BOULDER - Pilobolus has come out of the shadows - and thank goodness for that.

A little over a week ago, about a zillion people around the globe watched this remarkable dance troupe create various movie- themed human sculptures in silhouette during the Academy Awards telecast. Probably the largest-ever audience for dance.

Well, if you liked them in two dimensions, you should've seen them in three.

On Tuesday, a sold-out Macky Auditorium crowd sat spellbound as this small but monstrously talented ensemble performed a mind-boggling collection of works that dates to the troupe's beginnings in the early '70s and stretches forward in time to the current generation of Piloboluns.

With one dancer sent home with an injury (gee, how could that happen?), the remaining half-dozen performers broke up into ones, twos and various combinations of six to present a five-part program that pretty much summed up everything this athletic, fearless company can offer.

Well, that's not true, as we longtime Pilobolus-watchers can attest. There seems to be no end to the combination of lifts and bends and twists and gyrations these dancers come up with. Just as there are limitless possibilities for the creation of multilimbed creatures, as dancer climbs aboard dancer to give birth to an impossible humanoid that can still maneuver around the stage with effortlessness.

In the enthralling Symbiosis, for example, the petite but powerful Jenny Mendez climbed onto the muscular body of Manelich Minniefee and (as the title suggests), these two became one body, sharing a natural embrace, as the otherworldly music of the Kronos Quartet underscored the dreaminess of Michael Tracy's choreography.

A similar gentleness pervaded in the opening Aquatica, in which Mendez and Annika Sheaff went on a fun-filled undersea odyssey, interacting with sea creatures and rocks (all portrayed, of course, by company dancers).

The evening ended with recent, hard-edge dance: a shivering, shakin'-all-over piece called Megawatt.

For this fan, it's the witty side of the company that remains the most endearing. Andrew Herro soloed in a segment from Empty Suitor, hilariously skittering atop five PVC pipes before becoming hopelessly tangled in a wood bench. Don't bother asking how, or why.

And in that golden oldie from 1971, Walklyndon, the troupe hustled from wing to wing, sporting yellow bodysuits and boxing shorts, colliding at will. This is classic Pilobolus, and a joy to watch. But then, everything these dancing magicians performs is joyful - and unlike anything else in dance.

Pilobolus

• Grade: A

• When and where: Tuesday in Macky Auditorium

Marc Shulgold is music and dance writer. 303-954-5296 or shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com