Pilobolus is a Fungus is an interactive performance for young audiences based on Branches, a site-specific dance piece commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art. The audience journeys through nature, perceiving the sounds, shapes, colors, and movements of birds, water, trees, and of course, their namesake fungus, in new and unexpected ways.
Pilobolus is a Fungus has four acts:
- Down by the Water: Early morning light reflects on still water. Animals emerge from hiding to meet at the watering hole.
- Up in a Tree: Trees are constantly in motion. Branching up and rooting down for sun and soil while swaying softly in the wind. The world of plants is full of movement.
- Mr. Right: Animals like to get noticed, and they can be strong, beautiful, or funny to attract attention.
- What’s Left?: The moon softly lights a dying flower’s falling petals. A grub comes along to transform the flower’s death into a new bloom.
Pilobolus began at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, circa 1971, as an outsider dance company and quickly became renowned the world over for its imaginative and athletic exploration of creative collaboration. It has evolved into a pioneering American cultural institution of the 21st century for over fifty years.
Pilobolus has created and toured over 120 pieces of repertory to more than sixty-five countries. Over the years they have performed their work for millions of people across the U.S. and around the world. Pilobolus has been featured on CBS This Morning, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s TODAY Show, MTV’s Video Music Awards, The Harry Connick Show, ABC’s The Chew, and the CW Network’s Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Pilobolus has been recognized with many prestigious honors, including a TED Fellowship, a 2012 Grammy® Award Nomination, a Primetime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cultural Programming, and several Cannes Lion Awards at the International Festival of Creativity. In 2015, Pilobolus was named one of Dance Heritage Coalition’s “Irreplaceable Dance Treasures”. Pilobolus has collaborated with more than seventy-five brands and organizations in finance, retail, media, fashion, sports, and more to create bespoke performances for television, film, and live events.
At various points in a performance of Pilobolus Dance Theatre, you forget what you’re looking at; the dancers move so skillfully, so symbiotically, that they cease to resemble people at all. Plants, animals, all manner of objects and suggestions of objects arise and then dissolve, and at the end of an evening you feel as though you’ve glimpsed many worlds. – Andrew Boynton, The New Yorker