Despite their being resident in Connecticut, I'd never before seen Pilobilus perform. This evening's playbill explains Pilobilus as "a phototropic zygomycete -- a fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures...It is also a highly unusual dance company." That's a bit of an understatement. It seems like a sort of bastard child of modern dance and contact improvisation with costumes and some creepy undertones.
That's not a bad thing, though it's not something I'm likely to get terribly excited about. It was interesting to watch a dance performance and admire the skill and creativity of the dancers and choreographers while remaining emotionally uninvolved except for occasionally being a bit disturbed. It was certainly a unique experience for me.
I was a little late to the show due to an exciting parking experience, so I came in just as the dancing was starting and missed the initial announcement that the program had changed from the printed version.
The first piece was the altered one; I was disappointed to find the promisingly titled "Lanterna Magica" replaced with, I believe, "Rushes." The latter was a lengthy piece with several dancers looking down-at-the-heels in, on, and among a circle of small chairs. It made me think of a train station, perhaps because one of the dancers had a suitcase. I also found it weirdly sexist -- as the male dancers rolled and tumbled and lifted each other, the women primarily moved chairs, acted as spectators either passively watching or reacting to the male dancers, trotted around with their rear ends thrust out and wiggling, and once lifted their legs for a sort of crotch-shot moment of exposure as their skirts fell back. Later in the piece, a woman dancer was dragged and shoved around the stage by male dancers while remaining frozen herself, and another draped herself over a male dancer's shoulders and spent the rest of the piece being carried limply around. I was startled and not terribly pleased. (Edited to add: a video clip of this particular piece is here.)
That said, there were some nifty elements: the way the chairs were scooted around and played with was great fun. I especially liked one segment where a dancer walked at a steady pace along a whole row of them as the other dancers scurried to move chairs from behind to ahead of him, like a sort of live-action version of Centipede. And the skill of the dancers was very much evident, just not hugely engaging to me.
The next piece, "Pseudopodia," featured a single male dancer writhing athletically in a red unitard, and I had roughly the same reaction, minus the issue with sexism. Very talented, but not in a way that grips me. I felt similarly about "Gnomen," with a quartet of buff and shirtless male dancers in brown balancing and lifting each other with awe-inspiring skill.
Things picked up for me personally after intermission.
"Hitched" started delightfully with male and female dancers in wedding costume chasing each other on and off stage, losing parts of their costume each time until they were down to bra, panties, and veil (her) and waistcoat and briefs (him). This is going to sound like reverse sexism, but the interaction between them became increasingly amusing as she came to win or dominate each little exchange, sometimes physically stepping on him in triumph. It was a nice change after the odd sexual dynamics of the first piece.
"Dog * ID," on the other hand, was brilliant but very disturbing. A single female dancer shown in silhouette interacted with the shadow of a finger which poked, prodded, and ultimately physically reshaped her into a dog-headed creature (with her arms cleverly forming the animal silhouette, like a human finger puppet) which it then proceeded to touch and tease. While I admired the technical achievement of the interacting shadows, I was genuinely bothered, almost repulsed, by the creepy subtext of the dehumanization and objectification of a woman.
They wrapped up the show with a lively full-company number, "Megawatt," which was sheer fun, a welcome lightening of the mood after the previous piece. It wasn't nearly as clever as some of the earlier pieces, but I was ready for some relatively uncomplicated dancing by that time.
So what do I say about Pilobilus? They're brilliant, incredibly original, and very skillful performers. They certainly made me react, which is a sign of artistic strength. But I didn't really find them lovable and don't know if I'd go out of my way to see them again.
There are quite a few dates on their schedule for performances all over the continental U.S. and parts of Canada, so there might be an opportunity to catch them and see for yourself, though I don't know to what degree they shift their repertoire around for individual shows.
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