The Carolina Connoisseur

It’s been nearly 20 years since we first saw Pilobolus on stage, and, even after all this time, its work still impresses.

Although the original members no longer perform, they’ve chosen dancers to replace them with the same beauty, strength, control and flexibility that always made Pilobolus such a joy to watch.

Day Two (1980)

Four men and two women do things with their bodies that you would have thought impossible - and make it look easy.

The program Pilobolus presented on Saturday night included both new pieces and older work from the company’s repertoire - specifically Day Two (1980), directed by former member Moses Pendleton (who later left the group to form his own movement theater, Momix).

Oddly this is one of the works we saw back in the early ‘80s at our first American Dance Festival, and we were amazed how many of the images of Day Two lingered in memory.

The power of the company’s works rises out of an organic imagery.

Human bodies combine to evoke imaginary creatures, inhabitants of some other world. Fantasia-like, the company mutates into whatever image the music demands.

At one point in Day Two, the dancers join to evoke a many-armed Hindu god, but living, not made of stone. The power of this moment, to see the arms and legs of a half dozen individuals suddenly coalesce to become a living, breathing god, moved us again just as it did 20 years before.

Duet, commissioned by the ADF and premiered here, also evoked Indian temple scenes - this time of the explicit Tantric variety - come to life. The piece could be a photo shoot for the Kama Sutra. It’s unusual in the sense that gender is not usually a big theme in Pilobolus’ work. You sometimes lose track, watching them dance, which are the boys and which are the girls.

— ADMaurer & RWright