Pilobolus Dance Theater at Annenberg (2nd review)

Pilobolus enjoys a loyal following, and the dance troupe plays to that base.

The performers warm up on stage before their show starts, exchanging smiles with onlookers. After the program starts, they laugh at their own achievements, and their loyal followers contagiously laugh back.

This type of byplay endears Pilobolus to crowds who come to see repeated performances. It can also wear thin, as BSR's Jonathan M. Stein observed. Yet there's no denying that the group combines real dance talent with athletic panache. Its best work is clever and exciting.

In Skyscrapers, for example, dance couples dart rapidly across a small space while displaying tango leg flicks and rapid costume changes. This performance took place against the ground-level backdrop of buildings that may or may not have been skyscrapers.

And that brings to mind another Pilobolus running joke. The titles of many of its dances seem to be non sequiturs— like the group's own name, which describes a fungus that grows on herbivorous dung.

The similarly misnamed closing piece, Automaton, included a few mechanical moves, but the composition might better have been called Mirrors, because the main action was the tilting and moving of mirrors behind and alongside the dancers.

In the program's delightful highlight, All Is Not Lost, seven dancers atop a clear platform were photographed by a video camera below them. Viewing the performers straight on, we in the audience couldn't help but be impressed with their athleticism as they tossed themselves onto the table and writhed upon it. Looking at the large screen on the stage, we saw the intricate patterns formed by their bodies, as in those Busby Berkeley films from the '30s.

Three other works on the program seemed over-long and repetitious. ♦


To read another review by Jonathan Stein, click here.