Pilobolus is a modern dance company that began in 1971. Pilobolus started with members Robby Barnett, Alison Chase, Martha Clarke, Lee Harris, Moses Pendleton, Michael Tracy and Jonathan Wolken at Dartmouth College. The group worked to create new, ground-breaking use of physicality and manipulation of the human form, with no boundaries in terms of touch or differentiations in gender roles. Their work has been characterized as "playful," "entangling," "defying logic," and "bizarre."
Pilobolus mirrors the experimental nature of Steve Paxton, who, like Pilobolus use gymnastics-like physicality in his work. In consideration of Paxton's development of contact improvisation, Pilobolus pushes this concept and creates their own form of contact dance, using the dancers' bodies collectively to create both recognizable and abstract forms.
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| This is a photo from Pilobolus's "Korokoro" featuring the choreography of Takuya Muramatsu. This picture displays Pilobolus's use of partnering which looks similar to Paxton's weight-sharing work, yet it is unique to the physicality and styling of the company and of Marumatsu's Japanese-inspired choreography. |
In addition to Paxton, Pilobolus also uses similar a spectacle technique as Alwin Nikolais. Pilobolus has utilized the use of light and shadow in dance, a technique they displayed in the beginning video as well as for the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, where they created iconic scenes or images from the years' nominees.
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| This is a scene from Little Miss Sunshine, the scene where the family has to push their Volkswagen bus, and Steve Carrells' character is running to get in the vehicle. |
To see the video of Pilobolus's 79th Academy Awards performance, click right HERE!
Today, Pilobolus consists of three distinct branches: Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Pilobolus Institute, and Pilobolus Creative Services. The Pilobolus Dance Theatre is the touring company. Pilobolus Institute is the educational programming branch which teaches classes. The Pilobolus Creative Services are considered the "movement services" for various aspects of advertising, networking, and corporate events.
Pilobolus is based out of Washington Depot, Connecticut. For the Pilobolus website, click here.
After researching Steve Paxton and Alwin Nikolais, I agree that Pilobolus combines and extends both of their movement ideals. Through Paxton's work with contact improvisation, Pilobolus has a strong sense of weight, space, and another's body to create their shows. Like Nikolais, the body becomes a tool for visual pleasure rather than a human emoter. Because of this separation of human and emotions, their work seems to transcend dance and begins to enter the realm of visual arts in the way they frame the body in recognizable shapes and images.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know anything about pilobolus before reading this, but definitely want to find out more about them. After taking this class this semester, I find it interesting how most artists come from someone else technique. I now want to do more research on steve paxton since piblobolus seems so interesting!
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