What is Pilobolus??

I'm really trying here to express something that really has to be seen to be truly understood. However once you do it's now when can I see it again!!

The above image gives you but a small glimpse of what they can do.

What is the only professional modern dance company named after a fungus in cow manure?

What is the only professional, modern dance company to grow directly out of a college modern dance class?

What is the only professional modern dance company directed by not a singular choreographer, but rather a group collaboration, using improvisational techniques?

The answer to all those questions is the world famous dance company, Pilobolus.

Pilobolus is among the most productive modern dance companies in the country, committed to developing three original works each year.

The group evolved from humble and improbable beginnings through classroom projects and composition assignments. Original founders Moses Pendleton, Robby Barnett, Jonathan Wolken and Michael Tracy met in 1971 as raw beginners in a modern dance class taught by Alison Chase at Dartmouth College. Their very first performance was as the opening act before a Frank Zappa concert at University of Massachusetts-Amhers, and what started out in 1970-71 with four men was augmented the following year with the addition of their dance teacher Alison Chase and newcomer Martha Clarke. The company debuted in New York at the Nikolais-Louis Theatre Lab, and caused a sensation at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in l974. And in 1977, Pierre Cardin -- who had just previously presented them in Paris, where they were the toast of the town -- produced their Broadway debut.

With early favorites such as "Ciona," "Monkshood Farewell" and "Untitled," Pilobolus put forth a new idea, revolutionizing what we think of as "dance," and incorporating elements of acrobatics, gymnastics, a ribald sense of humor and powerful physicality. Unique, multi-bodied weight sharing, convoluted and clever visual illusion, cantilevered bodies jutting out in precarious balances are the hallmarks of this group even as the styles differ..

In a signature scene from "Untitled," two genteel, aristocratic young ladies -- at a garden party perhaps, such as might be pictured in a painting from the 1700's -- suddenly they stand up and grow impossibly tall, giving the illusion of stilts. As we see a pair of hairy legs emerge from under the skirts, we realize that the women are standing on the shoulders of their male partners, who have been under hidden under the folds of their skirt. The whiff of sexual humor, the visual illusion, and the "wink" to the audience are all hallmarks of Pilobolus style.

Regardless of how we define them, they remain wildly successful, with over one hundred dances and thirty years under their belt, and for their many fans, they are, as described by former Pilobolus dancer and journalist John Job, the "most unpretentious, dazzling, original, exhilarating, popular, daring, libido-wrenching dance mothers on earth."

There is no preparation or cultural underpinning needed to appreciate the choreography of Pilobolus. The group has been wildly successful, and seems to appeal most markedly to an audience with no preconceived ideas of what constitutes dance. Rather than using pre-defined steps or vocabulary -- as does the Martha Graham Dance Company, for example -- the choreographic process of Pilobolus has always been a group collaboration or improvisation.