Pilobolus is a modern performance company, founded in 1971,
that to this day wears its revolutionary stripes on its sleeves. In keeping
with its fundamentally collective creative process, Pilobolus Dance Theatre
now curates and convenes groups of diverse artists---including the MIT
Distributed Robotics Laboratory, Art Spiegelman, OK Go, Radiolab, and many
others---to make inventive, athletic, witty, collaborative performance works on
stage and screen using the human body as a medium for expression. Pilobolus
makes art to build community. It teaches its group-based creative process to
performers and non-dancers alike through popular, unique educational projects
and programs. This collection of activities is called the Pilobolus
Institute. Pilobolus also applies its method of creative invention to a
wide range of movement services for film, advertising, publishing, commercial
clients, and corporate events. This division is called Pilobolus Creative
Services. The 2012 season marks Pilobolus' 41st year. In keeping with the
energy and spirit of its biological namesake---a phototropic fungus that thrives
in farmyards----the company has continued to grow toward the light, expanding and
refining its unique methods of collective creative production to assemble a
repertoire of over 100 choreographic works. While it has become a stable and
influential force in the world of dance, Pilobolus remains as protean as ever,
looking forward to the next 40 years of collaborating on the future.
PILOBOLUS DANCE THEATRE Pilobolus is based in
Washington Depot, Connecticut and performs for stage, television, and online
audiences all over the world. The company has appeared late at night on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien, early in the morning on Sesame Street, and in
primetime as a feature on CBS's 60 Minutes. Pilobolus has performed live
shows in 64 countries and has received a number of prestigious honors,
including the Berlin Critic's Prize, the Scotsman Award, the Brandeis Award, a
Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in cultural programming, the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in
choreography, and a TED Fellowship for performing a TED Talk in 2005. In 2010, Pilobolus was honored as the first collective to
receive the Dance Magazine Award, which recognizes artists who have made
lasting contributions to the field. Pilobolus works also appear in the
repertories of major American and European dance companies. In 2005,
Pilobolus transferred its archive to Dartmouth College, where the company
originated. Since then the College has been growing the "living archive"
with a series of new work commissions.
Supporters
Pilobolus is a tax-exempt,
not-for-profit corporation, supported in part by funds from the Department of
Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Arts Endowment Fund, and
by grants from The American Dance Festival with support from the SHS
Foundation, The Diebold Foundation, The Gilman Foundation, Goldman Sachs Gives,
The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, Jean and
Julien Levy Foundation for the Arts, Inc., The George L. and Grace A. Long
Foundation, The Litchfield County Friends of Pilobolus, MetLife Foundation, The
NewAlliance Foundation, The William and Alice Mortensen Foundation, Newman's
Own Foundation, The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, The Shubert
Foundation, The Silver Mountain Foundation, and The Xerox Foundation.
Pilobolus International Collaborators Project is made possible through our funders and the generous assistance of the American Dance Festival, with support from the SHS Foundation.
Pilobolus is supported in part by an award from the NEA, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. We agree!
If you wish to enquire about supporting Pilobolus, please contact Maddie Orton at morton@pilobolus.org for more information.