A simple sign and a nondescript black side door at 214 N. Lexington St. in Point Breeze mark the threshold to a dark, oddly designed foyer. Inside are a motorcycle, a bench and a door with a sign telling people to keep it closed at all times.

There is also a shaded staircase dimly lit by cyclical colored lights.

The voice of Jaka Pearl Porter, founding director of The Pillow Project, Pittsburgh’s only improvisational postmodern jazz dance company, acts as a beacon leading the way up the memorabilia-lined staircase to Space Upstairs, the city’s premier multidisciplinary hotspot and home of The Pillow Project.

Sunlight floods the huge, eclectic loft above Construction Junction, which stands out for its high ceilings, hardwood floors and mirrored walls. Seventeen pairs of shoes are lined up neatly at the top of the stairs. A yoga class is in progress.

Porter, dressed in a loose black top and burgundy wide-leg pants, commands the proceedings, constantly on the move and offering instructions as well as words of encouragement. “Stay focused when your mind starts to wander,” “It gets difficult very quickly – don’t run away,” and “Be patient and handle it with grace.”

During a break from class, the artist formerly known as Pearlann Porter sits on one of the many overstuffed couches and reflects on 20 years of The Pillow Project and her recent decision to come out as transgender.

Porter beams with enthusiasm as he reveals details about the upcoming anniversary celebration – “The Long Dream,” a full-length program that illustrates a continuous line of personal artistic development that now includes a personal rebranding, scheduled for September 6 and 7 at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.

“Sitting here planning a 20th anniversary show – I can’t imagine it not happening, but at the same time it’s incredible,” says Porter.

Porter loves dance, but discovered early on that dance did not reciprocate his feelings. She is a self-made artist who is deaf to “no” and moves forward confidently with an attitude:

“I’m just going to do this no matter what. There’s no alternative. Was it hell? Yes! It was a challenge for me,” says Porter, who speaks quickly, laughs a lot and often punctuates his words with gestures and movements.

In 2004, with more determination than money, Porter assembled an ensemble of dance students from Point Park University (where Porter was and still is a faculty member), racked up $5,000 in credit card debt, and formed the project-based troupe as an outlet for a mostly nightly flow of ideas and an insatiable need to express them. Performances have sold out.

The Pillow Project’s early work included street, pedestrian, tap and modern dance. Porter was looking for a distinctive choreographic voice and wanted to create a professional entity outside of Pittsburgh’s dance establishment.

It wasn’t until July 2010, four years after The Space Upstairs was founded as an event venue, creative laboratory and platform for independent initiatives, that something “clicked”.

In rehearsal, Porter’s intention was not to transfer this to the dancers’ bodies. A change of location (Porter’s living room) and a demonstration of how Porter listens to music and articulates movement influenced the desired results.

“Suddenly I saw someone doing what I had imagined my whole life!” says Porter, pulling back slightly in a gesture of surprise. “I’m not a choreographer. I’m a director!”

Porter has since followed the path of improvisation and, in collaboration with co-director John Lambert, developed the Ellipsis Condition, a teachable improvisation method that now forms the basis of subsequent work.

For Porter, postmodern jazz dance differs from the Broadway style (Porter flashes jazz hands) that became popular in musicals and dance school concerts. Instead, Porter creates movement in the way jazz musicians work.

“Live, in the moment, jazz music requires commitment – that’s the quality I want to bring to my work,” Porter explains. “Improvisational jazz and improvisational dance are made for each other.”

Porter’s offbeat concepts and non-dance-focused projects have been well received. Porter has experimented with dance-for-camera, lighting design, and installation formats, and produced unconventional works in non-proscenium-based venues such as the Hunt Armory and Carrie Furnace.

Thought Pockets, which has been performed in Pittsburgh, New York City, and on European sidewalks, received immediate feedback from audiences, with one Strawberry Way performance in particular standing out.

Porter tells it as he slips into character: “I remember this one guy,” Porter leans forward. “He was sitting on a curb, just staring, letting his cigarette burn to ash,” Porter’s tattooed arm drops, two fingers spread to hold an imaginary cigarette. “We were moving very slowly. He says, ‘This is fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like it. Are you going to be here tomorrow?’ I said, ‘No.’ He says, ‘But I’ll think about it,'” Porter says with an emphatic nod of his head.

The September show will be The Pillow Project’s first appearance in a major downtown Pittsburgh venue, and for the occasion, Porter returns to structured choreography accompanied by (recorded) orchestral music.

The programme includes Zzzz (1997), a twelve-minute play born out of a student’s insomnia and plenty of free time, and the world premiere of Turmoil, Romance and Debauchery in D Minor, which is based on the premise that the dancers are the music and respond under the baton of a conductor.

The centerpiece of the program is the title piece “The Long Dream,” an improvisational onstage collaboration between drummer PJ Roduta, poet Lambert and Porter.

“When you improvise, there’s a certain level of commitment. You don’t have to know what you’re going to do. You have to know what you’re doing,” says Porter, adding, “I’m not going to explain anything to the audience. I’m going to speak as authentically as I can.”

“I’m going to introduce myself with a new name. I’m going to take the ‘pearl’ and put it on the inside (as a middle name) and change the shape of the oyster.

“I have already gone through some physical changes. Now I make more sense of myself and will present myself more dynamically because I am more comfortable in my own skin. It seems like I have been on this path for a long time and never realized it. Now I realize it.

“I feel like my work will stay the same. I won’t do any work about it. My work is about other things,” says Porter, for whom artistic satisfaction has always been more important than box office success.

The only child who grew up in Garfield, New Jersey, dancing to MTV music videos in the living room – who suffered insomnia during her freshman year of college because visions of choreography danced on her pillow – who years later stood on the Paris balcony of the Swedish ambassador’s apartment overlooking the Louvre before performing for dignitaries, now asks herself, “Am I still dreaming?”

At the top of Porter’s bucket list is a desire to perform at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival – and indeed, that still is the case. Dreams do come true, and with Porter’s perseverance, this dream will come true too.

The Pillow Project performs The Long Dream on September 6 and 7 at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (980 Liberty Ave.). Tickets.