KU News Release

LAWRENCE — The Lied Center at the University of Kansas, Boston Financial Data Services and the Eldridge will present the contemporary dance company Pilobolus, performing a program in six pieces, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5.

An internationally renowned dance company, Pilobolus evolved out of a Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. It has a nontraditional and unexpected modern dance presence, based on a collaborative and improvisational approach to choreography, and a unique weight-sharing process in partnering. The company has a robust repertory of more than 85 works.

Pilobolus is well-known for its appearance at the 79th annual Academy Awards in 2007, where company members morphed their bodies behind translucent screens into silhouette representations of many of the Oscar-nominated films. The group has been recognized with the Berlin Critic’s Prize, Brandeis Award, New England Theatre Conference Prize, an Emmy for outstanding achievement in cultural programming and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in choreography.

Pilobolus dancers Jun Kuribayashi and Winston Dynamite Brown are from the Kansas City area. Kuribayashi graduated from Lawrence High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from KU. Brown trained at the Missouri State Ballet and received a bachelor’s from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Kuribayashi has been with Pilobolus since graduating from KU in 2004, and Brown joined in August 2009.

Pilobolus is named for a type of phototropic zygomycete — a sun-loving fungus that passes through the digestive system of herd animals and grows in barnyards and pastures. The fungus develops on a stalk as a small bladder, pressurized by cell sap and topped with a tiny black cap filled with spores. When the time is right, the sack erupts with incredible force and the individual spores spread and attach themselves to grasses and plants. The Pilobolus spore discharge is the second fastest in nature, going from zero to 45 mph in the first millimeter of flight.

At the Lied Center, Pilobolus will perform its program in six pieces: Redline, Gnomen, Walklyndon, Hitched, Dog-id and Rushes. As part of its residency, Pilobolus will conduct master classes for KU students.

Pilobolus is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.