In Praise of Pilobolus

I was so pleased when I found out that the contemporary dance troupe Pilobolus had been invited to return to our Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in celebration of its 

10th anniversary. Pilobolus, consisting of 4 men and 2 women, all extraordinarily talented, is one of my very favorite dance groups. 

I never miss an opportunity to see them perform. Their program 

this time included a mix of new and familiar pieces and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. But I am afraid I am even more woefully unable to adequately describe their wonderous to comical to joyful to profound movements than I am to put my musical experiences down on paper, so pardon me if I sometimes borrow descriptions from those more expert at this task.

	The first dance, Lanterna Magica, began in complete darkness until tiny on-off random beacons of firefly like lights the dancers moved across the stage immediately created the feeling of a summer's night. Some of these flickering lights were captured by two young girls to create the 'magic lantern' of the title. The lantern then is the centerpiece of the girls' interactions with four ghostly sometimes men-sometimes nocturnal creatures during the midsummer's night dream-like sequence. Excerpt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55FoeUztSLw
	This was followed by the powerful and visually beautiful "Gnomen" which  we might translate to "know-men". Let me quote a bit from Charles McNulty's excellent review: "Gnomen,” dedicated to the memory of the Jim Blanc, a Pilobolus dancer who died from complications from AIDS, is the most muscularly poetic of the pieces. A male quartet in black briefs tests out the possibilities of relationships as music by Paul Sullivan and throat singing by Matt Kent  resound. At times, the dancers (each uniquely excellent) resemble a lump of flesh; at other, they differentiate into individual identities, almost like a cell undergoing mitosis. Strength and flexibility keep setting benchmarks as the men become acquainted with distance and intimacy. The physical vocabulary may be too attention-grabbing for  such a delicate poignancy (at one point a fellow is amazingly hoisted on the bionic feet of his comrades) but the inventive co-mingling  is infinitely watchable."
I can only echo Christopher Atamian's apt description of Pseudopodia: "Just seeing Jun Kuribayashi perform the short but stunning 1973 solo Pseudopodia, by Jonathan Wolken, made attending Pilobolus worthwhile.Kuribayashi summersaults backwards onto the stage, achieving remarkable moments of tension, relaxation, and balance. The term “pseudopodia” refers to a contracting or projecting mechanism used by certain cells; it’s what amoebae use to locomote. With his sense of equilibrium, his ability to hold summersaults in improbable positions, and his amazing flexibility, Kuribayashi must come as close as a human can to mimicking this type of movement."
A brand new piece "Duet Not Yet Titled" might well keep its name since it is, in fact, a fun romp which begins with a couple who have not yet become 'man and wife'. Groom chases bride across the stage, then bride chases groom. Eventually the couple finds their fit together and become inextricably entwined and inseparable.
Again Charles McNulty provides a great description of the amazing piece "Megawatt" where the dancers appear jolted into frenzied seizure-like activity, like drops of water falling on a searing hot grill: "In Megawatt (2004, also by Wolken) the performers jig out onto the stage on their backs as if they were being electrocuted. There’s something slightly disturbing about watching them twitch and gyrate so convincingly, but the piece also affords them a chance to display their own wonderfully individualistic takes to hard rock by Primus, Radiohead, and Squarepusher."	See an excerpt at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBPafUYYJe4

Even if you haven't been to a Pilobolus performance, you may well have seen and appreciated their humor, creativity and skill elsewhere:
Do you remember this from the Academy Awards the year that Happy Feet
was among the winners?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiX-DW8Qk4w
Or their "Human Car" commercial? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Qu_A9BZi8

Or the magic of Pilobolus's Shadowland performances?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgvmlqqkofM
If you have the chance to see this group live,  then leap, tumble, twitch or race to do so!!