A Brief History of Pilobolus

Pilobolus Dance Theatre began in 1971, and had its origins at Dartmouth College. Its four founding members were Robby Barnett, Lee Harris, Moses Pendleton, Alison Becker Chase, and Jonathan Wolken. According to the Pilobolus website, the company "quickly became renowned the world over for its imaginative and athletic exploration of creative collaboration." The primary artistic directors of the company for a long time were Barnett, Wolken, Pendleton, and Michael Tracy. In 1983, Pendleton left Pilobolus to create a new company, Momix, that was an offshoot of Pilobolus. Chase also left Pilobolus in 2006 and started her own company. The dances created by Pilobolus are extremely physical and can be considered almost gymnastic in nature.

Since its beginning, Pilobolus has expanded into three entities: Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Pilobolus Institute, and Pilobolus Creative Services. The Pilobolus Institute provides master classes, workshops, performances and more. The workshops offered at the institute "are not training in dance but rather in methods of effective group creativity that use physical expression as their medium" (http://www.pilobolus.com). One of the goals of these classes is to discard "preconceptions of what dance should be" (http://www.pilobolus.com). The Pilobolus Institute has also offered its workshops to schools, particularly to the William W. Niles School in the Bronx in NYC. Two members of Pilobolus Dance Theatre went to the school every week to work with middle school children to help them "'work co-operatively to problem-solve'" (Smith, "Pilobolus and the Middle School"). The full article about Pilobolus' collaboration with this school can be found at: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.indiana.edu/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=104&sid=f2386b80-a397-46be-ad47-22709f58da85%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=25260596#db=f5h&AN=25260596

Pilobolus Creative Services (PCS) was created to provide original work for advertising, fundraising events, corporate galas, film, and television. PCS began in 1997 and has provided work for a number of companies and events. They've created commercials for Hyundai, Mobil, Bloomingdales, and many other companies. They also performed at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. PCS has created work for many other people and companies as well (http://www.pilobolus.com). This is a commercial PCS created for Hyundai:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elWf8nI6ivw