Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

Jacob’s Pillow will present Vanessa Sanchez y La Mezcla during its 90th Anniversary Season on August 17, 2022. Founded in 2014 by dancer, choreographer, and educator Vanessa Sanchez, La Mezcla is a multidisciplinary dance and music ensemble rooted in Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous traditions and social justice. La Mezcla fuses Afro-Latinx percussion and dance to tell stories of historical oppression and collective resistance, to challenge cultural and gender role stereotypes, and to share unseen histories and experiences of communities of color. Through her work with La Mezcla, Vanessa Sanchez emphasizes the experiences of Latina, Chicana, and Indigenous women through contemporary performance and traditional dance forms, and uses the experiences of her community to inform her creative expression. Vanessa Sanchez y La Mezcla makes its Jacob’s Pillow debut this year with Pachuquismo, a work centered around the 1940s Zoot Suit era.