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.
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!
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.
📅 Monday to Friday, July 31 – August 4 🕘 9am – 3pm
All levels, two groups: ages 12-14 and 15+
In this week-long program, dancers will learn foundational movements and techniques of hip-hop and street style dance, alongside discussions about the cultural meaning and significance of these dance forms. The program will create an encouraging space to try out what you learn and most importantly show off your unique style and personality while freestyling in daily cyphers.
And summer is on the way. Our summer intensive registration is open and ongoing! We are so excited to have programs for all ages June through August.
We are also seeking an enthusiastic Summer Counselor to assist with daily duties during our Summer Intensive programs in 2023.
The Summer Counselor will assist students and teachers throughout daily classes and serve as a liaison between the students and Berkshire Pulse staff. Learn more about this position on our website.
Upcoming Moving Life Stories Workshops
Moving Life Stories is a creative movement class created for and geared toward the immigrant population and their allies in the Berkshires. These workshops provide opportunities to share personal journeys, stories, and connections to places past and present through movement games, exercises, dancing, and community building.
All are welcome!
Simon’s Rock Workshop
📅 Saturday, April 8 🕙 10am to 12pm 📍Beckerman Dance Studio, inside the Daniel Arts Center
Pittsfield Series
📅 Tuesdays, April 4 – May 23 🕕 6 to 8pm 📍Berkshire Family YMCA
South County Series
📅 Fridays, April 21 – May 12 🕕 6 to 8pm 📍Family Resource Center
For the Pittsfield and South County workshops, a Spanish-speaking interpreter will be present, childcare is provided, and transportation can be arranged.
The Montreal School of Biodanza is returning to Pulse this Friday!
📅 Friday, March 31 🕖 7 to 10 pm
Biodanza is an invitation to cultivate the “Art of Vivencia” – the ability to be completely present to life in the moment. Biodanza encourages us to explore the gestures and embodied vocabulary of Vivencia, letting us rekindle our connection to self, others, and the world.
All are welcome; Biodanza is a dance practice for everyone.
This new program for our youngest dancers invites them on an expedition into the exciting, engaging, and rewarding world of dance. Classes will include creative dance, tumbling, drumming, and more!
Our two-week Contemporary Intensive is officially underway, and we’re already excited to see what they’ve been working on…
In fact, mark your calendars! At the end of the two-week intensive, will be a culminating presentation of student work, created in the beautiful sculptural gardens of Chesterwood.
The presentation is free and open to all, and will take place on:
Friday, July 29th at 5pm at Chesterwood
(Rain date: Saturday, July 30th at 1pm)
We hope you’ll join us!
(poster artwork credit: Christopher Corr)
Arts Alive! presents: The Many Faces of Love
Berkshire Pulse faculty member Ian Spencer Bell will be performing Lori Belilove’s staging of Isadora Duncan’s Brahms Waltzes, The Many Faces of Love. The performance will take place on at 6:30pm on August 3rd & 4th at Chesterwood. Bell dances the 110-year-old solo in the garden where Duncan herself danced for the French Family.
Belilove, artistic director of Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation and Company, is a third-generation Duncan dancer and “the best, most devoted Duncan dancer in America” according to Dance Magazine. Pianist Lauren Aloia accompanies Bell. Also on the program is a new dance and poetry piece by Bell titled Rosing. An artist talk and champagne reception follows each performance.
Tickets are free for people under 21years old, $15 for adults, $10 for Chesterwood members, and can be purchased at ianspencerbell.com.
There’s Still Time to Sign Up for Our Ballet Intensive!
August 1st-6th
(Monday thru Saturday)
9am-3:30pm
Group 1: advanced beginner/intermediate, ages 11-13
Group 2: intermediate/advanced dancers, ages 14+
Daily classes include ballet technique, pointe/pre-pointe/traditional male ballet technique, partnering, pilates, and artistry and variations. The program culminates with an informal sharing for families on the last day.
Challenging all facets of the student’s artistry, our faculty will meet each artist where they are to refine their technical skills, strength, musicality, and foster their dynamic artistry. This year, our weeklong program will be led by a lineup of incredible teaching artists, including…
(*SPECIAL OFFER! Adults who wish to participate in just morning ballet are welcome to do so, as long as they are willing to commit to the full week of classes. Sign up here.)
We are so excited to be opening the Arts Alive Summer 2022 series with dance in celebration of work created by young and emerging choreographers and dancers of the Berkshire Pulse community. The garden landscapes of Chesterwood truly offer endless opportunities for creative inspiration and expression!
On June 30th from 5-6pm, join us in the studio garden for an evening of dance, poetry, and inspiration expressed in movement, featuring members of the Berkshire Pulse teaching faculty, Young Choreographers Initiative, and contemporary teen and adult dancers. This is a unique opportunity to experience four new works created by young artists inspired by collaboration:
Choreographer and poet Gillian Ebersole joins with dancer Shannon Nulf to explore the intersection of movement, spoken word, and embodied delight for “In the Crook of the Elbow”.
“Qualia” choreographed by Fiona Scruggs illustrates the cyclical and ephemeral nature of time, space, energy, and chaos and their relationships to our perception of transient experiences.
“Unconditional” choreographed by Garet Wierdsma explores the concept of unconditional love: what does it mean to love and be loved unconditionally? Should love ever be truly unconditional?
“Red” is inspired by an exercise that choreographer Cecilia Kittross did in Berkshire Pulse’s Young Choreographers Initiative, exploring ways of relating to a chair.
A facilitated talk back will follow the performance for an opportunity to learn more about choreographers’ process and inspiration for their work.
We’d like to take a moment to shine a spotlight on our four wonderful seniors who are graduating this year ❤️…
Cecilia Kittross
“Dance has always felt natural to me, as communication, as expression, as an escape from the world. When I first stepped in the front door of Berkshire Pulse at 11 years old, I was overwhelmed. I was joining halfway through the year, so everyone in my classes already knew each other and I felt like an outsider. Even the studios themselves were larger and brighter than any I had seen before. But by the end of my first class, I already felt a sense of belonging.
The Pulse community is truly what makes this place special. I am endlessly grateful for the support I’ve received and the connections I have made. Every teacher I’ve had at Pulse has taught me new ways to challenge myself, and continues to influence my dancing today. I will be attending Vassar College in the fall, where I plan to continue dancing as much as possible. Though it hurts to leave behind something that has such a huge fixture in my life, I feel comforted by the knowledge that I will always be welcome at Berkshire Pulse. No matter how far I go, it will always be a home to me.”
Keely O’Gorman
“At 5 years old, dance became my first introduction to the stage and performing. Ever since that first class, I knew that I loved the technique, drive, and creative freedom that dance gave me. I didn’t start coming to Pulse until I was 12 and wished that I had come to this studio earlier. At Pulse, I have been equally challenged and supported my teachers, classmates and staff.
An important lesson I have learned as a dancer is how to communicate your feelings and thoughts through movement. Talking and words are a very important tool for communication, but so much can be said from dance and movement as well. At Pulse, I have learned new technique, teamwork, and also to be more confident in myself and my dance.
I would like to give special thanks to Bettina Montano and Tom Masters who have been my teachers for the longest time since I have been at Pulse. They have watched and helped me grow as a dancer throughout these past years and supported me along the way. Lastly, I would like to thank my mom who always encouraged my dreams and has been my number one supporter through all of my endeavors.”
Rubielle Nejaime
“When I was 11, I became curious about dance. From there, my mom enrolled me into the Foundations class at Berkshire Pulse, and without even realizing it— her decision that day was the start of my dance exploration that would be more transformative than I could have imagined. Thank you, Mom.
In addition to the skill, experience, and knowledge Pulse and the teaching artists here have taught me, I have also gained an unparalleled amount of personal growth. One of the reasons dance interested me as a kid was because, when dancing, I didn’t have to speak. Dance was a way for me to show myself without having to leave my comfort zone or reveal my insecurity around talking. That plan worked out for a little while, but as I matured as a dancer, I was pushed to become more–an artist. My confidence flourished, and I learned the importance of my voice being heard. Berkshire Pulse is a one-of-a-kind place, full of down to earth and inspiring people.
Bettina, thank you for constantly supporting me and pushing me beyond my limits. You have given me so many opportunities and privileges these past 8 years–including introducing me to a community of dancers and mentors that I have been so lucky to connect with and learn from. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my family for everything they have done to give me this unforgettable experience and to every single one of my teachers that helped me to become who I am today.
Next year, I will continue training at Berkshire Pulse to prepare to audition into a Bachelors of Fine Arts Dance program while also pursuing Business and Fashion. Last year, my senior year was postponed because of the pandemic, but I am beyond grateful to be performing my solo on stage today and have the moment my 11-year-old self dreamed of.”
Fiona Mathews
“When I first started dancing at age three, I thought of ballet class as a fun place to put on a pink leotard and move around with my friends. I remember leaping across the room in my tiny ballet slippers, imagining how I would look doing the same moves many years later. Now, I’m graduating high school, but I still feel a bit like that little girl in a tulle skirt. I don’t take ballet classes anymore, instead exploring modern and tap, but I still find the same joy in moving and dancing and just letting my body be free.
I’ve only danced at Berkshire Pulse for two years, but those two years have been full of exploring different modes of dance, becoming more comfortable moving in my body, and really just having fun. At first, I was nervous about joining a new studio, but I was quickly welcomed into the Pulse family.
I want to say a huge thank you to all of the teachers I’ve had, the classmates I’ve danced with, and my friends and family. Next year, I can’t wait to keep dancing at Brown University while also exploring all the amazing opportunities college has to offer.”
Join the SuperJournal Series
All are welcome, ages 17+
FREE + ONE DAY ONLY
Wednesday 6/29, 4-5pm
Elizabeth Heller, ERYT-200, has created a unique and transformative class that offers student science-based mindfulness, movement, and journaling tools to boost physical and emotional wellbeing.
Through a variety of fun and simple practices, Elizabeth leads her students in developing agency in exploring and managing emotion, reducing anxiety, building self-awareness and focus, and the ability to create positive life changes after traumatic events, including the ongoing pandemic.
Students can expect to have fun, move their bodies, laugh, breathe, journal—and explore their own power to heal and create wellbeing!
We are so grateful to our generous sponsors for making this year’s performance celebration possible.
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Berkshire Food Co-op
Tall Tree Productions
The UltraWellness Center – Dr. Mark Hyman
Alan & Benès Glackman, C.P.A., P.C.
Claudia & Joe Gold
Diane Pearlman & Jeff Diamond
-Mark Your Calendars-
FREE Moving Life Stories Performance Next Week!
Join us for the closing celebration of Moving Life Stories at 5:30pm on June 1st at Chesterwood. It will be an evening rich in community, food, dance, storytelling, and more. All are welcome—and the event is free!
Upcoming Workshops
*Super Journal Series: Move, Draw & Write to Boost Your Best Self
This unique + transformative class offers students science-based mindfulness, movement, and journaling tools to boost their physical and emotional wellbeing. In a safe container for exploration + connection, participants will practice tools to help them manage the contemporary world while cultivating joy and freedom.
Students can expect to have fun, move their bodies, laugh, breathe, journal, and explore their own power to heal and create wellbeing!
Registration for this class is open & free, with a suggested $10 donation.
Online registration opens June 1. In-person registration begins June 2. Head over to our website to see a preliminary list of available youth and community classes.
For the remainder of the spring session, the following community classes are available for in-person, drop-in registration:
5/26: Ballet Zen with Melissa Elstein
5/26 & 5/27: Shake Your Soul with Madeline Despres-Chen
5/28: Adv. Beginner/Intermediate Ballet with Shannon Nulf