Went to see Pilobolus at ADF last night. They're about as brand-name as it gets in modern dance, I guess (maybe Twyla Tharp is bigger). I'd never seen them before and I found it interesting how 3 of the 5 dances weren't really "about" anything. We were talking about this some last night. I don't know enough about dance to have the correct vocabulary. The first thing I thought of was "non-narrative" which, while true I think (there's certainly no story to most of the Pilobolus pieces) doesn't quite get at it fully. There's not a storyline to Shen Wei's Re: but it's still "about" something more than just movement, shape and form for its own sake. My fave pieces were Walklyndon, which had the dancers running across the stage and into each other in a variety of ways. Lots of fun. Also enjoyed Redline (a new commission) which seemed to have echoes of Walklyndon and looked to be blending Pilobolus style with club moves and breaking and also was partly set to music by Autechre. Best moment was when one of the male dancers did this hunched over tippy-toe run across the stage that was straight out of classic Warner Brothers cartoons. How they resisted the temptation to score that with a plinky-plink pizzicato is beyond me. The dances that closed each half of the program were a bit different in that they seemed to be about something. I liked Rushes (which apparently premiered at ADF 2 years ago), particularly all the business with the chairs. Impressive and fun. Was less thrilled with the other new commission for 2009, 2b. The music was good (altho I didn't recognize it as Tom Waits or Elvis) but the overall effect was like Pilobolus mixed with second-rate surrealism. Sorta like low budget Cirque de Soleil or something. It had its moments but it went on a bit too long and reached the point where I felt that it just wasn't ever going to mean anything and the fact that it was trying to was a distraction.

But what do I know...