Dance: Body Magic

Brand-new works highlight each of the three programs Pilobolus is performing at the Joyce Theater, where a loyal and responsive audience welcomes it every summer. But you won’t find a better example of the magic, sensuality and imagination of this unique troupe than the second half of Program 3, which consists of two older pieces. Symbiosis, one of the finest duets in the company’s repertory, is Michael Tracy’s spellbindingly inventive exploration of the cantileverings and wrappings possible between two bodies, beautifully lit and performed with rapt objectivity by Jenny Mendez and Manelich Minniefee. Their tender, organically evolving lifts and counterbalances (set to well-chosen, often haunting, contemporary pieces performed by The Kronos Quartet), never evoking a power struggle or a “relationship” per se, are mesmerizing right through to the final image of their slowly revolving linked bodies.

Immediately following is Day Two, by now a classic. “Directed” by Pilobolus cofounder Moses Pendleton (choreography is collaboratively credited to an earlier generation of free-spirited company dancers), it sends its nearly nude dancers back to the dawn of time, into the rainforest and through some tribal ritual of the imagination, accompanied by a primal, pulsating Brian Eno and David Byrne score. Fierce, wild and daring, the current ensemble does the work proud, right through to the gleefully sloshing curtain call.

Program 3 also features Darkness and Light, an intriguing collaboration between two of Pilobolus’ current artistic directors, Robby Barnett and Jonathan Wolken, and master puppeteer Basil Twist. After a somewhat stilted opening—a glimpse of the seven dancers who from then on will be hidden behind a white sheet, transformed and distorted by lighting effects and ingenuity—we enter a realm of magic and surprise, thanks to masterful shadow play.

Most memorable are two luminous early scenes in which humanity seems to have been banished. An undersea world of beautiful, floating, anemone-like creatures materializes, followed by a glowing night sky through which stars and meteors travel. All this appears completely unmoored from human existence, but then large, sinister heads begin to loom in the top corners of the “screen,” and strange blobs swallow other blobs and loom as ominous mountains before spitting out human shapes. The distortions and contrasts keep us guessing, but the work, for all its powerful illusions, could use a stronger through-line.

Tracy’s new Lanterna Magica (in Program 2) is another of Pilobolus’ encounter-with-nature fables, with some charming moments but also a lot of aimless meandering. The troupe’s two (indefatigable) women—Mendez and Annika Sheaff—are its protagonists, whose trapping of fireflies in a lantern unleashes an invasion by a nocturnal quartet of ambiguous creatures and a lot of floating two-on-one lifts and rubbery tumbling. The highlight is the intriguing duet for the women, in which Sheaff demonstrates strength to rival Pilobolus’ muscular, equally tireless men.

Wolken’s Megawatt is not only a visceral kick—with its bodies bouncing along the floor and hurling themselves recklessly into space—but also one of the better crafted works in the repertory. It’s a raucously ideal program closer.

Through July 26. Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave. (at W. 19 St.), 212-242-0800; Mon.-Wed. 7:30; Thurs.-Fri. 8; Sat. 2 & 8, $44.