This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 19, 2009 - The 37-year-old dance company Pilobolus is well known around the world for its imaginative and athletic explorations of human interaction in space. It's been six years since this ever-inventive ensemble, widely recognized for its collaborative approach to making dances, has performed on a St. Louis stage.
This weekend the company returns through the auspices of Dance St. Louis with an entirely new program that features recent work as well as dances that date back to the company's founding.
Pilobolus is different from every other modern dance company in that it can boast three artistic directors who participate equally in the choreographic process. Robby Barnett, Michael Tracy, Jonathan Wolken -- also the company's founders -- are not trained dancers in the traditional sense. In fact, they first encountered the art of dance in 1971 at Dartmouth College in Massachusetts, when the three of them, then undergraduates, enrolled in a modern dance class for the first time.
"We took a dance class, and it was that class that stimulated the interest that led to the founding of Pilobolus," said Barnett. "Our teacher took one look at us -- she was one of the few women at Dartmouth at that time -- and she saw this line of grinning young men staring at her. She thought, 'these guys are certainly not going to dance in any meaningful sense of the word, but they can jump around like goats, so why don't I just have them make their own dances.' Given license to do that, we set about it with collegial and communal enthusiasm."
That teacher was the St. Louis native Alison Becker Chase, who realized that these young men required the freedom to work in their own vernacular -- to make dances using movements from sports or other interests. Through collaborative improvisation and choreographic play, the group created a fresh choreographic style that fused the physical concentration of acrobatics and athletics with the creativity of dance.
After successfully performing at a college dance symposium in New York, Barnett, Tracy and Wolken decided upon dance as a career. They named their group Pilobolus, after the title of the first dance they ever choreographed.
Improvisation and play are an essential part of the Pilobolus philosophy.
"Your training, knowledge, and technique are all nice accoutrements, but they don't fundamentally have anything to do with your ability to express yourself," Barnett said. "Collaboration is a powerful thing -- that a group of people can come together and forge a group vision without losing individual intent. This was a belief that stemmed from our growing up in the 1960s, and it's proven to be true. Because we create together as a group, our dances become a kind of metaphor for a social ideal, and people find that satisfying."
This weekend's program features five dances, two of which are brand new. Lanterna Magica is a full-company work made in 2008 that combines elements of ritual and mythology in a physical celebration of the supernatural. "It's a good example of Pilobolus's complex group partnering," Barnett said. "It's a funny piece, and incredibly athletic."
Darkness and Light, also made in 2008, is a shadow play that draws on the ancient tradition of shadow theater. It evolved out of Pilobolus' International Collaborators' Project, an initiative that draws artists from diverse disciplines to come and work with the company. For this piece, the New York-based puppeteer Basil Twist taught dancers the art of light and dark illusion. With the help of hand-held bulbs and image-manipulating materials, seven dancers mold their bodies into ever-changing shapes. The audience sees them only in silhouette behind a screen.
Both Pseudopodia and Ocellus date back to the founding days of the company. Pseudopodia is a solo created in 1974, and is set to an all-percussion score. "We've been performing this dance consistently for 35 years," Barnett said. "It reflects our belief that you don't necessarily need to work with 50 ideas. You can take a single idea and bring it to a logical and satisfying conclusion."
Ocellus, made in 1971, is a classic Pilobolus men's quartet that the company founders choreographed in a squash court. "It is the second dance that the company created," Barnett said, "and it conveys most purely our original idea about how bodies can move together in space."
Closing the program is Megawatt, a full-company, frenzied work that reflects the excesses and frantic state of contemporary life. Set to music by Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher, the dance is a dazzling display of the performers' physical endurance and prowess. "It's a good example of what Pilobolus can do without 300 pounds on its back," Barnett said. "It's a lot of fun, super high energy, and always a fitting closer."
Sydney Norton is a dance and visual arts writer.