Dance: “Pilobolus” @ the Joyce

Pilobolus, the dance company that seems to

have been around since the Dawn of Man, has been associated with a number of adjectives: Strong. Acrobatic. Scantily clad.

Last night’s program reminded us they can also be very, very funny.

“Untitled” got the biggest laughs of the night, giving new meaning to the term “tall story.” Two ladies (Marlon Feliz and Hannah Klinkman), clad in floor-length, late-19th-century-style petticoats, socialize at 12 feet in the air, while standing on the shoulders of two unseen, broad-shouldered young men (Zach Weiss and Quincy Ellis).

In “Behind the Shadows”, perhaps the evening’s most imaginative piece, the dancers stand behind a large screen through which they contort their bodies to form various animal shapes, including lizards and dogs. This is performed to David Poe’s song “Joy” whose lyrics include “if it gives you joy, you don’t have to explain it.” Truer words may have never been written (or define Pilobolus as a company).

Finally “Walklyndon,” which must have been composed to give New Yorkers the giggles, features the dancers, not watching where they’re going, slamming into each other (or flipping over each other) as they dart across the stage. One can only hope no ribs were fractured in the process.

Then, for something completely different, “On the Nature of Things” is performed to Vivaldi by a threesome of Nathaniel Buxbaum, Quincy Ellis, and Marlon Ellis. It’s more sensuous than anything you may have ever watched on the Spice Channel (if such a thing still exists anymore.)

So get thee to the Joyce and catch Pilobolus, too long a stranger to those hallowed halls. As they say, beauty is transitory, and this particular brand of beauty is gone after July 30.

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