"Connecting With Balance" Video Series Brings Pilobolus Into Your Home

I’ve never had a hankering to run away and join the circus. If I could, though, I might think about taking a sabbatical to join Pilobolus, that twisty, bendy, gravity-defining dance group headquartered in Washington, Conn. As that’s not going to happen, the next best thing is to work on my wobbly balance with its members, those stable geniuses. And that’s possible, now that Pilobolus has introduced a video series called Connecting with Balance, a progressive exercise program created to increase body mobility, stability and balance.

“Most adults don’t begin to think about their balance until they fall,” says Emily Kent, the education director of Pilobolus. And it’s a fact that although most people begin to lose balance and stability around 40, it’s seniors who are especially vulnerable to falling. (Take it from me: once you’ve fallen and injured yourself, you never really lose the fear of it happening again.) Combine the pandemic and cold weather with the fewer opportunities this year to venture out, and mobility starts to go downhill. Some of us could do with getting more in touch with our bodies. Who better to lead us than Pilobolus?

The series isn’t about learning how to stand on one leg for a couple of minutes (“how often do we need to do that?” Kent asks). The focus is on functional fitness: movements to improve your stability for everyday life: gardening, reaching for the top shelf, grabbing something behind you, bending to pick something up. The exercises and movements are playful and fun but always focus on balance, mobility and stability.

The video series offers nine classes from beginning to advanced, with three in each level. The entire series is $150. There’s an option to buy just the beginning series as a trial, $60. (There are also regular Zoom classes, if you prefer.) Each class begins with warmups and goes through a series of exercises moving multiple body parts at the same time. At the end of each session, participants combine the movements in an improvisational moment accompanied by some music. That little bit of free dance is a direct connection to the Pilobolus philosophy. “It’s the way we make all of our dances,” Kent says, a thrill for this Pilobolus wannabe.

The only props needed are a chair, a ball, and something for the foot move around. The videos include, besides Kent as the instructor, a Pilobolus dancer and one of Kent’s students, who are intensifying or modifying the movements. Each class gets more challenging, but the beauty of the video series is that participants can repeat each session until they’re ready to move on to the next.

Connecting With Balance began about six years ago as a collaboration with the New Milford Senior Center and New Milford Hospital. Eventually, Pilobolus began offering the program in other local towns, and Pilobolus members would teach it during touring residencies. When COVID hit, everything stopped, and Kent started thinking about how to make the program virtual. In the fall, she hired a crew and filmed the sessions in the barn at Candlewood Lake in Sherman, Conn.

Now, it’s a course people can buy and have forever. “My goal,” Kent says, “is that people will spend time moving their bodies in a fun and creative way. Each time you’re increasing your ability to keep active and move in the world the way you want to.”