When I saw that my very favorite dance troupe, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, had a date scheduled in Des Moines, I was sore tempted even though Des Moines (a little over 2 hrs aways) is not easy for my to do during the week. I searched for tickets and only turned up nosebleed seats in the Civic Center and thought, okay - its not worth traveling for that.
Well, about a month later I saw another posting about their show and decided to try again. I tried for a pair of seats and turned up nothing desirable. So I looked for a single and - success!! - it actually gave me Row A Seat 50!! First row!! I figured it was probably the last seat in the row but I considered it a sign that I should make the trip to Des Moines and bought the ticket.
But, still hoping my daughter might be able to go with, I searched for one more single. And YES - row A seat 49 came up!! (I don't know why my search for a pair of seats didn't reveal this set).
Poor Annie was experiencing flu symptoms the week of the performance and for a while it was uncertain whether she would be up to a night out. But she felt a little better and decided to come along with plenty of cough drops to stifle her cough. She was a trouper but I felt bad that she wasn't ffeeling herself.
We arrived at the Civic Center in time to catch a pre-show question and answer session with a member of the troupe, which was very interesting. When it ended and we headed into the main theatre, I told Annie that I thought we'd have the last 2 seats in the row. But no, the usher pointed us down that long row - were we on the opposite side?? Nope - seats 49 and 50 were smack dab in the center!! I don't know how we got so lucky - seats probably reserved for friends of the troupe must have been released late in ticket sales. So Annie and I had a very up-close and personal view of these extraordinary performers.
We had been given a bit of a heads-up about the program for the evening during the question and answer session which oriented us to each piece. The first untitled piece began with the two women in the company in long calico dresses, with one brushing the long hair of the other before putting her wide brimmed straw hat one. The music suggested the dance would be portraying early Americana, but very quickly we were wonderfully surprised - feeling a bit like we had fallen down Alices's rabbit hole just about the time that Alice ate the tidbit that made her grow to giant proportions. Suddenly these diminuative dancers (perhaps 5 feet tall) became about 8 feet tall as they swirled about the stage in their long dresses!! (Long dresses that now could not disguise rather hairy masculine legs. What a trippy experience! The piece continued with surprise after surprise, some funny, some thought-provoking, all allowing totally different impressions of "bodies" which no longer followed the usual rules of biology. What a fun and amazing piece!!
(They warned us before the show that use of any cameras was illegal, but I have found a couple little samples of this dance online).
"Untitled"
Pilobolus is well known for doing incredible shadow work and has had pieces featured during the Oscars and other nationally televised shows. We got a small sample of their creative combinations of superb body control and the use of shadows in the second piece Wednesday night. Again I was lucky enough to find a bit of it captured online:
Shadowland: The Transformation
The third piece I had seen before but it was no less marvelous the second time. "Gnomen" makes use of all four supremely toned, muscular, incredibly strong, balanced and yet oh-so-gentle men in the company - men made all the more beautiful because they span the range of skin tones. They make such difficult feats of passing full-grown male bodies on meer finger tips (or even toe tips) seem so effortless, so graceful you'd think the bodies must be weightless, like in outspace. Each man in turned, just gave over his body to the others, with perfect trust on the timing, support, and (what looks like) the gentle touch of the others. This is such a stunning piece!
Intermission was followed by the totally light-hearted, humorous "Walklyndon" portraying th antics of athletic 'speed-walkers' rushing back and forth across the stage.
What Gnomen was for the men of the company, "Duet" was for the two Pilobolus women - intimate and varied interaction between two incredibly strong and supremely controlled performers, sometimes so fused that they moved as one, other times one being completely dependent on the balance and strength of the other.
The final piece of the night was the really hard-hitting a rhythmic "Redline" with the entire troupe moving powerfully, making amazing moves continuously to a driving beat that sounded something like a massive fast-paced factory line. I felt out of breath just watching them!
Do see Pilobolus if you get a chance! They are unique and wonderful!
Postscript: Had to drop my daughter off in Ames by Iowa State University, then stopped at McDonalds for a big cup of caffeinated pop for my late-night ride home. Shortly after pulling out of their lot, the Ames police pulled me over. Seems that they want you to drive with your lights on at night in Ames : P
