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The group was established thirty-five years ago by four Ivy League college students without experience or training in dance. Yet what the founders lacked in the way of know-how was more than compensated by enthusiasm, inspiration, and willingness to improvise and take risks. “We had no idea what dance was, and that was enormously freeing. We had to invent our own vocabulary... There was no name in the ballet technique for the shapes we were making. So we had to make our own,” they said. Over the years, Pilobolus created a unique dancing style with its own language of movement based on weight-sharing partnering techniques, and introduced a collaborative approach to dance-making, becoming a true phenomenon in the world of contemporary dance.

Pilobolus is famous for its visually arresting choreographic images—human formations in motion—entwining the bodies of the dancers in seemingly impossible ways. (If you are looking for exquisite pointe work or immaculate port de bras, look elsewhere.) The trademark gravity-defying choreography of Pilobolus requires exceptional athletic prowess from each performer.

Pilobolus presented an eclectic five-dance program at the Warner Theater on October 25. The show commenced with exotic Aquatica (2005) danced by the entire cast. The choreography is a collaborative effort of company co-founder and co-artistic director, Michael Tracy, and nine dancers. This work is the epitome of what Pilobolus is all about.

The audience witnesses fascinating choreographic imagery. Dancers are transformed into undersea flora and fauna. Men form what appear as intricate caves and coral reefs by climbing one atop the other. Women seem to slide off the human precipice. To the delight of the audience, women engage in rodeo, riding two-headed seahorses across the stage. The dance offers a combination of moods from sublime to powerful to utterly funny. The dancers demonstrate imaginative poses and lifts, expertly melding motion and stillness. Their movements are slow and flowing as if the performers are trying to overcome the resistance of the water. At the same time, their bodies appear as if weightless: each gesture seems effortless. The effect is surreal and mesmerizing. A musical score by Marcelo Zarvos, reminiscent of music for tranquility and meditation, was a wonderful choice for the soundtrack.
 

A solo from The Empty Suitor (1980) turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser. Masterfully preformed by Andrew Herro, the short piece looked more like a circus number than dance. It starts as a quartet—three men and a woman all clad in black. The woman attempts to seduce her admirers with a big red apple. Two of the men “fall under her spell,” and quickly disappear from the stage. Rejecting the apple, the third suitor faces a series of misfortunes trying to keep his balance and calm while walking on five white long cylinders. Jazzy “Sweet Georgia Brown” by Ben Webster serves as an accompaniment for this highly entertaining work.

Symbiosis (2001) is another example of time-honored Pilobolus choreography. A four-part suite choreographed to various melodies recorded by the Kronos Quartet, this dance is a sensuous love duet beautifully performed by Jenny Mendez and Manelich Minnieffee.

After the intermission, the company presented the Washington DC premier of Memento More, a male-female duet created this year by Jonathan Wolken in collaboration with Renée Jaworski and Herro. This sweet, nostalgic piece can be aptly described as a comical theatrical play with elements of dance. In its essence it serves to remind us of the fleeting nature of life. An elderly couple (Sheaff and Herro) remembers the days of their youth. Memories of the past, beginning from the moment they met, are revealed to the audience. And what a turbulent past it was! The duo had more downs then ups, yet their relationship survived.

The program culminates with an excerpt from Megawatt (2004), a high-powered 20-minute cardio workout choreographed for the entire ensemble. Exhilarating, pulsating music featuring compositions by Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher set a dynamic mood for the dance with a quite unexpected entrance—performers enter the stage slithering on their backs across the floor. In Megawatt, dancers are scattered about the ground moving as if their bodies are pierced by electric shocks. This dance is not for the squeamish. The performers must have endurance and stamina to sustain these high-impact and rapid movements. In a powerful finale, dancing with abandon and relentless energy, Pilobolus brings the audience to scream with joy.

“The group displayed amazing physical fearlessness, humor, inventiveness and unselfconsciousness… That they can do so much with so little is astounding. That they are having fun is perhaps more important,” wrote the New York Times about Pilobolus’s first performance as a dance company at the Louis-Nikolais Dance Theater Lab in New York. Thirty-five years later, that old Pilobolus magic still works like a charm.

This program opened the 2006-07 season of the contemporary dance series presented by the Washington Performance Arts Society.