by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
What: Pilobolus performance
When: Tuesday, February 26 at 7:30 pm
Where: Moran Theater in the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts
I came into the Pilobolus dance class expecting to watch from the sidelines. I’m not a dancer. I like to dance, but I’m so bad at actually following steps that I was once banished from an aerobics class. Even though the email I received said that I was set to participate, I was intimidated by the label of “Master Class.”
But, as it turns out, this was a class for anybody, even someone like me. There were no steps to follow but I still learned things about movement and working with people as a unit.
We began just by moving, walking through the space, and built up to collaboration. The leader of the class, from the Pilobolus company, is Rehearsal Director/Artistic Associate Renee Jaworski. She had us move in unison, without saying a word, without communicating what were going to do. Somehow we had to figure out how to work together as a whole. It’s more difficult than you’d think, moving as a group.
As we worked, we added things, learning how to work as a group without doing the exact same things, but with the same intent. Collaborative individuality is what I called it, because that’s really what it was. Each person had their own personality and movement that they brought, but they were fused together in purpose, without a clear leader or follower.
The class didn’t just teach me about expanding my ideas about what dance and movement are; it also taught me that true collaboration is a sort of rare synergy that doesn’t often exist. We can feel it when it does, and it’s why people work out the steps in dance or a social interaction ahead of time. Knowing who is leading and who’s following makes the dance easier. But, as I found in the session, sometimes the most interesting and creative things happen when the stylized and conventional roles of who follows and who leads fall away. When leadership fluidly changes from moment to moment, determined by connected minds in sync, it can be a beautiful thing.
This improvisational synchronism and dedication to movement (however simple or complex) as the foundation of dance, is an idea crucial to the founding of the Pilobolus Dance Company.
In the beginning of the class, Jaworski spoke of the origins of the company. “Pilobolus was started in 1971 by four men at Dartmouth that had absolutely no…formal dance training. They never trained until they started making dance, and then they kind of trained themselves. Because they had no preconceived notion of what dance was, it allowed them to approach dance in a completely new way…”
The founders of Pilobolus incorporated movement that they already knew into their dances. They were all athletic, so they included the movements from sports. Some of their first choreography involved playing with simple movements, such as walking, running and jumping.
“We watch people dance down the street all the time. The way that they walk, the way that they move, everybody has individual ways that they move…We as human beings have to move.”
“Anybody can do something interesting with movement, and it doesn’t have to look like what other people have done before them.”
Pilobobus may have had humble beginnings but their performances have, in some ways, “changed the face of modern dance. It became less serious, started to have a sense of humor.” That sense of humor and dedication to pushing their creative limits and skill has earned them a place at the Oscars as performers, critical acclaim and, of course, an appearance on Oprah. Despite their fame, they’ve done what they could to stay true to their roots.
“Their base concepts of community and collaboration and improvisation, doing the best that you can do with what you have at hand…have stayed the same. They’re very grassroots… even though it’s produced…they still want to keep the ideals.”
You can see them perform one time only at the Moran Theater in the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, February 26 at 7:30 pm. Tickets range in price from $31 to $70.50. Discounts are available for groups over 20 or 40. To order by phone with Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover call the FCCJ Artist Series Box Office at (904) 632-3373 (toll-free outside of Jacksonville 888-860-BWAY.)
FCCJ is hosting dance workshops with the Pilobolus Dance Company on Friday, February 22, 6–8 pm, and Saturday, February 23, 10 am–noon, at South Campus. Space is limited and reservations are required. For information and reservations, call FCCJ at (904) 646-2222.
Article Published in the 2-21-08 Issue of EU Jacksonville
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