Jacob’s Pillow, a hardscrabble farm in western Massachusetts turned dance mecca, has been supporting dance creation, presentation, education and preservation since the 1930s. A National Historic Landmark and National Medal of Arts recipient, Jacob’s Pillow is home to America’s longest running dance festival, the renowned Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, which has presented the best in dance from around the world for 81 years. In 2010, at the 78th edition of the festival, Emily Patterson Nicholas and her husband Thomas Nicholas, then both members and soloists with Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, presented an untitled work scored to Guiseppe Verdi’s “Requiem: Dies irae: Lacrymosa.”