The Much-Imitated Pilobolus, Needing Some New Twists

Over the years, the quirkily inventive Pilobolus troupe has abandoned brains for brawn. The weird, morphing optical illusions, the walking puzzles made out of torsos and legs that defined it at its start nearly 40 years ago -- these have given way to slapstick humor and simpler shapes made by the dancers hoisting one another like forklifts. At its performance Tuesday night at Wolf Trap, the company looked more like an offshoot of upscale circus acts than anything close to the oddball, mind-bending knots of bodies mixed with irony that fueled its surprises of the past.

Pilobolus doesn't show us anything new anymore, in part because it has so many imitators. The art of the contortion has spilled from the group's once-unclassifiable niche into popular culture. The troupe created in 1971 by three athletes and hippies at Dartmouth -- non-dancers with an unconventional eye for what the body could do -- has spawned several takeoffs (the latest, "Aeros," the work of one of Pilobolus's founders, came to the Warner Theatre in February). One can even see echoes of Pilobolus's arty acrobatics in Cirque du Soleil. Funny, then, that Pilobolus opened its Wolf Trap show with what looked like a spoof of others spoofing it. "B'zyrk" was pure clowning, its cast of six bumbling around like cartoon characters trying to put on a show. They mugged their hearts out, but it felt strained and desperate.

Better were the shadowy, intensely moody and muscle-dependent works such as the solo "Pseudopodia," a tour de force for rubbery Jun Kuribayashi; the clever and tender male quartet "Gnomen"; and "Symbiosis," for two gymnastic lovers.

"Megawatt," which closed the program, had the best music -- it departed from the oozy Arvo Part compositions and Kronos Quartet arrangements that had accompanied the other works and instead featured Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher. The movement didn't live up to the songs, however; an intriguingly brutal opening with two Amazonian women twisting men's heads between their knees raised one's hopes that something untamed and provocative might develop. But it wasn't to be; we ended up with a lot of skidding across the stage and endless somersaults. Like the other works, it was easily digestible, because that's what Pilobolus has become.