by Leigh Witchel
What is Pilobolus without ingenuity? The company celebrated its 50th birthday at The Joyce with a potpourri of works, both recent and well-aged. The group has spent half a century creating short, striking works that combined acrobatics with dance, and the best were the ones that still surprised.
The program opened with “On the Nature of Things.” From 2014, the trio by Robby Barnett, Renée Jaworski, Matt Kent and Itamar Kubovy was inspired by Lucretius’s poem on Epicureanism, using a score fashioned from Vivaldi.
On a dark, hazy stage, Quincy Ellis brought Nathaniel Buchsbaum in, deposited him on a table and slowly rolled away. Both wore nothing but dance belts. On his platform, Buchsbaum looked around, reached, and lay down again. Ellis now brought in Marlon Feliz, and stood her on Buchsbaum. She was bare-breasted. Ellis rotated the two on the table. As the two posed, whipped and stretched, Ellis rolled round, then Buchsbaum lifted him on to the platform as well.
Though Epicureanism was the inspiration, at times, “On the Nature of Things” felt like a straight-up Adam and Eve story. At other times, as when Ellis inserted himself into Buchsbaum and Feliz’ contortions, it felt like a threesome. Feliz backed out and lay down, and Buschsbaum tried to follow her, but Ellis kept him on the table. The two men slowly danced, and to a familiar Vivaldi adagio, Ellis pushed his fingers near Buchsbaum’s lips. When Ellis and Buchsbaum danced, it seemed both hostile – there were feet also pushed into faces – and sexual.
Yet the cryptic and ambiguous atmosphere is what Pilobolus does well. The striking, gymnastic ways this happened both ran in parallel and overlapped with the shock of the narrative. Everything was arresting, and Ellis’ charisma sustained the ambivalence. At the end, he stood up and looked at us. Buchsbaum and Feliz were lying on either side as if tossed away as the lights went out.
The weakest items were where the frisson didn’t happen. Unfortunately, one of those was a premiere, “Awaken Heart,” created by the company’s present co-directors, Jaworski and Matt Kent, in collaboration with Pilobolus alumni Gaspard Louis. As with most of the company’s dances, the original cast (which also was the cast performing) was co-credited as collaborators.
Buchsbaum and Zachary Weiss slowly carried Feliz and Hannah Klinkman in, once again, dark and hazy lighting. The women walked laboriously as the men clung to them and were dragged, or were held by their legs as they leaned out. The piece was at its most riveting when there was an improbable lift, but “Awaken Heart” relied less on sculpture or gymnastics, and more on generic modern dance vocabulary. The work ended with the quartet staring offstage at sidelighting. How many times have we seen that?
“Sweet Purgatory,” from 1991, was the longest piece and it closed the show. The music,
Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, was familiar, perhaps for New Yorkers because it was used in 2013 by Alexei Ratmansky.
Klinkman began in the haze with her back to us, bourréeing with one shoulder raised, as if hanging. Two men backed in and passed her one to the other before a second trio arrived. The music sped up and the men, Buchsbaum, Weiss and Derion Loman, tossed Feliz.
The cast rushed from one side to the other; Buchsbaum revolved Feliz in a parallel position. Divided into two trios, the men in one dropped the women from their shoulders to the floor, then brought them up their backs. The women were pressed overhead, slowly rotating to end.
Besides brute strength, the work, by Robby Barnett, Alison Chase, Johnathan Wolken and Michael Tracy in collaboration with the original cast, relied more on choreography and dance phrasing than transformation. Again, it looked a lot like generic modern dance.
The program was made up largely of shorter works, which kept the small troupe of six constantly on the move, and us occasionally waiting as the dancers changed outfits or caught their breath. But Pilobolus excels at short-form pieces. “Walklyndon,” from 1971 was a humorous sketch that opened with the full company in bright yellow leotards and boxer’s shorts. The cast sprinted, sagged or jumped across the stage in a choice selection from The Ministry of Silly Walks. They leapt into each other’s arms in improbable shapes, with their shorts falling down.
“Between the Shadows” took material from 2009 (originally called “Dog * id,” now “Shadowland”) and repurposed it. The work relies on a screen and a light from behind, like Indonesian shadow puppets. But instead of puppets, humans created characters and metamorphoses with their limbs. A girl met a giant hand, which removed her head, then restored it, then transformed her into a dog.
The music shifted to rock, but instead of continuing the story, the cast spun the screen round the stage to expose the workings of the trick to us. Three men and their shirts became an elephant, and we saw the process of transformation into rats, elephants, floral deities. To make “Between the Shadows” short form, the company took the magician’s trick, and instead of using it for narrative, made it the entire point. Ironically, David Poe’s song, commissioned for the original, still advised, “If it gives you joy, then you don’t have to explain it.”
“Untitled” was one of Pilobolus’ breakout classics, from 1975. The Joffrey and Ohio Ballets both took it into repertory, and nearly half a century later, it’s still a strange and beautiful meditation. Like a crazy American myth, “Untitled” imagines a time in a past both plausible and impossible.
To pastoral music by Robert Dennis, two women wandered in voluminous skirts, wearing hats and carrying baskets. Suddenly they grew like Alice in Wonderland. That even became a competition. The method and the gimmicks are well-known after nearly 50 years, but let’s not spoil it for those who haven’t yet seen it.
Many possibilities got explored, especially after two gentleman callers arrived. The men were provoked to duel, and morals, hidden secrets and identities, and sexuality simmered under the acrobatics.
The piece was created by Pilobolus’ founding members, Barnett, Chase, Tracy, Wolken, Moses Pendleton and Martha Clarke, both of whom went on to create their own groups. What makes “Untitled” so good is it never just moved on to another idea. So many things you hoped might happen did, including the women swallowing up their suitors inside their skirts. Yet at the end, the women placidly rocked as if on a lazy summer evening.
And as strange as it sounds to say there was too much dancing in some of the pieces, without the sculptural transformations that make you catch your breath, Pilobolus is just another modern dance troupe. Short-form ingenuity is at the center of Pilobolus’ half a century. It didn’t rely on structure or composition to succeed, but taking what could be a gimmick and making it a flash of brilliance. Maybe that’s best kept brief.
copyright ©2023 by Leigh Witchel
“On the Nature of Things,” “Walklyndon,” “Awaken Heart,” “Untitled, “Between the Shadows,” “Sweet Purgatory” – Pilobolus
The Joyce Theater, New York, NY
July 18, 2023
Cover: Pilobolus celebrating its 50th anniversary. Photo © John Kane.
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