"What better way to celebrate our anniversary than with a performance by the ever-amazing group Pilobolus," said Teri Guerrisi, director of HACC's Performing Artist Series. "We are proud to bring this excellent group back to the region. They are an incredible group of artists."
Now in its 34th year, this company of dancer/movement/contortionists returns to RLAC theatre with dance that is sculptural, sensual and supernatural. The afternoon program will feature the dances, Tsu-Ku-Tsu, Aquatica, Warm Heart and Megawatt.
Tsu-Ku-Tsu showcases Pilobolus's startling gymnastic movement to the sound of Taiko drums; Aquatica is a breathtaking meditation set in the oceanic underworld; Warm Heart is a duet that has been described as a stone-step journey through a darkened world; and Megawatt is a full-company, full-throttle, supercharged dance set to the music of Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher.
Pilobolus took its name from the name of a sun-loving fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures. It grows on a stalk as a small bladder, pressurized by cell sap and topped with a tiny black cap filled with spores. When time and Pilobolus are ripe, this entire sporangium is blasted off with incredible force and the little spore bags can "shoot over a cow like clowns out of a cannon."
Pilobolus, the arts organism, germinated in the fertile soil of a Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. What emerged was a self-sufficient, collaborative choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to partnering that gave the young company a non-traditional but powerful new set of skills with which to make dances. The group was immediately acclaimed for its startling mix of humor and invention and developed from this dance collective into a unique American arts organization.
Today Pilobolus, based in Washington Depot, Connecticut, is recognized as a major American dance company of international influence. It has not, however, forsaken its original impetus. The company remains a deeply collaborative effort with an executive director, four artistic directors and six dancers contributing to one of the most popular and varied repertoires in the field. Its many decades of consistent artistic activity now stand as a testament to the group's remarkable fruitfulness and longevity.
The company possesses a repertory of over 85 works, a number of which appear in the repertoires of other major dance companies including the Joffrey, Feld, Ohio, Arizona, and Aspen/Santa Fe Ballets in the United States, the Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine and the Ballet du Rhin in France, and Italy's Verona Ballet.
Pilobolus has received many awards, among them the Berlin Critic's Prize, the Brandeis Award, the Scotsman Award for performances at the Edinburgh Festival, the New England Theatre Conference Prize, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Award for Excellence and, in 1997, 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 the subject of a feature profile on CBS 60 Minutes.
Members of Pilobolus Dance Theatre will lead a private movement/dance master class for students of the Cumberland Dance Company on Thursday, April 7 from 5 to 7pm.
Pilobolus Dance Theatre will perform on Sunday, April 10 at 3pm. There will be a post show party for all who attend. THIS PERFORMANCE IS SOLD OUT. RLAC Box Office phone is (717) 231-ROSE (7673).