Those who walk down Lexington Street in Point Breeze may recognize an old warehouse which is now Construction Junction, a thrift store infamous for selling cheap furniture, appliances and whatever else may be found in old Pittsburgh houses.
However, those who venture into the building through a door marked “The Space Upstairs” will find walls decorated with photos, seemingly well-loved. Instead of an abandoned loft inside a factory, it’s an inviting, living room-esque space, decorated with lights—fairy and colored stage lights, eclectic lamps—paintings, bookshelves, globes.
People are mingling, enjoying the atmosphere or finding a place to sit: on a couch, a loveseat, a chair or a pillow on the floor. A jazz band warms up, and dancers in streetwear, almost disguised among the crowd, make their way to the floor to stretch.
The Space Upstairs, an ecletic entertainment venue, is the home of the monthly “Second Saturdays” event curated with Point Park students and a professor.
Second Saturdays boast The Pillow Project—an improvisational postmodern jazz dance company created by Jaka Zakajinn and John Lambert. Every second Saturday of the month, from September through May, a different jazz band accompanies the dancers of The Pillow Project as they improvise.
Dancers are given an order in which they will perform, but they don’t have a specific allotted amount of time—they simply feel the music. Dancers also may be called upon to dance again with a partner; still, everything is improvised.
Zakajinn, co-artistic director of The Pillow Project and Point Park Dance faculty member, said Second Saturday has changed since its inception.
“Over the years, things have kind of just gravitated,” Zakajinn said. “I never set out thinking what I wanted this to look like before I saw it.
“[By] just allowing the space to influence the work that happens in it…it became this. The version you see now is the most evolved version.”
The Space Upstairs beautifully sets the tone for the art that one will witness when they attend a Second Saturday. The freedom in which they allow themselves to dance and, as Zakajinn put it, “play,” is an artform that is fully realized through the love and care that has been put into the space.
“Since it is all improv-based…the Project puts the movement and expression into our hands,” Anastasia Castleman, a junior dance major at Point Park and Pillow Project dancer, said.
A Second Saturday show—if that’s the right word; the intimacy of the experience is beyond any traditional dance show—is different every time. The experience is set up the same: doors at 8, show at 9, dance until 11, yet the dancers, complimented by whichever jazz band is accompanying that evening, offer something new and exciting every night.
For new Point Park dancers, like Willa Witman, a freshman who has attended all three Second Saturdays this semester, Second Saturdays are inspiring and a great way to learn through observation.
“It’s inspiring to be able to watch fellow dancers living fully present through their movement,” Witman said. “I love how when both the music and the dance is improvised, the musicians and dancers feed off each other, almost in conversation with one another.”
Second Saturdays are an enjoyable and intimate way to spend a Saturday night in Pittsburgh. Once a month, instead of heading up a party or a club, Those looking for a night out can hop on the P1 East Busway, get off at Homewood Station, walk less than 10 minutes and head on over to The Space Upstairs.
