SHADOWLAND Creative Team

 

RENÉE JAWORSKI

Executive/Co-Artistic Director

Renée has been an indelible force in Pilobolus’s artistic landscape since joining in 2000. A performer who captivated audiences worldwide, her magnetic stage presence laid the foundation for an expansive creative career.  In 2011, she was chosen to lead Pilobolus’s post-succession evolution, becoming Artistic Director, and in 2022 became the first Executive Director with an intimate dance background. Her choreographic experience has been extensive and pioneering, crafting pieces reflecting her innovative dance and theater approach. Her exceptional work spans various platforms, from the 79th Annual Academy Awards to the Grammy®-nominated video for OK Go’s “All is Not Lost,” as well as overseeing prestigious projects like Radiolab Live: In the Dark and the World Science Festival, Time and the Creative Cosmos. The University of the Arts honored her with the Silver Star Alumni Award, and her collaborative work on Round House Theater’s production of The Tempest, directed by Aaron Posner and Teller, earned Pilobolus the Helen Hayes Award for Best Choreography in a Play in 2023. Guiding Pilobolus with vision and creativity, she ensures it remains a vibrant, celebrated arts organization.

 

MATT KENT

Artistic Director

Matt joined Pilobolus in 1996 without any formal dance training. His unconventional entrance into dance and theater parallels the Founders’. In Pilobolus, he found an outlet for his artistic and creative vision and began a diverse and prolific career. He has performed on prestigious stages around the world and created choreography for colleges, professional dance companies, as well as grand productions involving shadow, horses, acrobats, large scale Michael Curry puppets, actors, stunt men, hip hop dancers, athletes, zombies, and more. His work on Shakespeare’s The Tempest co-directed by Aaron Posner and Teller won the Helen Hayes Award for best choreography. He developed the movement vocabulary for The Walking Dead. His work has appeared on the Academy Awards, Conan O’Brien, Penn & Teller’s Fool Us, Wetten Dass, and multiple television commercials. As Artistic Director of Pilobolus, he brings an unconventional approach to innovative theatrical experiences. A powerhouse of creativity, he leads the 50 plus year old Company, keeping the vintage historic works authentic and relative, while breaking new ground to create  transformative experiences to engage, inspire, and leave audiences in awe.

 

ROBBY BARNETT

Co-Founder, Choreographer

Robby was born and raised in the Adirondack Mountains and attended Dartmouth College. He joined Pilobolus in 1971.

 

MICHAEL TRACY

Co-Founder, Choreographer

Michael was born in Florence and raised in New England. He met the other Pilobolus founders at Dartmouth in 1969, and became an artistic director after graduating magna cum laude in 1973. Michael toured with Pilobolus for 14 years and choreographed and directed the company until his retirement. He has set his work on the Joffrey, Ohio, Hartford, Nancy, and Verona Ballets, and with Pilobolus choreographed a production of Mozart’s Magic Flute. Michael taught at Yale University for two decades and lives in northwestern Connecticut.

 

ITAMAR KUBOVY

Creative Collaborator

Itamar served as executive director of Pilobolus from 2004 through 2019. He founded Pilobolus's International Collaborators Project, which invited artists from diverse fields to join Pilobolus in its choreographic process. He also oversaw the inception of Pilobolus’s shadow work. Shadowland and Shadowland 2, which Itamar produced and co-created, have sold more than 1.5 million tickets and traveled to more than 40 countries since 2009. Itamar was born in Israel, and studied philosophy at Yale. Since leaving Pilobolus, Itamar launched an international artist community, Decameron Row, and a digital design collective, Imaginary Places.

 

STEVEN BANKS

Creative Collaborator

Steven is an Emmy-nominated head writer of SpongeBob Squarepants. He wrote and starred in the one-man play Home Entertainment Center on Amazon Prime and the PBS series The Steven Banks Show. Plays include Love Tapes (written with Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller) and Looking at Christmas. Film/TV credits include Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shaq’s Garage, with Shaquille O’Neal, Mom, My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and The Big Whoop (screenplay) which comes out in 2024. His book series, Middle School Bites, is published by Random House/Penguin. He attended Ringling Brother’s & Barnum and Bailey’s Clown College.

 

DAVID POE

Composer

The music of Shadowland is streaming everywhere now. Rolling Stone writes, “David Poe gives the singer/songwriter genre a much-needed jolt.” Poe’s other solo recordings include Everyone’s Got A Camera, God & The Girl, The Late Album, Love Is Red, The Copier: Music for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and his self-titled debut, produced by T-Bone Burnett. He has toured the world with the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, served as vocalist for the Blackstar Symphony, performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv, and at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar for the World Cup. Scores for dance include work by the LA Dance Project, American Repertory Theater, and Harvard Dance Center. Songs by David Poe have featured in a variety of television and film projects, including Dexter, Nashville, Scooby-Doo, and Diary Of A Teenage Girl, and been recorded by artists of multiple genres. He is a composer fellow of the Sundance Institute. davidpoe.com

 

NEIL PETER JAMPOLIS (1943-2019)

Lighting Designer

designed for Pilobolus since 1975, spanning 40 years and creating more than 60 new works for the company.  He also had a fifty-year active career as a set, lighting and costume designer for Broadway—where he received four Tony Nominations and a Tony Award—and for Off-Broadway, Dance, Regional Theater, and Opera, which he also directed.  His designs appeared on every continent. Neil was a Distinguished Professor of Theater at UCLA.

 

NEIL PATEL

Scenic Designer

Neil designs for theater, dance, film and television. He recently participated in the opening of the NMACC in Mumbai with his designs for Civilization to Nation and designed David Byrne’s immersive Theater of the Mind for the DCPA and Arbutus. Notable work in film and television include the Peabody winning In Treatment for HBO and Dickinson for Apple TV+. He has twice been recognized with an OBIE for Sustained Excellence, won the Helen Hayes Award and has been nominated many times for the Hewes, Drama Desk and Lortels Awards. neilpatel.space

 

LIZ PRINCE

Costume Designer

Liz designs costumes for dance, theater and film and has designed costumes for numerous Pilobolus. Her costumes have been exhibited at The Cleveland center for Contemporary Art, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, The 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Space and Design, Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Rockland Center for the Arts. She received a New York Dance and Performance Award (BESSIE) for her body of work in 1990 and she has also been included on a number of Choreographer/Creator BESSIE Awards. She received a 2008 Charles Flint Kellogg Arts and Letters Award from Bard College. She teaches Costume Design at Sarah Lawrence College where she is also the Costume Shop Supervisor.