The contemporary dance group Pilobolus formed at Dartmouth in 1971 when a group of three male students Moses Pendleton '71, Steve Johnson '71 and Jonathan Wolken '71 signed up for a modern dance class, taught by then-dance professor Alison Chase. When the group was formally established under the name Pilobolus, its members included Pendleton, Wolken and Chase along with new members Robby Barnett '72, Michael Tracy '73, Lee Harris '73 and Martha Clarke. Clarke and Chase were the first female members of Pilobolus.
"Its origins are almost mythical a bunch of guys signed up for a dance class that a young woman who had graduated from [the University of California, Los Angeles] was teaching," Ruoff said. "They had no background in dance whatever. They were skiers and athletes. So she didn't teach them dance she got them to move however they could, and out of that this modern dance company was formed that transformed the history of modern dance."
Ruoff's documentary highlights Pilobolus' growth over the last 41 years.
"The film discusses the history of the dance company Pilobolus with a concentration on its present status and how it's changed over time," Annie Munger '13, a post-production intern on the film, said. "Pilobolus is a unique company because it was founded at Dartmouth, and it's pretty uncommon for a dance company to be founded by non-dancers and in a liberal arts academic setting."
Ruoff was drawn to the story of the group when its members donated their archives to the College in 2005. In 2009, he began conceptualizing the documentary after learning that Pilobolus would be coming back to Dartmouth in the summer of 2010. That summer, the dancers premiered a new piece at the College in collaboration with cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and they held a workshop for students and members of the Upper Valley Community, according to Ruoff.
"I thought, Wow, that sounds like good timing for a film about the company,'" Ruoff said. "Those three dimensions the world premiere, the workshops and the origins of the company, which could be retold through the archives became the three working legs of the stool that was the film."
The documentary follows the collaborative nature of the group, proving that even as organizations grow and gain more national recognition, they can still stay true to their foundation and maintain what made them unique from the start, according to Milo Johnson '13, who helped edit the documentary.
Ruoff had Munger and Johnson help with various aspects of the film throughout summer 2010 and into the following school year. Munger primarily helped Ruoff find film festivals that featured documentaries or films related to dance to which he could submit "Still Moving." Johnson edited shorter segments of the film and received feedback from Ruoff about his work, and the pair of students worked to finalize those segments.
As an intern, Munger said she gained a great deal of experience with documentary filmmaking.
"It was really beneficial for me to see how a director goes about making a documentary on a small budget, pretty much on his own, and what sorts of subjects make a documentary interesting and captivating," Munger said.
Munger also said she found inspiration through the subject matter of the documentary.
"It's also really inspiring to see a dance company that started from nothing here and now is world famous," she said. "It makes what I do with the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble seem more important and helps me as dancer and choreographer to think about how dance as an art form can be pushed."
As an independent documentary, however, production on "Still Moving" was not always smooth sailing, according to Ruoff. Shortly before Ruoff and his crew were set to begin filming, one of the original members passed away.
"One of the co-founders and co-artistic directors, Jonathan Wolken, died a week before we started filming," Ruoff said. "It was a huge shock to everybody and something that had echoes and repercussions throughout the whole summer as the company was coming to terms with his passing. He and I had anticipated that he would be in the film, so it was a big change."
Wolken's death, however, only further illustrated Pilobolus' uniqueness among dance companies.
"What's interesting about the life cycle of Pilobolus is that an artistic director like Wolken can pass away and it has tremendous reverberations throughout the company, but it doesn't die," Ruoff said. "Pilobolus believes in the power of the group, it's not about the individual."
Ruoff's teaching schedule further complicated the timeline for the creation of the film. He focused on the film during off-terms, and while he was teaching, he attempted to integrate the documentary into classes but would spend less time making the film. In the end, it took three years for him to finally finish the work.
Now that it's done, Ruoff has been working on submitting "Still Moving" to film festivals across the country. The world premiere of the film just took place at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California, and Ruoff hopes to show it at many more festivals and in other forums.
Following this weekend's screenings, the film will be shown at the Hot Springs Film Festival in Arkansas and at New York City's DOC, according to Ruoff.
"It's sort of beginning its festival run," Ruoff said. "After that, I hope to have it shown on public television, have it released on DVD and have it available online."
The final product fascinates Munger, and she hopes that those who see it will also appreciate it, she said.
"It came together really beautifully," Munger said. "It really holds the audience's interest. Dance is such a natural thing to be captured on film because it's so visual that the subject of the film just lends itself naturally to a documentary. It's unique in that it's visually captivating while giving a lot of information that's interesting in itself."
Ruoff is also proud of his work and excited for Dartmouth students and members of the Upper Valley community to see it during the 50th anniversary weekend of the Hopkins Center.
"I hope they enjoy the film, that they learn something and that they leave the theater a little bit hungry for more," Ruoff said. "I hope there'll be students in the audience and that it will inspire those of them who want to be filmmakers."
The film will be shown on Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. in the new Loew Auditorium in the Black Family Visual Arts Center and on Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Hood Museum of Art Auditorium. Both shows have sold out.
In addition to the screenings on Oct. 11 and Oct. 13, Ruoff will be featured in this week's faculty "Chalk Talk" on Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. in the Hood Museum Auditorium. Ruoff plans to discuss the process of documentary filmmaking, with a noted emphasis on "Still Moving." Tracy, co-founder and co-artistic director of Pilobolus, will also be present to discuss the film with Ruoff. Clips of the film will be shown throughout the discussion, and it will end with a full showing of the documentary.
