Decades-old Pilobolus strives to keep dance relevant

Just like the sun-loving fungus it's named after — which can shoot off spores with incredible speed and force — Pilobolus Dance Theater is constantly growing and multiplying.

Since its founding in 1971, the company has been creative and diverse both on stage and in its approach to remaining accessible and financially sustainable — whether appearing in television ads for Hyundai and Ford, creating an animated video to promote the Sochi Olympics or performing at the 2007 Academy Awards, where the dancers enacted the themes of nominated films in a series of shadow vignettes.

The Egg program includes the Pilobolus standard "Day Two," a 1981 piece that closes with what Barnett once called "one of the great curtain calls in modern dance history" (not to be revealed here).

Enacting the second day of the creation of the world, the piece exemplifies not only Pilobolus' collaborative approach (eight people are credited as choreographers of the work), but also its signature style of intertwined, organic movement.

The company is well known for its work with shadow play; its evening-length piece "Shadowland," created with "SpongeBob SquarePants" writer Steven Banks, combines projected images, shadow work and live movement.

The scene is recorded by a camera hanging from a crane, and the resulting formations—a waterfall, a smiling face, a word — are projected on a vast screen in real time.

While the universal theme of human connection has always been a primary focus for Pilobolus, the company occasionally dips a toe into political waters.