Please excuse the dated nature of this review, but I’ve been entrenched in busywork with projects here at KTH. I am just coming across it myself, but I have been so excited about reading these reviews that I had to post!
I have been following the news about Pilobolus’ Shadowland work as it has progressed, and this show is apparently pretty awesome. I caught a few minutes of video of the Pilobolus cast performing some of the work on Pablo Motos’ show, El Hormiguero. Check it out:
I also found a review on El Pais of the Madrid show Рfrom the El Pais website. Translated from the original espa̱ol Рwritten by Pablo Leon (and to be fair, here are some other Pablo Leon articles):
Dance, theater, circus, fables and shadows. This strange mixture serves as inspiration for the new show of the Pilobolus company, which has chosen Madrid for the premiere of “Shadowland” (tonight at 22.30 at the New Apollo Theater). In his newly created darkness reigns, dreamlike passages and contemporary dance.
The initial innocence gives way to more erotic and adult choreography.
Like many stories, it all begins with a dream. A nightgown hanging in the air, a subtle movements and air racing show choreographed in the rest of a young woman who suddenly is precipitated into a nightmare world. Convened by a strange magic, the protagonist is trapped in a world of shadows and from there, emulating a curious or a bold Dorothy Alice, begins a journey of initiation into adulthood. “Everything has an air of story, but a wicked fairy. We wanted to get to that mythological language,” said Itamar Kubovy, executive director of Pilobolus and one of the creators of the show for three weeks will be represented in Madrid.
The company, founded in America in 1971, was seduced by the dark world of two years ago when I ordered the opening of the Oscars and produced a show imitating the shapes of the nominated films. Given the success of the assembly, they arrived several commissions for advertising (an ad for Volkswagen and one of BBVA) and has since investigated the combination of shadow and dance. The nine dancers who make up the cast-off actions performed without words, but develop an entire story using only their bodies represented an even more difficult. In early summer Dogit premiered in New York, a short story about a young girl during a dog becomes a nightmare. That was the origin of Shadowland. “It was a challenge to tell a story using only the dance. We wanted to combine it with the shadows as an allegory of knowledge: when we light the unknown, the first thing you see are silhouettes at twilight,” said Kubovy excited after the first rehearsal.
To make this transition from oral language to communicate across the physical, the company contacted Steve Banks, a writer on SpongeBob SquarePants (an acclaimed animated series). The connection was perfect. And tonight’s presentation in the capital, the conclusion of four months of intensive work. Kubovy no doubt that “Madrid is the perfect place to display the work because it is progressive, multicultural and a gateway to Europe.”
Despite his childhood winks, as the play progresses it becomes more complex and cruel. The initial persecution innocent give way to erotic scenes-from a trio to a topless dominatrix empress existential-or references to the intervention of a creator and a creator (god and goddess “?). To the sound of music composed by David Poe’s choreography also become more elaborate and the dancers, with absolute control of the movements, they show the influence of contemporary creators such as Pina Bausch and Martha Graham.
Some images from the show – I have got to see this work (all images from Neo2):
