Pilobolus Returns to the Joyce Theater Beginning 7/12

It wouldn't be summer in NYC without the annual four-week engagement of the wildly popular Pilobolus Dance Theater at The Joyce, this year from July 12 - August 7. Renowned for its imaginative and ingeniously intricate and athletic exploration of creative collaboration, Pilobolus will present three programs, each containing a New York premiere: Hapless Hooligan in ‘Still Moving', a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and famed New Yorker cartoonist Art Spiegelman; Contradance, a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning family rocker Dan Zanes; and Hitched, a fast duet about love, marriage and nostalgia. Tickets for Pilobolus at The Joyce start at $10 and can be purchased by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street).

Program 1: Hapless Hooligan in "Still Moving"
Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic artist Art Spiegelman collaborates with Pilobolus artistic director Michael Tracy and dancers to make Hapless Hooligan in 'Still Moving' - a noirish love story told in the style of early comics. Featuring Pilobolus dancers interacting live with Spiegelman's drawings (animated by Hornet's animators Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson), Hapless Hooligan tells the tragicomic tale of Hap and Lulu, separated in life and reunited after death. Tony-nominated sound designer Rob Kaplowitz (Fela!) assembles a collage score comprised of obscure cabaret tunes and early jazz hits to create a captivating atmosphere in this remarkable blend of comics and dance. This program also includes Redline, Symbiosis and Rushes.

Program 2: Hitched
A duet that takes complex partnering to a new intensity for Pilobolus, Hitched traces the story of a couple from wedding to old age, exploring the intensity and complication of human companionship through a series of raveled and unraveled physical knots. This new work, created by Jonathan Wolken, is fast paced, funny, physically impossible and ultimately moving. Also in this program: Gnomen, The Transformation (formerly Dog•id) Rushes and Day 2 (contains nudity).

Program 3: Contradance
Pilobolus' Matt Kent and Renee Jaworski team up with Grammy Award-winning family music man Dan Zanes to develop Contradance. A comic fable about two misfits, Contradance is illuminated by brand new songs that guide the company's unabashedly physical approach to story-telling. The program also includes Laterna Magica, Pseudopodia, Gnomen and MEGAWATT.

ABOUT PILOBOLUS DANCE THEATER
Pilobolus began in 1971, as an outsider dance company, and has evolved into a pioneering American arts organization of the 21st century. The company now revolves around three nuclei of activity: PILOBOLUS DANCE THEATER, 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. The company is based in Washington Depot, Connecticut and performs for stage and television audiences all over the world. For more info, please visit www.Pilobolus.org.

ABOUT ART SPIEGELMAN
Art Spiegelman is co-founder/editor of RAW, the acclaimed magazine of avant-garde comics and graphics and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Maus, which was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Since 1992 he has been a staff artist and writer for The New Yorker, which published his powerful black-on black 9/11 cover a few days after the event. Breakdowns, the legendary 1978 collection of Spiegelman's comics, presents the seminal works that changed how comics are made. His drawings and prints have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world. Spiegelman lives in New York City with his wife, Françoise Mouly, and their two children.

ABOUT Dan Zanes
Two things set Dan Zanes apart from the huge and festive field of individuals who, in the past few years, have begun making music for families and people of all ages. First, he is making homemade family music and encouraging his friends and neighbors to do the same; second, he is the guy who is always interested in singing along with people everywhere. His mission is to introduce his musical friends to his neighborhood friends and then show everybody not only that they can play together, but also that they can also feel pretty good while doing so. In this sense, Zanes is a twenty-first century version of the guy, who in the old days, used to conduct the town band from the gazebo. Although in lieu of a gazebo, he plays places like Carnegie Hall and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. He is a ringmaster, introducing new songs and reconnecting people to songs that have always been there, and still are-it's just that people forgot about them.

Pilobolus will perform according to the following schedule at The Joyce Theater from July 12 - August 7: Monday - Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday and Friday at 8:00pm, and Saturday at 2:00pm and 8:00pm. Tickets for these performances start at $10, 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.

PILOBOLUS Joyce Theater Schedule
Week 1
Monday, July 12 Special Opening Program ? 7:30 PM
Tuesday, July 13 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 7:30 PM
Wednesday, July 14 Program 2* / HITCHED 7:30 PM
Thursday, July 15 Program 2* / HITCHED 8:00 PM
Friday, July 16 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 17 Program 2* / HITCHED 2:00 PM
Saturday, July 17 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 8:00 PM

Week 2
Monday, July 19 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 7:30 PM
Tuesday, July 20 Program 2* / HITCHED 7:30 PM
Wednesday, July 21 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 7:30 PM
Thursday, July 22 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 8:00 PM
Friday, July 23 Program 2* / HITCHED 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 24 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 2:00 PM
Saturday, July 24 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 8:00 PM

Week 3
Monday, July 26 Program 2* / HITCHED 7:30 PM
Tuesday, July 27 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 7:30 PM
Wednesday, July 28 Program 2* / HITCHED 7:30 PM
Thursday, July 29 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 8:00 PM
Friday, July 30 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 31 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 2:00 PM
Saturday, July 31 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 8:00 PM

Week 4
Monday, August 2 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 7:30 PM
Tuesday, August 3 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 7:30 PM
Wednesday, August 4 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 7:30 PM
Thursday, August 5 Program 1 / HAPLESS HOOLIGAN 8:00 PM
Friday, August 6 Program 2* / HITCHED 8:00 PM
Saturday, August 7 Program 3 / CONTRADANCE 2:00 PM
Saturday, August 7 Program 2* / HITCHED 8:00 PM

Special opening night program will feature Gnomen, Hitched, Still Moving, Symbiosis and Megawatt.
* Program 2 contains partial nudity.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences since 1982. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to establish the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant New York home for more than 290 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through pre-engagement Dance Talks and post-performance Humanities discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.

Leadership support for The Joyce Theater's 2009-2010 season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Additional support for this engagement was provided with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and with private funds from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund to encourage the performances of out-of-town companies at The Joyce Theater. Special support provided by the Office of State Senator Thomas K. Duane.

Major support for The Joyce has been provided by Bloomberg, The Boeing Company, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, First Republic Bank, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and The Shubert Foundation.