BECKET, Mass. — Jacob's Pillow announced that Belgian and Moroccan choreographer, dancer, and director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is the recipient of the 2022 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. 

 

Cherkaoui will accept this award and present a new work at the season-opening Gala on June 18.

 

The Gala program will also feature performances by Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson of Kinetic Light; Adam Weinert and Dancers performing an excerpt of Ted Shawn's "Dance of the Ages" (1938); past Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award winner Annabelle Lopez Ochoa presenting a world premiere, created during the week before the Gala on The School at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Ballet Performance Ensemble; dancers Sara Mearns and Gilbert Bolden III with an excerpt from Justin Peck's "Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes" (2015); Irene Rodríguez and Guests will help inaugurate the new stage at the reopened Ted Shawn Theatre, including Carmen de Lavallade, Camille A. Brown, Michelle Dorrance, Ann Hutchinson Guest, Bill T. Jones, Liz Lerman, Mark Morris, Eiko Otake and Wendy Whelan.

 

The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, presented each year to an artist of vision and achievement, carries a cash prize of $25,000 which the artist can use in any way they wish.

 

Cherkaoui is an international contemporary choreographer, dancer, and director who originally hails from Belgium. He has choreographed works for the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and notable works for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Pilobolus, and Aakash Odedra. He choreographed a music video for Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the recent film "Cyrano" directed by Joe Wright, and was nominated for a Tony in 2021 for his choreography of Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill. He founded his own company, Eastman, in 2010, and has won awards for his solo work and his choreography.