top of page

The Pillow Projects are

improviational mixed-medium (post)Jazz

performance installations and happenings.

 

 

Inspired by the foundational ideas of Method Acting and Postmodern Dance, Pillow Projects seek to identify with the early philosophical and emotional energy of American jazz music without technical, presentational or commercial constraints.

 

 

 

THE COMPANY

ARTISTIC DIRECTORS
Jaka Pearl Porter & John Lambert

Founded by Artistic Director Jaka Porter (formerly Pearlann Porter) in 2004, The Pillow Project is a project-based dance company of improvisational/ multidisciplinary/ experimental collaborations created within our own postmodern-jazz philosophy and language of THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION™.  

 

We create feature-length performance-installations, projected light-specific concert work, live improvisational jazz-happenings, and enact public durational-performance concepts in Pittsburgh and internationally to challenge the ideas of "What is Dance?", "Who is a Dancer?", and "How can Dance be experienced?".

 

Since 2006, The Space Upstairs has been our permanent artistic residence and location of most of our deepest investigative work, performances, and teachings. The Space Upstairs is both our creative laboratory for navigating artistic risks and our forum for sharing what we learn, innovating wholly new audience experiences and continually seeking new expressions of our jazz. It is here we choose to perform without the formal division of a traditional stage so that intimate, inclusive interactions can occur with our audiences, and the nuances of our human experiences can be witnessed and felt.

The Pillow Project
The Pillow Project
The Pillow Project
The Pillow Project

THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION™

THE POSTMODERN-JAZZ IMPROVISATIONAL MOVEMENT METHOD OF THE PILLOW PROJECT

 

THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION™ is a state of being — a play between music and the dancers, articulating sound into visual-motion — partnering with the music to share another dimension of what we hear. The organic use of directed-improvisation within lightly or loosely structured degrees of choreography highlights the individuality of the movement artists, and is experienced as the real-time presence of the dancer that offers a way to hear and experience the music differently. 

 

THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION™ is a developed language of a postmodern jazz philosophy and physical-methodology created by Artistic Directors Jaka Pearl Porter & John Lambert. The improvisational-based method makes use of improvography where the aesthetic of the work is at its core individualism. Each dancer is given space in any synchronized and choreographed sequence to personalize their motion and music choices within the direction, including the choice to deviate and be unexpected. It is the artistic discretion and instincts of the individual dancer that are fostered and wielded, and to clearly and fully investigate the deepest root of the work together so that anyone can play the moment like a jazz musician… visually.

 

To jazz…as a verb.

The Pillow Project
Pearlann Porter
Pearlann Porter
The Pillow Project Pearlann Porter
Pearlann Porter
The Pillow Project Pearlann Porter

JAKA PORTER

FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

​

Jaka Porter is an improvisational performing artist, visual-conductor, physical-poet and experimental filmmaker, Jaka is a passionate instigator of new ideas in dance and an investigator of physical expression. The medium is jazz. The canvases are Pittsburgh and Paris.

 

Jaka Porter has been teaching and creating from her postmodern-jazz dance philosophy and improvisational language of  THE ELLIPSIS CONDITION™ for over 20 years.

​

Through The Pillow Project (established in 2004), Jaka has enacted public performance concepts in Pittsburgh and internationally, and for the past 16 years The Space Upstairs has been the permanent artistic residence. Jaka often creates performances without the formal division of a traditional stage so that intimate, inclusive interactions can occur with the audiences, helping build a creative community. 'Postmodern-jazz dance', to Jaka, is a verb and creation method, and The Space Upstairs is both a laboratory for navigating artistic risks and a forum for sharing what has been learned, innovating wholly new audience experiences.

 

Jaka continues to represent as a contemporary artist of American modern-jazz dance, acknowledging no one person can be everything the art of jazz is or has been, only the best example they have evolved to live. Jaka's idea of modern-jazz dance is driven by the concept that jazz is a partnering of music with dancers as physical musicians: Dancers articulate sound into visual motion to share another live dimension. The Pillow Project is the idea of dancers 'jazzing the music'.

 

Jaka's work focuses on their own modern-jazz dance movement methods and signature 'improvography' style that has been a staple in Jaka's professionally produced work for over 20 years. They have entirely self-organized and produced large-scale performance events such as at The Hunt Armory (The Concept Album - 2005) and the first-ever all-day dance event at The Carrie Furnace (The Jazz Furnace - 2013). Jaka has created a recurring month-long performance series on the public streets (Thought Pockets - Downtown Pittsburgh, NYC, Paris, London, Dublin).

​

Jaka is also the Founding Director of The Space Upstairs, where they are a full-time Resident Artist and the regular host/creator of the long-running Second Saturdays jazz-happenings. They hold a BFA in Dance from Point Park University and has been on dance faculty for 20+ years. Jaka has held artist residencies and/or created original work for GroundWorks DanceTheater, The Dance Alloy, North Carolina School of the Arts, Endacott College, August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Pittsburgh, Slippery Rock University, Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Point Park University, LABCO Dance, and TEDxGrandviewAve. Jaka was named one of Dance Magazine's 25 To Watch in 2010, Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Best in Dance (2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014), Pittsburgh Magazine's Best of the 'Burgh (2013, 2018), and has been six-times nominated for the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award.

​

bottom of page