If dance companies lack support in this country, as everyone agrees, you’d never have known it from the Pilobolus performances earlier this week at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan. Fans not only packed the 472-seat house, they broke into tumultuous shouts on Tuesday night for the troupe’s 1980 classic, “Day Two” (choreographed by Moses Pendleton to a soundtrack by Brian Eno and the Talking Heads), and offered loud applause on Thurday night for “Megawatt > Full Strength,” a 2005 creation, which might be welcomed 25 years from now as another classic.
The two dances could not be more different from each other, although both possess the indelible Pilobolus hallmarks of gymnastic strength, playful humor, unimaginable energy and, above all, the sense that nothing human is alien to this troupe, no matter how strange. While the electrically charged “Megawatt > Full Strength” (choreographed by Jonathan Wolken to the music of Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher) is the more ambitious of the two works — at roughly 70 minutes, it is presented as a full program without intermission — it does not have the sublime grace or emotional impact of the frankly erotic “Day Two,” above, which capped the first program. But the insane convulsions of “Megawatt” do leave you captivated, though exhausted and somewhat numbed by the total concentration drawn from you.
Another fanciful new piece created this year, “Aquatica,” made its New York debut on the first program. Set to atmospheric music by Marcelo Zarvos, it had the physical dynamics and thematic grandeur of a major work but, for this viewer at least, waxed sentimental with a vague story about a girl listening to the ocean from the shore, which diminished its resonance.
What kept “Aquatica” afloat (no pun intended) was Michael Tracy’s exotic choreography, which seemed to express the primal life of sea plants and other undersea creatures, and the bravura skill of the troupe’s two women and four men, who performed with complete belief. Needless to say, the stunning discipline and versatility for which Pilobolus is known was also on exhibit, as it was in the other offerings of the first program: the dramatic “Warm Heart” (2004), the circus-like “Brass Ring” (2002) and a Buster Keatonish, comic solo from “The Empty Suitor” (1980), all three also choreographed by Tracy.
In fact, no single choreographer alone created any of these dances. All were made “in collaboration with” the dancers themselves. This is generally true of the creative process in dance, though it’s sometimes unacknowledged. But shared creativity (and credit) is especially true for Pilobolus, which was founded in 1971 by a group of Dartmouth undergraduates on the principle of “a collaborative choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to partnering.” This, it rightly claims, enabled the group to invent a “non-traditional but powerful new set of skills” for making dances.
Purists used to criticize Pilobolus as an acrobatic team, dismissing its dance vocabulary as an exercise in gymnastics. Some critics still dismiss it, but the debate over the company’s authenticity ended long ago (or should have). Pendleton, who was among the Pilobolus founders, went on to create Momix. Tracy along with Wolken, both also Pilobolus founders, remain as artistic directors.
The dancers have changed, of course. But I can’t imagine the original troupe being any better individually or as a group than the current one: Renée Jaworski, Jenny Mendez, Mark Fucik, Matt Kent, Manelich Minniefee, Andrew Herro and Jun Kuribayashi.
• Pilobolus will present a third program titled “Suspended,” featuring “BUGonia” (above, right) in its New York premiere, beginning Monday. The troupe will also repeat the first two programs during the rest of it four-week engagement at the Joyce Theater (175 8th Ave. at 19th Street) through Aug. 6. All tickets are $42, at the box office, online, or by phone: 212-242-0800.
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