On Center: Shadowland

Life for a teenager is often awkward. In Shadowland, Pilobolus Dance Theater’s newest production, it’s also surreal.

Created by Pilobolus dancers and directors in collaboration with Steven Banks, lead writer for the animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants,Shadowland is an imaginative detour from the traditional coming-of-age story.

“Our protagonist is a girl who longs to grow up, but can only find escape in her dreams,” writes a critic for The Sydney Morning Herald. “The liminal Shadowland she enters is full of fabulous images created with the dancers’ bodies and clever props. A god-like hand reaches down, and suddenly she is transformed. She grows a dog’s snout and ears, a silhouette created by her elbow pointing forward and hands poking up behind her head, and embarks on a journey of metaphysical self-discovery.”

Shadowland, coming to Penn State’s Eisenhower Auditorium Oct. 18, incorporates multiple moving screens of different sizes and shapes to create a performance that merges projected images and choreography. The show unfolds to an original score by musician, producer, and film composer David Poe, whose work for Shadowland ranges from ballads to hard-driving rock

“A sexy minotaur, snakes, crabs, bloodthirsty chefs, seahorses, and elephants are just a handful of the things Pilobolus Dance Theater manages to create with little more than silhouettes in this irreverent and completely mental 80-minute piece of shadow theatre,” writes a Time Out London reviewer. “… We meet a girl who shadow dreams and is transported to surreal worlds where she’s turned into a dog, gets a ride in a car, meets a seahorse, is saved by a jellyfish, and gets it on with the aforementioned minotaur — all in the best possible taste ….”

The impetus for Shadowland came from a 2007 Academy Awards appearance in which Pilobolus performers evoked classic film images in live shadow movement. That concept eventually developed into the fanciful story of a teenage girl.

“Visually and mechanically, Shadowland is deft, teeming with clever tricks of the body, scenery, and light,” relates a New York Times critic.

“The 12-strong dance troupe are extraordinarily adept at turning the tiniest detail — a slanted finger, a toss of the head — into something totally different as a silhouette,” writes the Time Out London reviewer. “… It’s a colorful, big, entertaining, and completely wacky evening.”

Since 1971, Pilobolus has been creating inventive, athletic, witty, and collaborative performance works using the human body as a medium of expression. Based in Connecticut, Pilobolus performs for stage, television, and online audiences across the globe. The troupe has performed live shows in more than 60 countries.

“The remarkable quality of the Pilobolus dancers is that they can fulfill dual roles as both storytellers and athletic dancers,” notes a critic for BroadwayWorld.com. “They can partner with astonishing ease into the most contorted yet beautiful shapes, while also never breaking character.”

Shadowland includes nudity. The Passionate Supporters of Dance sponsor the performance. Tickets for all Center for the Performing Arts 2016-17 presentations are on sale now. For information or tickets, visit cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255.