DANCE TROUPE PILOBOLUS LITHE ON ITS FEET AT 50
Celebratory program Friday at The Egg in Albany
Inthe Pilo brella P nership people each ho la. Guid working as a group, often they’ve never met, they c their umbrella’s colors. A bird’s-eye view and proje tions — a beating heart, a — onto a giant screen in
It’s a joyful, crowd-sou mizes the innovative and company has been doing audiences — for the last
“I don’t think we woul if we didn’t have the pow Renée Jaworski, who cobased troupe with Matt K in the studio, it’s how we how we teach. When you than one person’s vision, perspectives and a divers the movement you see o you interact in the world
To mark its momentou the company is touring a bolus: Big Five-oh!” Ons The Egg, the program fea 1978 to 2021 — with chor credited to at least eight scribes it as “a little rolle the worlds that Pilobolus years.”
The seed for the comp when Jonathan Wolken, Steve Johnson (a fencer, pole vaulter, respectively taught by Alison Chase a They dubbed their class named for a sun-loving f spores with incredible sp made one of their first pu opening act for Frank Za University of Massachus asked them to join him o turned him down becaus up.) Pendleton, Wolken a company’s founding mem Barnett, Martha Clarke a
Over the years, their u thetic, with bodies intert shapes, became iconic, la gigs like the Oscars, the O Video Music Awards. As the company and reperto tions, the “Pilobolus DN to propagate an expande educational and outreach
“The founders saw Pil that grows and changes a Jaworski said. “Another r we don’t get stuck in one we like to dabble, we’re i things.” For example, the featuring dancers in silho
bolus work “Up! Umroject,” created in partwith MIT, hundreds of gather in an open field, lding a light-up umbreled by instructors and alongside people lick buttons to change camera records the cts the shifting formahappy face, a waterfall real time. rced creation that epitocollaborative work the — internally and with half a century. d have survived so long er of the group,” said directs the Vermontent. “It’s how we work work in our office, it’s are a collective, rather you’re getting varied e approach — not just to n the stage but also how .” s anniversary this year, production titled “Pilotage at 8 p.m. Friday at tures five works from eography for each piece people. Jaworski der coaster ride through has made over last 50
any was planted in 1971, Moses Pendleton and cross-country skier and ) met in a dance class t Dartmouth College. project Pilobolus — ungus that can shoot off eed and force — and blic appearances as an ppa at a concert at the etts in Amherst. (Zappa n the road, but they e midterms were coming nd Chase became the bers, along with Robby nd Michael Tracy. nique movement aeswining in fluid, organic nding them high-profile lympics and MTV’S the cofounders turned ire over to new generaa,” as Kent calls it, began d vocabulary and new programs. obolus as a living entity nd morphs and adapts,” eason we’ve survived is period. We like to play, nspired by lots of ir Hyundai commercial uette led to the development
of the 2009 work “Shadowland,” incorporating shadow theater and animation. The new piece “Behind the Shadows,” one of the works on the “Big Five- Oh” program, is inspired by that
process, and goes a step further to reveal the method behind the magic.
The evening-length performance also includes “Megawatt,” from 2004, danced on a giant mat to
music by Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher. Reimagined for this show, the piece is dedicated to Wolken, its co-creator, who died in 2010.
“The Solo from the Empty Suitor” (1980), which changes every time it’s performed, draws from the traditions of Buster Keaton and Jackie Chan as its hero tries to balance on five long cylinders without touching the ground. The early works “Shizen” and “Day Two” exemplify the company’s signature partnering technique.
The “Big Five- Oh” tour will take Pilobolus across the country, after 18 months of performing closer to home. True to its nature, the company quickly rose to the challenge of the pandemic, with outdoor performances and workshops, dancers in the trees, live music and “car safaris,” with audiences watching from their vehicles. For the troupe members, it has been a fertile time of creativity and slowing down.
“We were eating together, cooking together, playing music at night together . ... It was, in a way, a wonderful time travel to a period when we weren’t all running around trying to run a company but just making art because we were there together,” Kent said. “It’s not only been a time to
look forward and see what we want to do differently, but also to think about what matters, and to remember who we are before we decide what
comes next.”