Chamber Dance Company Archive: Moses Pendleton

American dancer, choreographer and director

The links between animal, plant and mineral––that's what I'm most interested in exploring.

                                       Moses Pendleton

Born Lyndonville, Vermont. March 28, 1949.

In the early 1970s Moses Pendleton was an English major and cross-country skier attending the (then) all-male Dartmouth College. With two fellow students, a philosophy major and a pre-medical student, Pendleton took his first dance course. The three decided to choreograph a work for an end-of-year performance and they named it Pilobolus after a sun-loving fungus that frequently grows in barnyards, shooting its spores across enormous distances. After a popular series of local performances, choreographer Murray Louis arranged a New York premiere for the group. Their innovative architectural style, an exploration of physicality and physics, was an immediate sensation, and Pilobolus became the name of the company founded by Pendleton. Pendleton has since gone on to explore his singular vision by founding another company, MOMIX. His work, Bonsai, remains in Pilobolus’s repertoire.

Watch a performance of Moses Pendleton's Bonsai at the Media Arcade in Vol. 23 of the Chamber Dance Company Archive (DVD UWDP 001 v.23).