From July 23 through August 11, Pilobolus returns to New York’s Joyce Theater with re:CREATION, featuring both established pieces and several premieres. The collaborative company promises once again to entertain, enchant, challenge, and intrigue.
Established almost inadvertently in 1971, Pilobolus has a completely original ethos. Only MOMIX, which shares some of the same roots retains a similar outlook. The difference, I’m told, is that MOMIX is committed to creating a picture that’s larger than the human being, while Pilobolus morphs back and forth from that perspective to individual experience. I spoke with the latter’s Executive/Co-Artistic Director Renée Jaworski about the upcoming season.
Renée Jaworski
While a student, Jaworski heard about and witnessed Moses Pendleton perform his choreography for one foot. Having broken a toe, the founder of MOMIX remained undaunted. “It was ingenious, resourceful; nothing would stop him moving,” she recalls. When the company held auditions, still in college, she was hired; then transitioned to Pilobolus in 2000, first as a dancer, eventually achieving her current post.
The entire company lives and works in Washington Depot, Connecticut. They leave on tour and return. Everyone involved is inspired by nature, quiet, and outdoor activity. They share mindfulness. Offices are across the street from an 1800s meeting house in which rehearsals take place. I ask whether there’s a formal class when on the road and am told the group, “creates movement opportunities (warm-ups) before each show.”
Generally Jaworski and Artistic Director Matt Kent, come up with an idea and communicate the kind of world they want to fashion. The two demonstrate, but no longer perform. Dancers (there are currently six) then improvise their own visions. These are filmed or roughly drawn and sometimes named in order to remember components. “Sometimes we just play in order to see what might come out of it.” Collaborative choreography makes things more difficult and time consuming. Expansive creativity is the reward.
Symbiosis – Heather Favretto, Jacob Michael Warren (Photo by Bridgid Pierce)
Pilobolus doesn’t define what they manifest. It thinks of itself as an amalgam of theater, dance, gymnastics – movement. Facial expression reflects attitude/intention. I ask whether one must unlearn alternative training, say ballet, in order to participate. The answer is a resounding yes. “You have to break the idea of perfection… Technique is about protecting the body, moving without hurting oneself, but also about an aesthetic that makes it appear natural.”
“Demands on a body are specific to Pilobolus,” Jaworski says. “You don’t really understand until you do it. No one else teaches partnering the way we do, using each other’s weight and possibilities.
“We want the audience to fully experience what the dancers’ experience. To do that the dancers must give themselves over, fully and completely, to the experience they themselves are having. To really live in that world and feel the atmosphere of it, and also feel the emotions. That too is part of the Pilobolus technique.” A combination of all year proximity and the nature of iconoclastic choreography leads dancers to trust and depend on one another. Long liaisons have occurred.
The company also teaches Partnering, Collaboration, and Connecting with Balance (especially connecting with balance) in Connecticut (a week in dorm housing), on tour, and on ZOOM. The last is particularly appealing to those over 50, but all classes are open to all ages. Jaworski says participants are about 50 percent professional dancers, 50 percent people who just want to move. “Everyone is at different levels,” she says.
I ask about this season. 2015’s Thresh/Hold, in collaboration with Venezuelan born choreographer/director Javier De Frutos, is an emotional and theatrical journey through the mind of a young woman confronting lost love, sacrifice, and longing. “It’s powerful and physically daring,” Jaworski tells me. “There are doors and rooms in one’s mind; we pass through fragmented memories.” 2019’s Gnomen is a male quartet depicting brotherhood, friendship, and collective understanding. (Matt Kent was in the original cast.)
Bloodlines, a NYC premiere, is a duet for two women. Both artistic directors find themselves taking care of elderly parents. Washing My Mother’s Body, a poem by laureate Joy Harjo took inspiration further. Daughters traditionally helped their mothers transition to death, then washed their bodies. Harjo missed her chance. The dance is about “generational reciprocity, taking care of the caregivers who once took care of you.” Also a NYC Premiere, Tales From the Underworld explores what the term means to different cultures. “Underworld might mean Hell, or Chicago gangsters, or unknown incubation…” Thought provoking.
Tales From the Underworld – Dancers Krystal Butler, Jacob Michael Warren, Zachary Eisenstat, Nile Russell, Nathaniel Buchsbaum (Photo by Megan Moss-Freeman)
Expect the unexpected.
Pilobolus crystallinus is a phototropic fungus. Translated from Greek, Pilobolus means “Hat Thrower,” referring to its spores that accelerate 0–45 mph in the first millimeter of their flight and adhere to wherever they land. The name was apt, and it stuck.
All photos courtesy of Pilobolus
Opening: Noctuary – Dancers: Zachary Weiss, Marlon Feliz, Nathaniel Buchsbaum, Hannah Klinkman, Quincy Ellis, Derion Loman (Photo by Steven Pisano)
Pilobolus
July 23-August 11, 2024
Executive Co-Artistic Director Renée Jaworski and Artistic Director Matt Kent
The Joyce Theater
175 Eight Avenue
