Dance Review - Pilobolus Dance Theater - At the Joyce, a Bouillabaise - Fish Head Steeped in Bach and Elvis - NYTimes.com
Bouillabaisse: Fish Head, Balloons and Gloves, Well Steeped in Bach and Elvis Pilobolus Dance Theater, the company formed in 1971 and named after a genus of fungi, has changed drastically over the years in terms of artistic makeup. Lately the group, which opened its third program of the current season on Monday night at the Joyce Theater, has looked to outside choreographers in an effort to ignite creative sparks. In the case of “2b,” a New York premiere by the Israeli artistic team of Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, the flame could do with more fanning.
An arid work full of vague imagery and set to music by Bach, Tom Waits and Elvis Presley, “2b” features a surreal cast of characters. There are various skirmishes involving a man (Andrew Herro), a fisherman initially seen tangled inside a cluster of black balloons; a figure dressed in blue (Matt Del Rosario) wearing a fish head; a woman (Annika Sheaff) who skulks around the stage on demipoint wearing red tights and long red gloves; and another man (Jun Kuribayashi) who emerges from behind a miniature door.
Yoann Tivoli’s lighting casts the stage in night shadows — or perhaps the depths of the ocean. After Ms. Sheaff, entering the stage from behind the tiny doorway, pops the balloons, one by excruciating one, Mr. Herro collapses flat on his back. It’s hard to say for sure what’s happening within this murky atmosphere — the tale seems to involve a fisherman who is outsmarted by a fish — but it’s just like the sort of dream you have after devouring an anchovy pizza before bed.
The program features another dubious glimpse into the dark side — Jonathan Wolken’s 2008 “Razor: Mirror,” in which five dancers are transformed into nasty characters from a scrappy freak show.
The works holding more allure, however, are those relying less on hollow theatrical conceits than on the dancers’ invincible, acrobatic flair. In Mr. Wolken’s 1973 “Pseudopodia,” Mr. Kuribayashi flips across the stage like a mercurial wonder.
In “Symbiosis,” choreographed by Michael Tracy in 2001, Jenny Mendez and Jeffrey Huang grasp onto each other as if they were a sculptural force of slowly mutating muscle and bone. But both of these forays into pure movement are minor compared with “Day Two,” which dates to 1980. Directed by Moses Pendleton, a Pilobolus founder and now the leader of Momix, a company that deftly merges acrobatics and illusion, “Day Two” nails the point in which fantasy meets potent muscularity. In this work, the dancers — four men and two women wearing only dance belts and thongs — are a compelling blend of power and vulnerability as their movement shifts from low primal hops to fluttering hands held above their heads to resemble wings.
Within these earthy notes are sensuality and playfulness; gradually, the stage begins to buckle and the dancers are swallowed up underneath it. There are more surprises ahead — water is a key ingredient — but nothing is as indelible as the way the work creates shapes and stories out of flesh.
