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Jacob’s Pillow cancels remainder of festival after death at Mass. performance center
A production manager died at the dance center last week in what the district attorney’s office in Berkshire County, described as a workplace accident.
Jacob’s Pillow, the celebrated dance center in Becket, Massachusetts, said Tuesday that it has canceled the rest of its summer festival after a production manager died last week while moving staging platforms.
The Jacob’s Pillow summer program is America’s longest-running dance festival. This year’s edition began June 25 and was scheduled to run until Aug. 24. But the center said it had decided to cancel the remaining events after the death of Kat Sirico, a production manager, last week.
Sirico was moving platforms for theater staging with an intern’s help Friday afternoon. While they were rolling a dolly down a slope, Sirico tripped and the load toppled, according to the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office, which determined it to be a workplace accident.
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Jacob’s Pillow said it would give refunds to those with tickets to the affected programs, including events featuring Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and choreographer Faye Driscoll.
Located on a 220-acre property in the Berkshires, Jacob’s Pillow is one of the country’s top dance centers. Its prestigious school counts members of national ballet companies among its alumni, including Calvin Royal III, a principal dancer at American Ballet Theater.
The festival this summer was a return to full capacity at Jacob’s Pillow with the opening of a newly built Doris Duke Theater after the original structure burned down in 2020. Around 100,000 people visit Jacob’s Pillow each year, according to the center’s website.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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