Ballpassing Projects

from Garrett Moulton Productions

Ball Passing at the Olga Children’s Hospital

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Charles Moulton


72 Person Ball Passing World Premiere October 4, 2017 Toronto

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Charles Moulton


Ball Passing at the Olga Children’s Hospital 2018

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Charles Moulton
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Olga Children’s Hospital 2017

Posted on August 28, 2017 by Charles Moulton

Ball Passing for 3000 in Stuttgart

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Charles Moulton


Ball Passing for 60 at OCPAC

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Charles Moulton


The Original Nine Person Ball Passing from 1980

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Charles Moulton


What is Ball Passing?

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Charles Moulton

Created in 1979 for three performers Ball Passing was an immediate critical and popular success. It is widely considered a masterpiece of post-modern dance and  has been performed by teams of 9, 18, 25, 36 48 and 60 performers – many of whom had no previous performing experience.  As Ball Passing has grown in stature and visibility, so has an awareness that the value of the work transcends “art for art’s sake”. Ball Passing participants learn relational and social tools that are deeply engrained in human nature but that we do not often experience in western culture. The will to cooperate – to work together to accomplish a goal that is larger than the sum of our individual efforts defines our humanness as much as competition or conflict.  This ‘cooperative impulse’ is at the core of Ball Passing and is particularly relevant in our fragmented socio-economic environment.

Ball Passing is grounded in the basic act of passing a ball from one person to the next. Teams of participants, organized in groups of three, stand in rows on bleachers and pass brightly colored 4″ nerf balls, creating complex visual and temporal patterns. The action of passing a ball is extremely simple, yet the organization of the work – the rhythmic patterns and physical configurations – are exceedingly complex.  Ball Passing  is a game that we can only be successful at when all participants commit to profound cooperation and communication.

Because of the speed and complexity involved “mistakes” are inevitable. Dropped balls are part of the game. Recovery from ‘mistakes’ is a constant challenge and  performers need to be on their toes to find solutions ‘on the fly’. Ball Passing is a constant struggle between entropy and organization—a conundrum that can only be solved by all participants working as one integrated unit.

The visual complexity, the rhythmic shifting of patterns, the surprise of dropped balls and the delight of recovery all serve to bring the audience into the game. Ball Passing is a community spectacle that has the ability to create—for performers and audience alike—a greater sense of connection and belonging.


Ball Passing is part dance, part game and part living puzzle. It is community art that illustrates how diverse individuals can cooperate to manifest complex and interdependent structures. Ball Passing can be learned by people of all ages and ability levels and can be modified to meet the specific needs and skill sets of virtually any group of participants. It has been learned by groups as diverse as The Joffery Ballet, and children at the Olga Pediatric Hospital in Stuttgart.  The process of learning and performing Ball Passing engenders the kind of experience that has become less and less available in our culture - a profound sense of connection and community. Created by award winning choreographer Charles Moulton in 1978, Ball Passing has been taught to more than 5000 individuals with widely varied cultural backgrounds.

Ball Passing has particular relevance in a Corporate setting. Pictured here are Franz Reiner, Chairman of the Management Board of Mercedes-Benz Bank AG and Charles Moulton, Director of Ball Passing Projects.  Moulton taught a new version of Ball Passing to employees of Mercedes-Benz Bank AG during a 3 week intensive workshop in 2015.  The team of 36 performers then shared the new work in front of an audience of 3000 in Stuttgart’s Marktplatz. Ball Passing has been used by Deutsche Bank and Peregrine Communications among others to learn how to solve complex, interdependent problems by developing new communication skills and working creatively as a group

Charles Moulton is a widely acclaimed Choreographer, Visual Artist and Writer living in Oakland, California. He has created works on dance companies all over the world and is choreographer of the Matrix Reloaded.  He began his career dancing with Merce Cunningham, is a Founding Co-Director of Performance Space 122 and is currently Co-Artistic Director of Garrett + Moulton Productions in San Francisco. His visual art has appeared at galleries in Oakland and at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ.

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