Philobolus: How a Pile of Dung Became the Ultimate in Creativity

June 20, 2008

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When Todd asked me to guest blog here, I knew that it had to be innovative and creative. So, what could be more creative than a dance company named for an organism that eats cow dung coupled with a strong human element?

“Pilobolus began as an experiment among three guys and one puzzled professor in a Dartmouth dance class back in 1970,” reads a biography about the Pilobolus Dance Company at the TED creative conference.

Add a few computers and a garage and this sounds like one of a number of successful tech start ups. But it is not a tech company, though the dance that the Pilobolus Dance Theater performs is quite technical. And it is getting noticed by a mainstream marketing audience. First they appeared at the 2007 Oscars performing a funny and striking Chinese Shadow Puppetry show with their bodies. Take a minute to watch it here.

Then, they made numerous appearances, but one South African company, Bidvest, thought that they exemplified its mission which is to “turn ordinary companies into extraordinary performers.”

Here is a great video of the troupe explaining just how they move from ordinary to extraordinary. One of the things I love about the interview is that one of the creative directors says, “this isn’t something that we know anything about, someone asked us to make shadows and we are learning how to make shadows.”

Watch how they do it! It’s inspiring.

Be sure to stay tuned next week as an all star cast continues to run Todd’s blog into the ground.

// Yesterday / Leo Bottary of Client Service Insights
// Today / Kami Huyse of Communication Overtones
// Mon / Gavin Heaton of Servant of Chaos
// Tue / Drew McLellan of Drew’s Marketing Minute
// Wed / Darryl Ohrt of Brand Flakes for Breakfast

Pilobolus Photo by JJBas

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Comments

6 Responses to “Philobolus: How a Pile of Dung Became the Ultimate in Creativity”

  1. David Mullen on June 20th, 2008 11:20 am

    Wow! I’ve never seen anything like that. Very beautiful. Thanks for sharing, Kami.

  2. Philobolus: How a Pile of Dung Became the Ultimate in Creativity · Buwin Technology on June 20th, 2008 11:48 am

    [...] Blue Crab Boulevard wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]

  3. kami on June 20th, 2008 11:52 am

    You bet. How can you not share such an amazing talent?

  4. darryl ohrt on June 20th, 2008 7:12 pm

    Damn. You managed to get cow dung AND naked guys into one post. Todd is not going to be happy about this.

    Now I’m really going to have to work hard to come up with something for Wednesday’s guest post. I’m thinking something with unitards. And bird vomit. Yeah, that ought to do it…

  5. Kami Huyse on June 24th, 2008 9:41 am

    Hey;

    Todd turned over his keys to a girl, whatever did you expect? I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

  6. 12 Things I Learned While on Vacation : ..:.:.. Todd And = Marketing + Media ..:.:.. on June 26th, 2008 7:56 pm

    [...] daily to make you were behaving. I almost pulled the plug when Kami had cow dung and naked guys in her post. Seriously, it was a great week of content (and awesome videos) and definitely something to [...]

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