Pilobolus Dance
Today Pilobolus is recognized as a major American dance company of
international influence. It has not, however, forsaken its original
impetus. The company remains a deeply collaborative effort with an
executive director, three artistic directors and seven dancers
contributing to one of the most popular and varied repertoires in the
field. Its many decades of consistent artistic activity now stand as a
testament to the group's remarkable fruitfulness and longevity.
Pilobolus (crystallinus) is a phototropic zygomycete - a sun-loving
fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures. It grows on a stalk as a
small bladder, pressurized by cell sap and topped with a tiny black cap
filled with spores. When time and Pilobolus are ripe, this entire
sporangium is blasted off with incredible force and the little spore
bags can shoot over a cow like clowns out of a cannon. It's reported
that the acceleration - from 0-45 mph in the first mm of flight - is
the second fastest in nature.
Pilobolus, the arts organism, germinated in the fertile soil of a
Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. What emerged was a collaborative
choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to
partnering that gave the young company a non-traditional but powerful
new set of skills with which to make dances. The group was immediately
acclaimed for its startling mix of humor and invention and Pilobolus
soon became a self-sufficient organization, its members choreographing,
dancing, managing, and publicizing their own programs.
Pilobolus has developed from this ad hoc dance collective into a
unique American arts organization with three major branches of
activity: Pilobolus Dance Theatre, our 7-person touring company; The
Pilobolus Institute, an umbrella for all our educational programming;
and Pilobolus Creative Services, an administrative structure allowing
us to coordinate creative activity with both commercial and artistic
organizations outside our own company.