Pilobolus brings a new perspective to contemporary dance and performs at Beaver Creek

Pilobolus is not your typical dance company. To begin with, three men with little dance experience started it in 1971 at Dartmouth College, after taking a dance composition course that Alison Becker Chase taught. Each man's background has played a vital role in the appearance, usability and mission of the Pilobole. One of them was a cross-country skier and major in English literature. Another was a student of philosophical science and a fencer. The third was a pre-medical student and a pole vaulter.

The original guys were very physically intelligent, said co-artistic director Renee Jaworski. They were interested in adrenaline and height and what they were able to do with speed, physics and science and the way the body worked in the world.

See Pilobolus at the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek on Wednesday March 11. Tickets for the family show cost $ 68 for adults and $ 25 for students and can be purchased at vilarpac.org or by phone at 970-845-8497.

They named their dance company after a mushroom that grows on cow dung. This light-loving mushroom projects spores that accelerate to 45 mph in the first millimeter of their flight and adhere wherever they land. They move faster than a bullet out of a rifle, said Jaworski.

It was part of their state of mind: fast, powerful, (seeking) light. They arrived there with a new and new way of telling stories.

After 49 years, Pilobolus is still made up of artists, movers and collaborators who do not think in a genre. We want diverse perspectives. We may not be looking for the most highly skilled dancer, maybe they are trained in martial arts or theater. We want people who think in all dimensions of their body, including upside down (and people) who influence their art with other genres, such as film, art and pounds, she said.

The company is a non-profit organization dedicated to community awareness and education. Its goal: to bring together different people to experiment with multiple ways of communicating.

Nonverbal communication is the most honest and interesting way to get to the heart of a subject. It's universal, she says.

Because of their powerful point of view, the dancers performed at Broadway, the Oscars and the Olympics.

Pilobolus uses videos between their dance pieces to move audiences from one world to another. The Wednesday show includes five plays: two corporate classics and three new ones.

Every room has something to ask for, said Jaworski. It is about looking at the world and all of its beings with admiration, she said.

The company created one of the new tracks, Warp and Weft, in collaboration with independent rocker and host of the Song Exploder podcast Thao Nguyen.

This is Piloboluss' very first all-female trio, said Matt Kent, the company's creative co-director. The women of Pilobolus create a world where entities and identities overlap and interact, combine and divide in dynamic, humorous and powerful ways. From darkness, three characters emerge, meet, fight to stay connected and ultimately express their true identities in unity.

The evening begins in a non-traditional way, with the nine performers warming up and engaging the audience members in a loose and comfortable way, like at home, said Jaworski, before dressing up and performing. However, their performance is not only to follow the choreography:

They have an experience up there on stage, she says. They really immerse themselves in this world.

The first room revolves around an examination of the evolution of the eyeball and includes a wacky classroom with characters carrying eyeballs on their heads; shadow theater; and a model of an eye that the performers take apart and reassemble. The show ends with Branches, in which the dancers slowly walk through the natural wonders of the world and all its beauty, its absurdity, its aggressiveness and its filth.

Right now, we humans have found all of these short circuits for our social and spiritual needs, said Kent. We think we are connecting but in fact we are more isolated than ever. The message of this show is to connect with each other, to see how amazing the world is when we just put our phones down and look around.

While pushing the human body beyond its standard, using light and shadow and using principles of physics, Jaworski said that Pilobolus creates magical worlds. It also presents several questions, without a specific answer.

This allows people to get out of their everyday life (experience) and engage in different synapses, so that they can approach personal and global issues with a slightly different eye, she said.

The evening ends with a playful and childlike feeling, while the dancers spin and slide on an aqueous slip-and-slide made for the stage.

We like to leave our audience with a whole host of emotions with which they move away and can unwrap later, said Jaworski. But the last thing you are going to see is just joyful and fun.

If you are going to …

What: Pilobolus: Come to your senses

When: Wednesday, March 11, 7 p.m.

Or: Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek

Cost: $ 68 for adults, $ 25 for students. For a limited time, buy three tickets to this show and get the fourth for free. This show is part of the Pay Your Age ticket program for 18-30 year olds. To purchase, you must do so in person at the VPAC box office with valid proof of identity.

More information: Visit http://www.vilarpac.org or call 970-845-8497