Ball Passing at the Olga Children’s Hospital 2018

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Charles Moulton

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.

Ball Passing is a project of: