Things began promisingly with Aquatica, a beautiful, strange dance where a woman wanders on the seashore looking for shells (the utterly marvelous UArts grad Renee Jaworski) only to be swept out to sea when waves (dancers) crash onto the shore. Pulled along by undertow, Jaworski swims, dives and floats amongst breakers and sea creatures. It is gorgeous imagery with movement magically taking the audience into another element altogether.

Jaworski also was terrific in Memento Mori, a duet she performed with another Pilobolus standout, Andy Herro. This is a rather sad little piece with an elderly, bent-over couple making a lot of crotchety moves. These two oldsters are clearly a bit tired of each other. They slip into the past and relive their long-ago romance. It has a nice bittersweet quality and the dancers are knockouts, but it's more a movement skit than dance.

For pure Pilobolian fun, Empty Suitor, a solo from 1980 (!), was it. Herro was marvelous walking forward and backward on plastic rollers. He dropped his hat, and in finding a way to roll forward and retrieve it, ended up with his head trapped under a bench. So in the old Pilobolian spirit he pulled himself upright and danced with the bench on his head. Bravo goofiness!

But Prism, which was a Dance Celebration commission, couldn't have been more earnest. Using the music of Coldplay, Yo La Tengo, Phoenix and others, the collaborative work between choreographer Michael Tracy (company artistic director) and the dancers sent the four performers into a whirlwind of muscular, undulating movement. There was a lot of draping people over shoulders, slinging them around like Crack the Whip, and a bunch of running. The guys spent a lot of time slinging around the woman (Jenny Mendez). Interestingly, she was the only one left standing when Prism tumbled to its conclusion.

This earnest streak isn't new, as Sweet Purgatory from 1991 demonstrated. With lighting coming out of the wings and smoke billowing onstage, six dancers moved muscularly caught between heaven and hell. The urgency of Shostakovich's magnificent music gave their well-performed draping, dragging and whirling movements a sense of importance that wasn't really there. Bring back the guy with the bench on his head.

PILOBOLUS May 19, Annenberg Center