All tickets are general admission, and are available on a first come, first served basis. Please note that you will need to purchase tickets to attend a performance, even if a child of yours is performing in the show. If you prefer not to purchase tickets online, please email berkshire.pulse@gmail.com so our staff can make arrangements with you to purchase tickets in-person/over the phone. All proceeds from the Spring Celebration will benefit the Pulse Tuition Assistance program!
*Online ticket sales are open until midnight the night before each performance. Limited tickets may be available at the door, but each performance is expected to sell out and families are encouraged to purchase tickets early.
Berkshire Pulse invites you on Tuesday, May 7 at 6pm to The Foundry for an evening of innovative & inspired dance created and performed by the 2023/2024 members of the Berkshire Pulse Young Choreographers Workshop and Young Choreographers Initiative
This program is a fundraiser for our Diane Pearlman Young Choreographers Initiative Scholarship.
Launched in 2023, this scholarship underwrites the Young Choreographers Initiative tuition for all students, as well as the senior choreography project, providing graduating dancers with the studio space, professional mentorship, and production support needed for the senior solo creative process. Choreographic exploration and process is an essential component of the Pulse Youth Performing Arts Program curriculum, incorporated into classwork beginning at age 6 and continuing with increasing intention as students progress throughout the levels.
Can’t make the presentation? Support the Diane Pearlman Young Choreographers Initiative Scholarship here.
Shake Your Soul® is a movement practice that relaxes the nervous system, energizes the body, and awakens the soul through a fluid dance repertoire set to music from around the world. All levels welcome!
Class typically begins with a Qi Gong warm up followed by movement sequences that help you connect with your fluid nature. The final portion of the class includes creative exercises that allow for individual expression, solo exploration, and moving in pairs or with the group. This class is about feeling and embodying, not about how you or your movement looks. Participants are encouraged to adjust any movement that is offered according to their own needs and level of comfort.
This past Saturday, April 6th Soul Steps concluded their 3-week artist residency with Berkshire Pulse by teaching a step class and sharing excerpts of their work with our community. During their residency, the company reached approximately 70 students at Pittsfield High School and Taconic High School, leaving a lasting impact on the students. We are incredibly thankful to the Soul Step artists for their care, energy, and inspiration, and we’re looking forward to continuing our partnership next year. Thank you so much, Maxine, Destiny, Daisha, Brandon, and Mark!
Soul Steps is offering a free Community Workshop and informal presentation of excerpts from their musical “Step Show: The Musical” for ages 10 and up from 1:00-3:00pm on Saturday, April 6th!
Soul Steps is a NYC-based dance-theater company founded in 2005, dedicated to teaching and performing African American step dance. They are in residence at Berkshire Pulse for 3 weeks while they teach step dance in the Pittsfield Public Schools and develop their new musical about the history of step dance.
Want to be a part of the Spring Celebration? Consider becoming a sponsor! Sponsorships help fund our Tuition Assistance Program, which make educational and empowering arts experiences accessible to all.
A weekly class series to help students explore their mind-body connection through foundational yoga postures, sequences, and breathing exercises. Focus is on creating safe alignment, cultivating body awareness, and relaxation.
Postures introduced and practiced will include: Sun salutations A/B, chair, downward facing dog, warrior 1 & 2, balancing poses, mountain, spinal twists, savasana, Ujjayi breath, and others. Class themes will focus on connecting with the energy of the Lunar New Year, Year of the Wood Dragon.
More information on the performance and ticket sales coming soon!
Want to be a part of the Spring Celebration? Consider becoming a sponsor! Sponsorships help fund our Tuition Assistance Program, which make educational and empowering arts experiences accessible to all.
Bettina has been chosen by the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce for the Women in Leadership Change Maker Award!
The recipients were selected from more than 90 nominations by a non-Board sub-committee, in conjunction with the SBCC Board Programs Committee and then submitted to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
Congratulations Bettina, and all the wonderful leaders in our community who were nominated and awarded this year!
Thanks to community nomination, Berkshire Pulse made it to the voting round of the Rural Intelligence Readers’ Choice Awards!
Berkshire Pulse is nominated in multiple categories, including Best Dance Classes/Studio and Best Arts Organization.
Help spread the word about Berkshire Pulse by visiting RuralIntelligence.com/ReadersChoice to cast your vote! Voting runs until November 13, and you can cast nominations every day. Voting is easy – you just need to enter a valid email!
Join us for a special series of Beginners Funk Box Breaking for Adults and Teens with Andres Ramirez, on October 13, 20, 27 and November 3 from 6:15-7:15pm. For ages 16 to adult
Then, come dance with Dashawn Davison November 17 and Shakia Barronin December and January from 6:15-7:45pm! For ages 12 to adult
Joanne Bockemuehl-Jackson leads a beginner series this November. This series is targeted to everyone that is curious about tapping into their own passionate courage to allow themselves to stand up and be seen! For ages 18+
Angel Lau teaches the basics of how to play any percussion instrument. Using these foundations, you’ll learn different rhythms from all over the globe with a focus on West African, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian percussion. For ages 11+. Absolute beginners and experienced drummers are all welcomed.
All workshops are open to absolute beginners, meaning you don’t need any related experience to participate. Just bring your curiosity and an open mind!
August 29-31: In-person registration for Youth Performing Arts Program Classes available from 2-7pm; online registration continues
September 4-10: Studios closed for Labor Day and maintenance, online registration continues
September 11: First day of fall session for all Community & Youth Performing Arts Program Classes
New Class Highlight:
Musical Theater Collective
with Tom Masters, Teak Welch, and Wendy Welch, plus guest teaching artists
📅 Saturdays🕑 2-4pm for ages 10+ We’re excited to debut a new program for our musical theater dancers, actors, and singers. Become a triple threat while taking this workshop with classes in Broadway Jazz, voice, acting, and improvisation. Students will learn healthy warm-up practices for the voice and body, and work on character development, expression, ensemble, and more.
Discover the essence of Afro-Brazilian martial art with our captivating Capoeira class at Berkshire Pulse.
Experience acrobatic movements, dance, powerful kicks, and the enchanting rhythms of traditional Capoeira music. This dynamic practice cultivates strength, flexibility, rhythm, and coordination. Suitable for all levels, come and embrace the spirit of Capoeira with us today!
*Please note: this class requires commitment to attending for the first 4 weeks.
Spirits of Chesterwood is an intergenerational dance project created by seven local choreographers in the Berkshire Pulse community. This roving, site-specific performance will be presented as a part of Chesterwood’s Arts Alive! series on Thursday, July 27, once at 4pm and again at 6pm, to allow an intimate group of audience members to follow the performers along the route.
In this series, Saroya Corbett, Arthur Levitt Jr. ’52 Artist-in-Residence Fellow at Williams College, will share her expertise in Dunham Technique, an Afro-Modern dance technique.
Our Dance Discovery Intensive brought together dancers ages 8 to 12 for two weeks of exploration! In particular, they loved their African Dance class with Nkoula Badila and Angel Lau (pictured here).
Upcoming Summer Intensives
It’s not too late to register for our upcoming summer intensives!
Summer Intensive season is finally in full swing! Here’s just a taste of what our schedule looks like:
We are just finishing two weeks of our Dance Discovery Intensive, a journey into the dance forms including ballet, modern, African, Appalachian Flatfooting, and more.
Our Berkshire Pulse Intensive begins next week, which we couldn’t be more excited about. (Want to join? Click the button below!)
Basic Dance Composition with Rebecca Alson-Milkman
Beginner, for ages 16-adult
📅 Tuesdays beginning July 11
🕠 5:30-7:00 PM
Have you ever been curious about making your own choreography but thought you missed your chance? Here it is!
Through group improvisations and assigned studies, budding dancemakers will be introduced to the building blocks of composition: movement theme and variation, varying ways to code and carve the dance space, and how to define relationships between dancers.
Experience acrobatic movements, dance, powerful kicks, and the enchanting rhythms of traditional Capoeira music. This dynamic practice cultivates strength, flexibility, rhythm, and coordination. Suitable for all levels, come and embrace the spirit of Capoeira!
In this class, you will learn healthy vocal techniques, breath support, and how to connect to the material! You will also explore ‘acting the song’ through improvisation and acting exercises, while also having the opportunity to learn solo and group songs.
Spirits of Chesterwood is an intergenerational dance project created by 7 local choreographers in the Pulse community. This will be performed as a part of Chesterwoods’ Arts Alive series on Thursday, July 27, with shows at 4pm and 6pm.
We are so grateful to our generous sponsors for making this year’s performance celebration possible.
Alander Construction Berkshire Mountain Bakery Indian Mountain School Jacob’s Pillow Nature Works Organic Land Care Inc Gail Belmuth Joan & Peter Coombs Alan & Benès Glackman Claudia & Joe Gold Bruce Humes/Tall Tree Productions Diane Pearlman & Jeff Diamond
Save the Date
Mohican Roots: Building Community through Council Dialogue
Alliance for a Viable Future will be holding community peacemaking dialogues to build relationships toward ancestral healing and reconciliation this June.
Wanonah Spencer, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans, received a six-month fellowship from Alliance for a Viable Future to deepen her relationship with her ancestral homeland—the Berkshires.
Join us in dialogue at Pulse on June 22 at 6pm. You can register here. The program is free and open to all.
◾June 1st – In-person Council @ Flying Deer Nature Center ◾June 22nd – In-person Council @ Berkshire Pulse ◾July 20th – In-person Council @ Random Harvest
Summer Community Classes
Our summer community class schedule is on our website, and we are adding classes every day!
Many classes we currently offer will be continuing this summer, as well as some exciting new classes and workshops! Summer community classes include:
African Dance African Drumming Basic Dance Composition Ballet (Beginnning, Adv Beg/Int, and Int/Adv) Contact Improvisation Jazz Modern (Beginning, Int/Adv) Musical Theater Shake Your Soul® Swing Tap
This year, we’re inviting our community to help sell program ads in support of our Tuition Assistance Program. Whoever sells the most ads wins a Pulse sweatshirt! Learn more here.
In this workshop, we will focus on specific areas of our skeleton and its associated musculature and how they function to support every yoga pose – or asana – in our practice. Focusing on our internal systems can profoundly enrich any movement practice and can help us find curiosity and freshness even in poses that we have done over and over.
If you find anatomy fascinating, then this workshop is perfect for you! And if anatomy is a foreign land, then this workshop will present a new landscape for you to explore.
We will come together with the knowledge that all bodies are deeply wise. Questions, curiosities, and confusions are all welcome, as are all identities, bodies, and levels of experience.
Pulse alum Moscelyne ParkeHarrison and collaborator Chase Buntrock will lead participants through fundamental principles of contemporary partnering. The workshop will culminate in learning a section from ‘newave’, a duet that Moscelyne and Chase are restaging for BODYSONNET’s Season 4. The workshop approaches partnering through a post-gender lens and encourages listening and mutual support.
This workshop is open to dancers ages 13 to adult.
All levels, full-day program for ages 10-14, evening series for ages 14+
🕘 9am – 3pm (day program)
This week-long intensive gives students the opportunity to jump right into the world of musical theater with classes in tap, broadway jazz, voice, acting, and improvisation. Students will learn healthy warm-up practices for the voice and body, and work on character development, expression, ensemble, and more. The program directors will work with students to produce an informal performance for the program’s final day.
🕔 5pm – 7pm (evening series)
This-week long evening series for students ages 14+ will give the students an opportunity to take a daily musical theater workshop rotating between singing, acting, and improv and work on developing something for an informal performance at the end of the week.
