It wouldn't be summer without the international sensation Pilobolus Dance Theatre at The Joyce Theater for its annual four-week season, this year from July 13 - August 8. With three distinct programs, including two New York premieres and one world premiere, this engagement is sure to be the hot ticket of the summer. To purchase tickets, please call the JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or visit joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street).
Program 1: Redline
The first of three premieres this season, Jonathan Wolken's Redline examines the beauty and futility of physical battle. Accompanied by a driving and seductive score by Battles and Autechre, this full company work is full of tremulous energy balanced by a graceful discipline. The program also includes Darkness and Light, Walklyndon and Rushes.
Program 2: Dog•id
The company's latest exploration of dance/theater made with shadows, this world premiere is a collaboration between Pilobolus and Steven Banks (head writer for the hilarious animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants"). Dog•id features music by David Poe and explores the phantasmagorical inner life of a young girl swept into a shifting world made of lightness and dark. Also in this program: Pseudopodia, Gnomen, Lanterna Magica and Megawatt.
Program 3: 2b
This brand-new collaboration with the wonderful Israeli choreographers Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, co-creators of 2007's hit Rushes, ushers us onto a surreal boulevard of broken dreams while the music rotates back and forth from Hawaiian pop to Bach. The program also includes Pseudopodia,
Razor : Mirror, Symbiosis and Day Two (contains nudity).
Pilobolus began in 1971 as an outsider dance company, and quickly became renowned the world over for its imaginative and athletic exploration of creative collaboration.
Nearly 40 years later, it has evolved into a pioneering American arts organization of the 21st century. The company now revolves around three nuclei of activity: PILOBOLUS DANCE THEATRE, the umbrella for a series of radically innovative and globally acclaimed concert dance companies; THE PILOBOLUS INSTITUTE, unique educational programming for schools, colleges, and public arts organizations as well as a series of classes and leadership workshops for corporate executives, employees, and business schools; and PILOBOLUS CREATIVE SERVICES, a division specializing in a wide range of movement services for film, advertising, publishing, commercial clients, and corporate events.
Pilobolus is based in Washington Depot, Connecticut and performs for stage and television audiences all over the world. Pilobolus works appear in the repertories of major dance companies-the Joffrey, Feld, Ohio, Arizona, and Aspen/Santa Fe Ballets in the U.S., the Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine and the Ballet du Rhin in France, and Italy's Verona Ballet-and the company has recently begun a series of major creative collaborations, including new productions with the famed writer and illustrator, Maurice Sendak; the Israeli choreographic team, Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak; and the remarkable American puppeteer, Basil Twist.
Pilobolus has received a number of prestigious honors, including the Berlin Critic's Prize, the Brandeis Award, the New England Theatre Conference Prize, and a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in cultural programming. In June 2000 Pilobolus received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in choreography and in 2004 the company was featured on CBS' "60 Minutes." In 2007 Robby Barnett, Michael Tracy and Jonathan Wolken received the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Endowment Fellowship from Dartmouth College.
The physical vocabularies of Pilobolus works are not drawn from traditions of codified dance movement but are invented, emerging from intense periods of improvisation and creative play. This process has been the source of much interest, in response to which the company inaugurated the Pilobolus Institute, an educational outreach program using the art of choreography as a model for creative thinking in any field. The Institute offers sustained programs for both children and adults around the country, as well as a series of Leadership Workshops for corporations and business schools. Recent work includes programs at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, and the Babcock School at Wake Forest University. The Institute also maintains an ongoing residency in the Theater Studies Program at Yale University.
The third arm of the company's activity is Pilobolus Creative Services (PCS), a choreographic and performance collective providing movement design and production for commercial applications in business and advertising. PCS has made television spots for Mobil, Ford, Toyota, Opel, and Hyundai, created live events for IBM, McKinsey, United Technologies, Dupont, and Merck, and has presented gala performances for Joe Boxer, Marithe Girbaud, MAC Cosmetics and Krizia. In 2007, the company created and presented six acclaimed performances during the 79th Annual Academy Awards, as well producing a series of original segments for the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." PCS has also produced two books for national distribution, Twisted Yoga and The Human Alphabet, and releases an annual calendar of dance photography in collaboration with a number of noted American photographers. In spring 2009, a spot that Pilobolus Creative Services created for the NFL Network was nominated for an Emmy Award in Sports, and the company's website was nominated for a Webby Award in Best Photography.
The 2009 season marks the middle of Pilobolus' 39th year. The company has continued to grow, expanding and refining its unusual collaborative methods to produce a body of over 100 choreographic works, and while it has become a stable and influential force in the world of dance, Pilobolus remains as protean and surprising as ever.
Pilobolus will perform according to the following schedule at The Joyce Theater from July 13 - August 8: Monday - Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday and Friday at 8:00pm, and Saturday at 2:00pm and 8:00pm. Tickets for these performances are $19; $35; $59 (for Joyce members $26; $44), and can be arranged by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at Joyce.org. NOTE: Ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. For more information on the company, please visit www.Pilobolus.org.
