If you have been following dance in the last 50-plus years, particularly dance in the Northeast United States, then you certainly know the dance company Pilobolus. The company, which is based in western Connecticut, performed at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington on Saturday, May 3.
Pilobolus (named after a kind of fungi) was founded at Dartmouth College in 1971 by students Moses Pendleton, Jonathan Wolken, and Steve Johnson. It was the stuff of legend: Three purported “non-dancers” meet in a dance composition class taught by Alison Chase (who would become a member of the company) and make an innovative dance piece which they entitled “Pilobolus.” And the company was born. Soon after, Pilobolus settled in with six core members; made ground-breaking, often collaborative work; and became well known in this country and around the world. Now, more than half a century later, all the original company members having moved on to other endeavors and Pilobolus is under the artistic direction of former company dancers Renée Jaworski and Matt Kent.
Pilobolus was initially known for its very physical, muscular work, requiring great strength and flexibility. Bodies—usually more than two bodies—would intertwine in inventive and unorthodox ways, defying gravity and giving rise to wonderful visual and corporeal imagery. But for all its celebration of the elasticity and raw power of the human body and the marvelous entanglements possible when bodies came together, Pilobolus had another side, a challenging intellectual side. A Pilobolus concert was always about things cerebral, as well as physical and visual, and it was always thought provoking. It is clear that the current artistic directors of Pilobolus are attempting to carry on that vision, in the same collaborative fashion, albeit with differing degrees of success.
The concert opened with “Bloodlines,” a duet choreographed in 2024 by Artistic Directors Jaworski and Kent, in collaboration with Marlon Feliz and Hannah Klinkman. Danced by Klinkman and Jessica Robling, it began promisingly, with the two powerful dancers in a clutch and circling the stage by transferring their weight from one to the other; marvelously, the dancers were so still in the weight transfer that it was nigh impossible to tell how their weight shifts were making them move. It was classic Pilobolus-like movement. The piece, however, became somewhat difficult to decipher from that point forward. It did not help that the performance was dimly lit—a consistent theme throughout the evening. It seemed incongruous to this viewer that a dance company that has historically celebrated the human form in all its shapes and sizes would have more than one piece on the program that was dimly lit, often so it was difficult to see the dancers’ bodies moving in space.
“Tales from the Underworld,” a 2024 collaboration by no less than 17 people, according to the program notes, had some of the same issues as “Bloodlines.” Again, it was so dimly lit it was difficult to make out what was happening on stage, although it did make use of a striking lighting trick wherein a black band of darkness—looking very much like a black piece of fabric—cut across the proscenium and the dancers’ bodies at times throughout the piece. It was an ingenious lighting effect. For this viewer, however, the piece lacked a center. One wonders if, in addition to being somewhat obscured by darkness, it suffered from too many cooks—17 collaborators just may be too many.
“Rushes,” from 2007, also listed 17 people involved in its creation. Fortunately, it was lit brightly enough. It also used props (very sturdy chairs) that agreeably proscribed the movement. There were nice moments with the chairs—one when a dancer “walked” around the stage, stepping on the seats of the upright chairs as the other dancers continuously and calculatingly took them from behind him (after he had stepped on them) and moved them to in front of him, kind of like a segmented unfurling carpet of chairs before the king. Another highlight came in a section where a dancer moved while wearing five or six chairs over his body. But again, to this viewer, the piece diffused and ultimately lacked power.
“Walklyndon,” a piece choreographed in 1971 by members of the original company, was familiar Pilobolus ground. It took a simple conceit, people walking back and forth, perhaps on a promenade on a beautiful day (although wearing bright yellow tights and leotards, as well as baggy silk shorts that boxers would wear), and interacting with each other, generally comically, as they met and/or passed each other. It had visual and intellectual gags, which developed both predictably and also surprisingly, in nice juxtaposition. As usual for early Pilobolus, strength, flexibility, and timing were key. And, as usual, it was not overwrought. It took an idea, explored it sweetly and smartly, and ended modestly.
The performance also featured the world premiere of a piece as part of the Martha Graham Dance Company’s “Lamentations Variations Project” which the Graham Company conceived as part of its “Graham100” celebration. Formed in 1926, the Graham Company is the oldest dance company in the United States, turning 100 next year. The Lamentations Variation Project centers around a 1940s film of Graham dancing her classic 1930 solo “Lamentation.” Choreographers were asked to create a movement study in reaction to the film. Pilobolus’s interpretation was thoughtful, interesting, and effective throughout, evocative of both Graham’s movement in Lamentation and Pilobolus’s unique visual and physical sensibility. It had a particularly nice opening, in which the film of Graham dancing Lamentation was projected onto the bodies of dancers moving onstage, dancers who were wearing a version of the iconic shroud costume from the piece. Not the most effusive of people, I do think Graham, who passed away in 1991, would have cracked a little smile, surreptitiously of course, had she seen the piece.
