Dance for Social Justice

As part of Jacob’s Pillow’s Pittsfield Moves programs, Dance artists Mar Parrilla and Dey Hernández of Danza Orgánica will hold a four-part workshop series exploring creative strategies for effective collaboration in Pittsfield and the Berkshire community – through movement, conversation, and art-making. All community members (ages 8 and up) are welcome. Locations TBA.

Danza Orgánica welcomes artists from all mediums (dancers, visual artists, musicians, poets, etc), and BIPOC members of the community are highly encouraged to come.

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Afrotaíno artist Mar Parrilla, was birthed by Mother Earth in the Caribbean, Borikén (so called Puerto Rico). She is the Founding Artistic Director and lead Choreographer of Danza Orgánica, and she is also the founder of the acclaimed program Dance for Social Justice, as well as the founding producer of the Boston-based annual festival: We Create! which just celebrated its ninth year.

Dey Hernández is an architect, interdisciplinary artist, performance artist, and educator. She designs and directs workshops with AgitArte, a non-profit organization dedicated to artistic and popular education projects in marginalized communities.

Parilla also works in close collaboration with members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, through a multiyear partnership between Danza Orgánica, the Aquinnah Cultural Center and The Yard, and she collaborates with Puerto Rico-based artists on an ongoing cultural exchange towards the continued development of Melaza: a project that explores the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States of North America.

She is also a luminary artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she works in several capacities, including being commissioned to create artistic work. In 2018, she and Danza Orgánica received a Creative Development Residency at Jacob’s Pillow, where they performed at the Inside/Out Festival. Most recently (2021), Danza Orgánica was awarded the Powering Cultural Futures Multiyear Partnership with the BARR foundation.

The Pittsfield workshops will run on June 11 from 3 to 6 p.m. and June 12, July 2 and July 9 from 1 to 4 p.m., and the group will give work-in-process sharings on July 15 and 21. The program is free, and everyone involved will be compensated for their time, their active participation and creative contributions. Parilla asks that you come to all four workshops to be eligible for compensation, and more may be provided for rehearsals, work-in-process showings and reflection sessions.