Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, and robotics innovator Huang Yi will present his visionary work Ink at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival from August 20–24, 2025. 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 renowned Taiwanese calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze (董陽孜)’s Silent Music series. The result is a striking, multidisciplinary work that blends dance, robotics, calligraphy, and immersive media.
Huang and his dancers perform alongside holographic projections and two industrial robots, creating a rich interaction of movement, sound, and visual art. The work had its successful U.S. premiere at New York’s Lincoln Center in 2024 and played to a sold-out audience.
“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.
Huang Yi’s Ink is part of Jacob’s Pillow’s 93rd annual Dance Festival, which runs from June 25 through August 24, 2025. Other artists featured in week-long engagements at the Doris Duke Theatre include Andrew Schneider, Elle Sofe Company, Eun-Me Ahn, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, and Faye Driscoll.
Performance Details:
Ink
Date& Time:
• August 20, 8:00PM
• August 21, 8:00PM
• August 22, 2:30PM
• August 23, 2:30PM, 8:00PM
• August 24, 2:30PM
Venue: Doris Duke Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, MA
Tickets & info: https://www.jacobspillow.org/events/huang-yi
More about Huang Yi Studio+: https://huangyistudio.com/