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 Pilobolus And Orts Concerts Crowd The Weekend Schedule. By Margaret Regan PILOBOLUS IS A GREEK word for a tiny fungus with a peculiar characteristic: When its multitude of spores are ripe they burst out, or as choreographer Michael Tracy likes to put it, they "blow their hat." An obscure botanical reference for a modern dance troupe, perhaps, but as a metaphor for the now 27-year-old company it's singularly apt. The Pilobolus (pronounced pill-LOB-oh-lus) Dance Theater dancers are fond of athletic outbursts, compounded by startlingly original partnering and striking sculptural silhouettes. Performing Friday evening and Saturday afternoon at Centennial Hall through UApresents, Pilobolus makes its first Tucson appearance since April 1993. The company is internationally acclaimed, but it will have a little competition in Tucson this weekend. Orts Theatre of Dance, an Old Pueblo favorite, is putting on its winter concert on Friday and Saturday nights, at the Temple of Music and Art.
"None of us was tracked for modern dance," Tracy said. "The sexy story is that we didn't know anything, but Moses Pendleton (another founder) and I had done a fair amount of theatre. All of us had done sports. Dance was a great combination of theatre and sports." The dancers worked as a collaborative from the start: All of them shaped the choreography and danced it as well. Pilobolus has stood out among more solemn dance companies for its sense of humor and for its preponderance of male dancers. Nowadays, none of the originals still perform ("we're all old fogies") but four continue as artistic directors and choreographers for the new team of six dancers. And since the collaborative method continues, Pilobolus has an unusually high number of people working on almost every dance. "The dances are performed by six, and choreographed by 12," Tracy said, exaggerating only slightly for comic effect. "These dancers have more conventional dance backgrounds. Most have studied varied kinds of dance, and at Pilobolus they learn an immense repertoire. It's not an easy job. They're better dancers than we were." All the works to be performed in Tucson have been composed since the company's last date here. The full troupe performs "The Doubling Cube" (1995) at the Friday night concert only. Set to jazz music composed by Jane Ira Bloom right in the dance studio, the 20-minute work is an "abstract movement piece...it's like a children's game with an adult slant."
Tracy himself won't be in town to enjoy Tucson's golden winter weather--he'll be driving through the snow to his teaching job at Yale instead--but, he noted, "It's been a while since Pilobolus has been there. It's time for people to see our new work." Over at the Temple of Music and Art, Orts will be celebrating its 14th anniversary with a concert featuring its trademark trapezes, a video and live singing. Four new dances and an older favorite are on the program. Singer Cantrell Maryott will perch high on a swing for "Eye Light," a new solo work by artistic director Anne Bunker and composer Chuck Koesters that commemorates a cousin who perished in an Australia landslide last year. Another Bunker premiere, "Evolving Reflections," was commissioned by the International Glass Arts Society for its convention in town last April. Seven Orts performers danced it then without trapezes, but now it will be seen with trapezes as Bunker intended. Made in collaboration with glass artist Tom Philabaum, the dancers will move to a Koesters video backdrop of glass art being produced.
Bunker lamented the juxtaposition of the Pilobolus and Orts concerts, especially since Orts is trying to raise money to help finance next month's trip to Costa Rica. The troupe is one of only three U.S. arts groups invited to participate in the sixth International Arts Festival, and the festival stipend pays only partial expenses. "We really hope we sell a lot of tickets," she said. Pilobolus Dance Theater performs at Centennial Hall on the University of Arizona campus at 8 p.m. Friday, February 6, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 7. Tickets for the longer evening concert are $23, $29 and $36, while tickets for the shorter afternoon show are $10, $14 and $20. Students with ID and kids 18 and under get in half-price. Tickets are available at all Dillard's outlets (1-800-638-4253) and at the box office. For information, call 621-3341.
Orts Theatre of Dance performs at the Temple of Music
and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., at 10:30 a.m. and at 8 p.m. Friday,
February 6, and at 8 p.m. Saturday, February 7. Tickets at the
door are $10 general, $8 for seniors and students. Children 15
and under get in free with an adult. Advance tickets, available
at Antigone Books, Bentley's and Silverbell Trading, are $8 and
$6. Tickets may also be purchased over the Internet at orts@rtd.com.
For more information, call 744-4004.
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Reached by telephone last week, Pilobolus' Tracy said the company's
base in northwestern Connecticut was spared the crippling ice
storms that recently hit northern New England, though they've
had a "wild winter, with lots of snow." Pilobolus got
its start in another notorious cold spot, Hanover, New Hampshire,
when the five founding members were undergraduates at Dartmouth.
(A sixth, Alison Chase, was their modern-dance teacher.)
The next three works will be danced at both concerts. "Solo"
(1997) for dancer Tamieca McCloud is a short, "explosive
work" performed to guitar music. "Gnomen" (1997)
is a quartet for the troupe's four men, choreographed in honor
of a Pilobolus dancer, Jim Blanc, who died last year. Finally,
"Aeros" (1996) is another long, full-company piece,
celebrating the troupe's 25th anniversary. "It's a fantasy
piece that tells a story; it's like our earlier work, with light
humor."
Guest choreographer Lee Anne Hartley contributes "The Laws
of Physics in Everyday Life," a spoof on science in society
for eight dancers, while Orts dancer Beth Braun (formerly Bauman)
introduces "Life Rhythm," a brand-new dance that's been
set on the entire company. Only one work on the program has been
seen here before. Bunker's "Tossed Salad" is a joyful
kaleidoscope of dancers in vegetable-hued costumes leaping hither
and yon all over the stage, and all over each other.
