Pilobolus Dance Theatre

Active Repertoire Descriptions

AQUATICA  (2005)  - A girl on a beach. A conch. The waves roll in and suck her down into the deep. Frightening, mysterious, and ultimately playful, the world of Aquatica is a breathtaking meditation set in the oceanic underworld. A fairy tale using images of exotic marine life to probe the depths of the human psyche.  Full of breathtaking leaps and amazing forms, Aquatica is at once a brand new work and classic Pilobolus.

BEN'S ADMONITION (2002) - Two men  suspended from hooks swing in the air. At first startling in its simplicity, Ben's Admonition becomes a piece about closeness and distance, dependence & self-reliance, intimacy and war. Premiered in Philadelphia, its title refers to Benjamin Franklin's statement at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

B'YZRK (2007), choreographed by Jonathan Wolken, brings to life the quirky, funny yet poignant world of an obscure Eastern European circus, complete with a dusty audience of country folk.  It is a warm and energetic piece, ripe with the exaggerated bravado of circus performance, stirred by the hand of human limitation.

DAY TWO (1980) Ð One of Pilobolus's classic works, Day Two's tribal atmosphere enacts the second day of the creation of the world, from its earliest forms of life to the moment at which creatures of the earth take flight into the air. One of the company's most amazing works, set to a soundtrack from Brian Eno and Talking Heads, Day Two captures the awe of evolution and the wonder of existence.

FEMME NOIRE (1999) The lady in black examines her ups and downs with the opposite sex.

GNOMEN (1997) This is one of Pilobolus's classic men's quartet's.  Gnomen's lyrical exploration of relationships emerges from an unusually inventive physical vocabulary and is dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague, Jim Blanc. 

LANTERNA MAGICA (2008) is the new full-company work by Pilobolus Co-Artistic Director Michael Tracy. This work immerses us in the luminous spirit of the natural world, and uses ritual and mythology to create a mysterious and irresistibly sensual celebration of the supernatural.

MEGAWATT (2004) An electrifying experience. A full-throttle, full-company piece, blends startling energy with an ironic take on the excess and high-voltage state of the world we live in. Ultra-dynamic moves to the music of Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher; a breathtaking display of the company's physical endurance and prowess.

MEMENTO MORI (2006) A male-female duet, MEMENTO MORI is a sweet hilarious reminder to us all that life is short.  It shines a warm light into the depths of our fantasies about growing older and perhaps a bit wiser.  Music ranges from Debussy's hauntingly undulating melodies, to the ethereal sounds of Bjork, to Florence Foster Jenkins' notorious butchering of the Queen of the Night aria.

PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (2007) At once a myth and an intimate recollection, PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY is Michael Tracy's latest offering-- a duet that traces a mans struggle with his memory of inconsolable loss and in the process conjures a powerful scrapbook of an unreachable past.

PILOBOLUS (1971)  This is Pilobolus, the dance, an antic trio choreographed by three students from Dartmouth College, who soon decided to start a dance company of the same name.  This is the seminal work from which it has all evolved.   

PRISM (2006), contemplates, How do you maintain your identity in a relationship or a group?  Three men and one woman seek the answer in a sleek, urban world of film noire mystery, where dancers disappear into darkness and reemerge in pools of light.  Michael Tracy's lyrical work pulsates to the music of Coldplay.

PSEUDOPODIA (1974) A tumbling tumbleweed solo set to an all-percussion score.

RAZOR : MIRROR (2008) explores the hidden space that almost separates the worlds of sanity and insanity.  It is the strange fruit of a midnight's madness, tossed sharply with acid wit and a touch of irony, served forth with a generous side of Pilobolean humor.

RUSHES (2007) The first of Pilobolus's collaborating partners projects, RUSHES is the result of Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak's collaborattion with Pilobolus AD Robby Barnett and our company.  The result - an  isolated community of broken dreams.  Jacques Tati meets Gogol in a breakthrough for Pilobolus's constantly morphing aesthetic.

SHIZEN (1978)  The word means nature and this dance explores coupling as a biomorphic reflection of the natural world.  The score was composed and recorded for Pilobolus by the renowned shakuhatchi master, Riley Lee.

SOLO FROM THE EMPTY SUITOR (1980) -- Existential slapstick worthy of the finest comedic greats, this much-anticipated revival of a Pilobolus classic takes a simple love story and turns it into a rolling balancing act somewhere between Beckett and Buster Keaton.

SWEET PURGATORY (1991)  Commissioned by ADF for Pilobolus' 20th anniversary.  A response to the music of Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, the remarkable orchestration for strings of his own 8th Quartet.  The score suggests and the dance explores sequentially a hovering premonitory world, its descent into Hades, and the determined climb back toward Purgatory and finally, out of an ominous post-apocalyptic surroundings toward Hope.

SYMBIOSIS (2001)- A male-female duet which traces the birth of a relationship between two creatures sinuously & sensuously intertwined.  At once a Darwinian investigation and a love story, Symbiosis never ceases to surprise with its majesty and emotional depth.

TSU KU TSU (2000) - Choreographed in collaboration with master Taiko drummer, Leonard Eto, Tsu Ku Tsu combines a stately, nearly meditative atmosphere of ritual and majesty with Pilobolus's startling feshness and athleticism.  Choreography as calligraphy.

UNTITLED - A Victorian, Alice-in-Wonderland like fantasy that follows the lives of two young women. While playing in a garden they are inter-rupted by a pair of male interlopers.  After a brief encounter, the women give birth to a new pair of men.  The unfolding interaction of all six characters explores the divergent symmetry of the women's lives, from innocent youth to nostalgic old age. Full male nudity.

WALKLYNDON (1971) - One of Pilobolus's very first works, Walklyndon is a silent dance owing much of its physical humor to slapstick and vaudeville. Six colorfully dressed jocks romping, bumping, kicking and galumphing, Walklyndon is a classic.