Amy Larson
Staff Writer
The audience has finally received their demand: Pilobolus Dance Theater is at Pepperdine once again.
The Connecticut dance troupe known for contorting into impossible positions will perform at Smothers Theatre tonight.
Though this is not the group’s first visit to Pepperdine, they have returned with a variety of new and unique routines to perform for the University’s experienced and expecting audience.
“We have had the pleasure of bringing them in to Pepperdine every other year for the last 15 years,” said Marnie Mitze, the managing director of the Center for the Arts.
Mitze said Pilobolus and the Center for the Arts have more than just a business relationship.
“The audience knows them,” she said. “Pepperdine is like their second home here in the Los Angeles marketplace. We’ve got a great ongoing relationship with them.”
That friendship started when Pilobolus was relatively new to the stage, having been formed in 1971 from ideas thrown around by dance students at Dartmouth College.
The name Pilobolus was decided on because of the uniqueness of the world’s other pilobolus – the one found in nature. Pilobolus is a plant-like fungus that develops into a tiny, sap-filled cap. When it is fully-grown, the small but feisty pilobolus shoots off of its base with incredible force and speed. The speed of the airborne pilobolus is said to be one of the fastest in nature.
The dance company’s success developed almost as quickly.
Immediately after performances started, Pilobolus’ mix of gymnastics and dance began to be hailed as something creative and spectacular, and those reviews have not stopped since. Pilobolus has acquired a name that is renowned both in the United States and internationally.
“It is unlike any other dance company,” said Robby Barnett, artistic director for Pilobolus. “We mix art and entertainment well. We create dances from seeing what is interesting today, this week and this year.”
Among the pieces to be performed at Pepperdine this evening is “The Brass Ring,” a dance that celebrates America’s interest in athleticism. First performed at the 2002 Cultural Olympiad in Salt Lake City, Utah, this particular dance is described by the company as “part vaudeville and part human amusement park.”
Each of Pilobolus’ original dances takes a number of days to create and are set into motion by a great deal of improvisation and fun. Everyone involved in creating the dances (including Pilobolus’ six dancers and four artistic directors) brings their own ideas to this collaborative process, which is an exploration of different topics, thoughts, fears and goals that brings about the invention of a new work, said Barnett.
“All the dances emerge from periods of improvisation,” Barnett said. “We spend a week in the studio in free play. We then build a vocabulary from that period of interaction. We work as a group to invent everything uniquely for each piece.
“That is one of the unique and distinguishing features in our company,” Barnett added. “We create the dance vocabulary on our own. It is not given to us through tradition.”
Mitze said the group is not only talented, but rather revolutionary in creating new ideas and techniques.
“Pilobolus is very wonderful and creative,” she said. “They have created a whole new idea of movement.
“They have moved away from the traditional western ballet movements and made them more based on the figure of the human bodies as a whole,” Mitze added. “They use shapes and forms made of two or more bodies linked together.”
Mitze said Pilobolus called their creation “dance theater” because what they do is based in theatrics. They integrate lighting effects, costumes and body shapes into their theatrical production.
Though Pilobolus is continually creating new routines, they also spend a lot of time touring and rehearsing, polishing up and showing off the ideas that they have been able to put into physical movement.
“Our company is on the road half the year,” Barnett said. “We do about 100 performances. The rest of the time is in the studio. We have rehearsal for six hours each day.”
Pilobolus has also branched out from performing into other aspects of choreography and production. Besides Pilobolus Dance Theater, there’s also Pilobolus TOO, a duet company, The Pilobolus Institute, a group for all the company’s educational programming and Pilobolus Creative Services, an administrative organization that lets the company work creatively with other artistic organizations, as well as some commercial organizations.
Whether it is these various aspects of artistry that Pilobolus is involved in, the fact that they use both contemporary music (Primus and Radiohead are both used in one of their newest works, “Megawatt”) and original music (a work created in 2004 called “Night of the Dark Moon” includes an original score by Edward Bilous), or that people simply remember such a distinct name, Pilobolus has done something right: the company has been going strong for nearly 35 years.
“It’s one of the oldest contemporary dance companies in the United States,” Mitze said. “They are great because the work doesn’t become stale. They produce new works continually. Part of their impressiveness is that they continuously have a new, fresh repertoire.”
“35 years is a long run for any arts organization, and it puts us in a very rare fraternity of companies that have managed to sustain for that long,” Barnett said. “We are small but we’re vigorous, and we’ll be here for at least another 35 years. What can I say about this production? It’s Pilobolus. It’s mind blowing.”
This dance troupe performs tonight in Smothers Theatre at 8.
Tickets, which cost $45 for the public and $10 for Pepperdine students, can be purchased at the theater box office.
02-03-2005
