming The Markova-Dolin company in the mid-1930s. By the late 1930s, with World War II raging in Europe, they were both working in the USA. In 1941, Dolin was working as a dancer and choreographer for the newly formed Ballet Theatre (which would later become American Ballet Theatre). Markova was a principal dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
Dolin knew that Markova’s contract with The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo would soon be up and persuaded her and several other dancers from the company to join Ballet Theatre. However, a problem soon arose. The company was about to go on an unpaid summer break and the dancers would scatter until the company resumed operations in the fall. Dolin wanted to find a way to keep the company and its new dancers together.
Dolin knew Shawn and thought that perhaps “The Farm” might offer a solution. Dolin later wrote:
Ted was willing, quite anxious, to let me have Jacob’s Pillow for the summer at a rental of 1,500 dollars. I motored down with him and fell in love with it at once. I felt that if I could get it, it would be a haven for Alicia and me. We could work, teach, perhaps give a few dance recitals; anyhow, we could lie there for a while. The property was leased for the couple by a benefactor and friend, Florida-based millionaire Reginald Wright. So in the summer of 1941 the ballet came to Jacob’s Pillow. Around 20 dancers from Ballet Theatre spent the summer in the Berkshires, with others stopping by for a couple of weeks or just a few days.
The dancers were a mix of British, Russian and American and included some of biggest names in ballet at the time: Markova and Dolin, Russian “Baby Ballerina” Irina Baronova, American dancer and founder of Ballet Theatre Lucia Chase; fellow American dancers Nora Kaye, Nana Gollner, Annabelle Lyon, Maria Karnilova, Donald Saddler, Leon Danielian, and Dwight Godwin; Russian dancers Katherine Sergava, George Skibine, and Dimitri Romanoff; and British dancers Hugh Laing and Antony Tudor, as well as others. Among the visitors who came and went was Frederic Franklin. Franklin recalled his visit during a talk in 2006.
FREDERIC FRANKLIN: The Ballet Russe demanded Karla was appearing at Lewiston Stadium in New York, and in those days; doesn't exist anymore. And uh Pat choose Mr. Dolan and Miss Markova came to see me and with the company. And I remember him saying “Now Fred, um I've, we’ve taken, Alicia and I, have taken over Jacob’s Pillow. Would you like to come and sort of stay the weekend?” And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “Oh, it will cost you $10, you know” [laughter in the background]. And I said “That's fine, Pat” and I came here for the first time. And at that time, uh there was in one of the houses there was Lucia Chase, there was Annabelle Lyons, and there was Catherine Devillier. and in the Mr.Ted Shawn’s house, there was Miss Markova and Mr. Dolan. And I slept where we've discovered where I slept, I don't know somewhere.
[Some other voice states: “It was over what's now the store”]. And I was, that's where I was, but it was what it was, I had a wonderful time and Mr. Dolan really was trying out a lot of people also for the uhm, for the um Ballet Theatre, but it was right here and I'll never forget, we were all assembled for a class and he was there and suddenly he turned and said: “Ready? Get the class!” I had never given a class in my life and other all these people in the least he said to me: “Freddie dear, don't worry, you’ll do it.” He was very calming influence in my life, I must say [laughter in the background]. And I gave my very class here, very first one. In many ways, it's been a lot happening here.
CAROLINE HAMILTON: Choreographers Dolin and Tudor worked with the dancers on staging works and creating new pieces, including Tudor’s Pillar of Fire which premiered the following year. In August, the legendary Bronislava Nijinska, former Ballets Russes dancer, choreographer and sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, arrived to rehearse The Beloved.
To keep the dancers motivated and generate income, Dolin and Markova announced that they would run The International Dance Festival. The Festival ran for nine weeks on Friday and Saturday afternoons.
The New York Times reported that: “In the tradition of the place, and certainly without violation of the English dancers’ tradition, there will be tea at 4, and the performance, beginning at 4.45, will run to 6.”
The performances were given in the converted barn studio, previously used by the Men Dancers. Jacob’s Pillow Director of Preservation Norton Owen writes that the “new directors tried to make the space more theatrical by hanging heavy draperies over the windows and door, adding a front curtain and full theatre lighting.” The performers and audience were on the same level making it hard to see and the space become very hot and stuffy.
The Festival was advertised as presenting “the outstanding dancers of Europe and America.” The 1941 International Dance Festival included Ballet, Modern Dance, Tap, and Traditional Dance forms paving the way for the range of genres performed at the Festival to this day.
The festival opened with performances by Ruth St. Denis; the second week Markova, Dolin and Ballet Theatre presented a program entitled The Age of Romantic Ballet; the third week was a showcase of Shawn’s solo work; week four was a program of dances by Baronova, Dolin, and Indonesian dancer Seiko Sarina; week five was a program of solos and duets by former Men Dancer Barton Mumaw and his dance partner Lisa Parnova; week six was a full program by dancers from Ballet Theatre with a guest appearance by Agnes de Mille; week seven was a mixed program with Markova, Dolin, Anne Simpson, and tap dancer Paul Draper; week eight was a solo program performed by Barton Mumaw; and the ninth and final weekend of performances of the festival was a shared bill with Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin.
The Festival brought visitors from far and wide including dance writers and critics Walter Terry and John Martin, both of whom gave lectures as well as reviewing the performances. Joseph Pilates visited, as did renowned costumier Barbara Karinska, who made a number of costumes for the company, and photographers John Lindquist and Hans Knopf documented the events.
As well as the festival, Markova and Dolin ran The School at Jacob’s Pillow. The School accepted approximately 20 students who took daily dance classes, sometimes joined the company class, as well as lectures and workshops. Markova, Dolin, and Shawn were listed as teaching staff. The students also helped backstage with the performances.
The students could register for four or eight weeks. Four weeks cost a $150 or with board and lodging a $195. The full eight weeks cost just $260 or with board and lodging $350.
Ann Hutchinson Guest was studying at Ballets Arts in New York City at the time and recalled hearing about the school and summer festival.
ANN HUTCHINSON GUEST: They were very friendly lot and, “oh, we're going up to Jacob's Pillow. Why don't you join us?” “oh well, uhm okay,” [another voice asks: “did you know what that was at that point?” to which Guest responds “not really” followed by laughter] I dipped into the uhm legacy that my grandmother had left me. So that paid for Jacob’s Pillow, and also paid for Bennington. Uhm And uh so apparently, they were 20 students allowed at the Pillow that summer. Because Shawn was in Australia, the Pillow had been taken over by Markova. And uh [another voice clarifies: “This is Alicia Markova and then Tom Dolan yep”]. And I uhm, So all of Ballet Theatre was there.
[The other voice explains: “This is the company that would become American Ballet Theatre in their infancy” to which Guest adds: “At that time it was still Ballet Theatre”]. So that was an experience having class with these professionals. Uhm uh I was always hanging back, because I, uhm my ballet was still rather limited. But uhm it was amazing to see Miss Markova [audio unclear] who was so wonderful on stage. In class, her feet rolled, her fifth positions weren’t that good [laughter in the background]. [The other voice says: “But on stage, she could pull it together”].
CAROLINE HAMILTON: The conditions at the Pillow in 1941 were still extremely basic. In 2016 at the age of 98 Hutchinson Guest reads a passage from her autobiography Capturing the Summer of 1941.
ANN HUTCHINSON GUEST: I have no recollection of applying for admission. I just remember being whisked up Route 7 by my cousin Fairfield Dana, who was a lawyer, who generously offered to drive me up to this highway in woods. When we got there, he wondered what his young cousin was getting into. We found the main house and we're told to drive up the hill, at the top of which there was a house and barns. Her sleeping quarters were in a huge bond, called the Ark, no longer there, in which partitions produced cubby holes for each student. We had an iron cot, a chair, chest of drawers. At one end, there was an actual group, small, but private, that had been grabbed by Gertrude Hallenbeck from Albany. She and her father had a leading dance school in Albany. She came, she had come early and made a bid for the best location. She was also smart enough to bring a lamp. The rest of us relying on flashlights [clears her throat]. Cousin Fair was very dubious about leaving me in such surroundings, but I was not fazed, having been camping with the girl guides in England [audio unclear], where we managed with very little. Breakfast was provided at the house, where one of the staff kept an eye on us. Milk and butter were kept down well, just outside. Water was brought in from this well for washing in basins. The two-seater outhouse nearby served other needs. It had been a three-seater but the woodchucks got hungry, so there were only two [laughter in the background]. A small bar nearby served as a model- sized studio. It was called uhm “Studio 2” for a long time, until then down the hill, and it's now the extended, and it's now the “Summers.” So the studio had no windows, three of the sides were being left open to let in the breezes and it's stoned shutters were lowered, when storm shutters were lowered, the walk down the hill to civilization was quite a distance along the dirt road, past the propolis. This is blocking the hill, hepped [audio unclear] out the Pillow, in housekeeping capacity. At the center of the fields [audio unclear], the main residence, the original farmhouse was where Markova and Dolin lived. Members of the company were either at the Mother Derby’s and [clears throat] as this was going to be for my memoirs, I said no English Doppel please [laughter in the background followed by another voice saying “Right”]. In England, you have trucks and the race or all that rock derbies [audio unclear]. So, they were at either Mother Derby’s house nearby or ran around in various of the cabins built in [audio unclear]. Oh, and there were a couple primitive cabins in the woods beyond where the Ted Shawn Theatre is now. The Stone [audio unclear] the dining room with its impressive open fireplace had been built by the men: huge boulders, four walls being the main feature. There we had our lunch and supper. Large Bomb [audio unclear] was the dance studio, seating being installed at one in four performances. Connected to this were lesser buildings, which served as dressing rooms and the school office. Above this office was the large room known as “Number 9.” Never knew why [The other voice says: “yeah”], where some Ballet Theatre dancers sit. At the back of the exterior was a toilet and a wash room. There were a couple basins and showers, very open and primitive. The day classes for the students for the company were also attended by the students, or taken in one stride, except when it rained. And then we had trouble getting our clothes dry, especially sweaty practice clothes. Complain [audio unclear] but it was too exciting. The mix of the words, the blueberry patches, the swimming hole, and beaming glass windows, Ballet Theatre dancing [laughter in the background].
CAROLINE HAMILTON: Despite the Festival and the School, there was little or no money. The majority of the Ballet Theatre dancers took unemployment, which was $10 a week, and contributed $1 a day to Dolin and Markova for lodging and board. In his autobiography, Dolin called it “a summer of heart-aches, bills, works, lessons, rehearsals and headaches.”
Some of the dancers stayed in the cabins built by the Men Dancers and in the barn above the office (what is The Pillow Store today) and others were lodged locally. Nijinska her husband stayed in a local hotel and were brought to the Pillow by car each day.
Markova stayed in what had been Shawn’s bedroom in the main white farmhouse (now known as Hunter House). In an interview she later stated: “I loved that room and made it like a country cottage. When I knew I was going to be there for three months I went off to New York and bought some lovely flowered curtains and a large pink rug because there were only polished bare boards. I also bought a little dressing table and a great pink eiderdown for the four-poster… I had my practice tutus hanging all around the walls.”
Shawn was apparently not too thrilled about the transformation of his bedroom.
In 1941 the Pillow still had no running water. Markova, determined to make the best of the situation, went to a camping shop in New York City and bought a rubber camping bath that folded up into a zipper bag. “I could stand in it and fill it with water and get my sponge and do what I could,” she later recalled.
Much like today, the dancers and students all ate together in the Stone Dining Room, which had been built by the Men Dancers. Markova was in charge of planning meals and making the limited funds stretch each week. Each sunday, however, Markova and Dolin held an “open house” providing a traditional British Sunday Roast for, as Markova recalled, the “dancers, students, journalists and well-wishers who came to see this extraordinary new community.”
By late August/early September the Ballet Theatre dancers had returned to New York to prepare for their upcoming season and the students had left. The fate of “The Farm” hung once more in the balance. Despite the summer’s success and requests and encouragement from patrons, Shawn could not afford to keep Jacob’s Pillow on his own.
In October 1941 a meeting was held during which a group of Berkshire people together with Markova and Dolin’s benefactor, Reginald Wright, approached Shawn with an idea. Their plan was described by Shawn as:
A new, non-profit-making, artistic and educational corporation be formed by them which would buy the property from me, and build a proper dance festival theatre so that dance artists could have ideal conditions in which to show their work, and audiences have ideal conditions in which to see it. They asked me whether, if this was done, and the corporation engaged me as managing director, would I consent to stay on and conduct school and festival at Jacob’s Pillow … I consented.
The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Committee was formed, and they began a campaign to raise $50,000: $25,000 to be paid to Shawn for “The Farm” and $25,000 to build a theatre.
Construction of what would become the Ted Shawn Theatre began in the winter of 1941, despite the proclamation of war on the 8th of December. As Owen writes, “the foundation was literally and figuratively laid for the festival we know today.”
[Music begins, composed, and performed by Jess Meeker]
NORTON OWEN: That’s it for this episode of PillowVoices. Thank you for joining us today. On behalf of Jacob’s Pillow we look forward to sharing more dance with you through the films, essays, and podcasts at DanceInteractive.jacobspillow.org and of course through live experiences during our Festival and throughout the year. Special thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for helping launch this podcast series. Please subscribe to PillowVoices wherever you get your podcasts and visit us again soon, either online or on site.