US Tour of SHADOWLAND by Pilobolus to Arrive at Annenberg Center Live

Annenberg Center Live welcomes the U.S. tour of Pilobolus Dance Theater's wildly theatrical Shadowland. Continuing the company's experimentation with shadow-theatre, Shadowland is a full-length performance about a teenage girl's fantastical journey through a dreamlike shadow world.

The show runs April 6-8 at Annenberg Center Live. Tickets are $30-$75 and are available online at AnnenbergCenter.org or by phone at 215.898.3900. The Annenberg Center is located at 3680 Walnut Street. Performance Schedule: Thursday, April 6 @ 7:30 PM; Friday, April 7 @ 8 PM; Saturday, April 8 @ 2 PM; and Saturday, April 8 @ 8 PM. Note: This performance contains brief nudity, strobe lighting, haze and gunfire.

Pilobolus has used a signature collaborative creative process, a weight-sharing approach to partnering and a shape-shifting perspective to create sculptural body creations since their inception in 1971. Always hungry to try new things, in 2006 they created a television advertisement for Hyundai in which they made a car with human bodies, a single light source and a screen. A few months later, Pilobolus was asked to make live iconic film images in a moving shadow at the 79th Annual Academy Awards ceremony and a new style of shadow-theatre was born.

After whetting their appetite for experimenting in a New Medium, they began to use shadow-theatre to develop a story about growing up, creating their first evening-length piece, Shadowland. Not exclusively a work of shadows, Shadowland uses athletic choreography that takes place both in front of and behind the screen. Using handmade multimedia to create illusions and tell its tale, Pilobolus created Shadowland with two brilliant collaborators - Steven Banks, the head writer for the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, and David Poe, an American musician, producer and film composer. Many dancers, designers, artisans, technicians, international promoters and agents have contributed to the show's journey through 32 countries around the world.

Shadowland had its U.S. premiere in November of 2015. In this work, a teenage girl prepares for bed. As she falls asleep, the wall of her room mysteriously starts to spin, trapping her on the other side - a transfigured body stuck in the land of shadows. Unable to escape, the girl sets off on a journey of discovery. Strange creatures appear along the way - at once comic and evil, threatening and seductive. Shadowland celebrates the power of dreams to help people discover who they are born to be.

Pilobolus is a rebellious Dance Company. For 45 years, Pilobolus has tested the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and the power of connected bodies. They continue to bring this tradition to global audiences through post-disciplinary collaborations with some of the greatest influencers, thinkers and creators in the world. Now, in a digitally driven and increasingly fractured landscape, Pilobolus also reaches beyond performance to teach people how to physically connect through group movement and designed, live experiences. They bring their decades of expertise in telling stories with the human form to help diverse communities, brands and organizations maximize group creativity, solve problems, create surprise and generate joy through the power of nonverbal communication. Pilobolus has created and toured over 120 pieces of repertory to more than 65 countries. They currently perform their work for over 300,000 people across the U.S. and around the world each year. In the last year, Pilobolus was featured on NBC's TODAY Show, MTV's Video Music Awards, ABC's The Chew and the CW Network's Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Pilobolus has been recognized with many prestigious honors, including a TED Fellowship, a 2012 Grammy Award nomination and several Cannes Lion awards at the International Festival of Creativity. In 2015, Pilobolus was named one of Dance Heritage Coalition's "Irreplaceable Dance Treasures."

Shadowland was created by Steven Banks, Robby Barnett, Renée Jaworski, Matt Kent, Itamar Kubovy, Michael Tracyin collaboration with original cast members Josie Coyoc, Mark Fucik, Molly Gawler, Christopher Grant, Damon Honeycutt, Beth Lewis, Roberto Olvera, Derek Stratton and Lauren Yalang. David Poe composed the original music. Neil Peter Jampolis is the Lighting Designer. Neil Patel created the set design. Costume design is by Liz Prince. The current cast of Shadowland is Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, Klara Beyeler, Nathaniel Buchsbaum, Krystal Butler, Heather Jeane Favretto, Derion Loman, Sayer Mansfield, Manelich Minniefee and Jacob Michael Warren.

This engagement of Pilobolus Dance Theater is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Pilobolus Dance Theater performances are supported in part by a grant from the Trustees Council of Penn Women.

Annenberg Center Live is dedicated to the advancement of a diverse and thriving cultural community through the pursuit of excellence, innovation and intellectual engagement in the performing arts. Affirming its core belief in the power of the arts to transform lives, the Annenberg Center embraces creative expression from the past and the present, of local and global origin, to expand the worlds of all who participate. As a destination and a resource, the Annenberg Center connects and engages artists, audiences, the University of Pennsylvania and the regional community through shared experiences in its high quality venues.

Photo Credit: Ian Douglas

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