Kinetic Mild’s progressive digital actuality (VR) expertise, territory, will make its world premiere on July 12–13, 2025, on the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Competition in Becket, Massachusetts, as a part of the Opening Week Celebration for the newly reimagined Doris Duke Theatre. This state-of-the-art venue serves as a dwelling lab for daring, immersive works that fuse dance with cutting-edge know-how, showcasing performances throughout Opening Week (July 6-13) by artists corresponding to Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Annie-B Parson, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, Eiko Otake, Unwired Dance Theatre, and Kinetic Mild.
Co-directed by Kiira Benz and Alice Sheppard, territory is a disability-centered VR expertise created by Kinetic Mild in collaboration with Double Eye Studios. Set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, it envelops customers in accessible motion, mild, vibration, and sound, providing a mix of utopian and dystopian narratives. The expertise reimagines Kinetic Mild’s acclaimed stage manufacturing Wired, an aerial and up to date dance work exploring race, gender, and incapacity by way of the lens of barbed wire in the USA. Performers Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson, and Alice Sheppard star, with scenography by Michael Maag, sound design by Q Division, spatial audio by Mach1, and entry design by Lawson and Sheppard. Alice Sheppard, Laurel Lawson, and Kiira Benz will attend the premiere.
territory stands out as the primary aesthetically accessible VR headset expertise of its form, immersing customers in a fantastical universe formed by human-made obstacles and borders. It introduces cosmic figures, darkish forces, partnerships, and new worlds, all whereas prioritizing creative and equitable entry. Kinetic Mild has built-in progressive entry options, together with spatial and multitrack audio descriptions, haptics, and artistic captioning, into the VR growth course of. Earlier this 12 months, the ensemble showcased their distinctive method to incapacity aesthetics, entry, and know-how on the 2025 SXSW competition.
Based by Alice Sheppard in 2016, Kinetic Mild is a incapacity arts ensemble working on the intersection of entry, queerness, incapacity, and race. The corporate facilities disabled folks as creators and experiencers in dance, movie, know-how, and design, viewing entry as a artistic, intersectional, and relational dedication. Be taught extra at kineticlight.org.
The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Competition, a world chief in dance, runs by way of August 2025, providing a vibrant lineup of performances, talks, and workshops. For particulars on the competition and the Opening Week Celebration, go to jacobspillow.org.
