“Hey!” the strong dancers of Pilobolus screamed after each trick was performed, embodying the circus freak image on all levels. B’zyrk was definitely a favorite piece of the night because of each personality involved. You had the seductive pin-up, the worrier, the leaper, the gorilla, the strong man and one guy I could not figure out–I just know that he was somewhat confused. All of the dancers really made an effort and succeeded in keeping the audience entertained and on the edge of their seats. The “heys!” that were chanted continued the yearning for applause and recognition. I wanted to “hey” my way on up to that stage and join them for the fun.

The world premiere of Rushes was another stand-out piece of the night. However, I think a better title would be Lights Out. The image of the light being turned on and off and the dreaming man laying on his suitcase were all beautiful. The first dancer that really got my attention was the sulking “tip-toer.” The audience initially laughed, but as the piece went on, it felt sad for this man. When the striking blond dancer began ice skating with three men, mist came to my eyes. For some reason these sweet little duets tugged at my heart strings and made me want to go frolic through the fields with a lover.

Almost every American Dance Festival performance I have been to this year has involved some interesting audience member, spiritual leader or unique happening. This time, a young boy sitting directly behind me kept my friend Caitlin and I intrigued and laughing the whole night. I wrote down each of his comments he stated pretty loudly to his mother during the performances.

Don’t worry, I will share: During B’zyrk when the men were parading around the seductive girl, he asked “Why are they all after her, Mom?” Oh, I would say give him about six years, and he might grasp that concept.

<>In the middle of Pseudopodia, which was a brilliant solo performed by the gravity defying Jun Kuribayashi, he asked, “Is he a red man?” and “Is he wearing silk?” and finally stated “I liked that one better than the last, Mom.” Finally, his last excited comment came during Rushes when the tip-toeing man covers up all the dancers in the white sheet and starts to dream. He asked his mother, “Man, how do they all fit under there?”

<>Enough said–the young boy said it perfectly: Pilobolus is all about executing out-of-the-ordinary stunts that keep the audience members guessing, young and old.

If you make tracks you can catch one of these on Saturday night, when Pilobolus closes its 2007 ADF stand with what is easily the strongest work we’ve seen from them in years. That would be the world premiere of Rushes, Robby Barnett’s collaboration with Israel’s Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak.

As the sound of a shortwave radio suggests just how far they are from any real entertainment, a hapless, rural sextet waste another evening–until, that is, an enigmatic, hunched-over man with a heavy suitcase filled with something literally dreams something better.

True, Rushes threatens early on to bog down in fruitless preoccupation with surface eccentricities. Thankfully it heads into deeper waters not a moment too soon. Imaginative, touching, humorous, and strangely humane, it’s not the first time Inbal Pinto has carted us off to a foreign land, and only brought us part way back. Didn’t David Byrne once say of these characters:

  and you dreamed it all
  and dreams tell your story
  do you know who you are
  you’re the dream operator

Before that, B’zyrk rings true with its tale of backstage bickering among an extremely long-touring group of modern dancers and choreographers — I mean Eastern European carnival artistes. Cheap laughs give way to something a bit more bitter, in sections where the characters contrast their ideals of one another with a considerably shabbier reality. Call Jonathan Wolken’s work “knowing.” To say the least.