Jonathan Wolken, one of the co-founders, artistic directors and driving forces of the Washington Conn.-based Pilobolus Dance Theatre, died Sunday night at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He was 60 and lived in Washington. Wolken has been ill for many years from myelofibrosis, a disorder of the bone marrow.

Pilobolus — which he named after a fungus which he researched in his father's biophysics lab — originated when Wolken, a Dartmouth philosophy major, and fellow student Moses Pendleton met at a dance class taught by Alison Chase. The men began performing after graduation in 1971 and were later joined by fellow students Robby Barnett and Michael Tracy and dance teachers Martha Clark and Chase in 1973. They would form an unusual artistic collaborative from which works emerged from a free-spirited group dynamic.

The company relocated to Western Connecticut in the mid-'70s. First Clark in 1978 and then Pendleton in 1983 would move on to create their own dance companies, but the quartet would remain for many years creating works that became known for their athleticism, sensuality and theatricality.

In addition to his work with Pilobolus, Wolken also has choreographed for the Glyndebourne Festival opera's production of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are."