(Ian Douglas)

Growing up can be rough. Kids are cruel, parents are embarrassing, and your body is morphing into an awkward version of your adult self. While braces and pimples pretty much guarantee you won’t be thrilled with your school photos, things could be even worse: You could have the face of a dog. Woof.

In Shadowland, an evening-length work by the modern dance company Pilobolus, a teenager enters a dream world of magic, mischief, and mirth as she is transformed into a half-dog, half-girl.

“This dog head that gets put on her to me represents all the dissatisfaction that she has with herself,” Heather Jeane Favretto says. The Pilobolus member has been performing this role since 2012 and says that spending two-thirds of a show as a dog-human hybrid creature is “pretty out there.”

But then again, so is Pilobolus. Known for taking creativity and physicality to the next level, the company challenges how we think about dance. True to the company’s reputation, Shadowland relies heavily on partner work and the interaction between performers. Bodies twist, stretch, and bend together to create familiar imagery.

Working with shadows, this production takes physical illusion to new heights. Look no further than last month’s performance on The Late Show with Colbert Report for reference. The dancers link up and contort themselves, morphing into a woolly mammoth, a taxi cab, a Subway rat, and even the Statue of Liberty.

The nods to New York City are a Shadowland tradition. The touring company tweaks the finale for each American city it visits.

“We will end with imagery that is specific to Washington, to D.C., and will only be done for the performance there, so you have your own little special local treat at the end,” Pilobolus Co-Artistic Director Matt Kent says.

While it’s pretty cool to turn arms and legs into, say, the Capitol Building, Favretto says working in shadow has its pros and cons.

One of the positive aspects of playing a character in shadow is that it gives performers the ability to grow or shrink as needed. “You can make yourself larger than life. Physically, you can make yourself 20 feet tall just by getting closer to the light source,” Favretto says.

But while it’s easy to play with the sizes of the characters and images, creating the illusion of physical proximity between dancers who are standing on opposite sides of the stage is difficult.

“It’s challenging because you still want to have real, genuine interactions between the characters in the shadow world behind the screens, and sometimes you’re 20 feet away from them and you’re having an interaction only with their shadow,” Favretto says.

It’s a technique that may resonate with audience members. Anyone who’s gone to camp or had access to a flashlight has played with shadows at one point or another. “Everyone has put their hands in front of a light source and made a dog or a bird or whatever it is, and this is just doing that but with your whole body and with other people’s bodies too,” Kent says.

(Ian Douglas)

As with those rudimentary bunny ears you and your friends cast on the wall at a middle school sleepover, Pilobolus’ audience knows how this works. “There’s a lot of times when you can see behind the curtains. You can see how the dancers are creating those images and it’s like a magic trick that you’re able to see how we’re making the magic while we’re making it,” Kent says.

The lack of secrecy doesn’t make the final effect any less impressive.

Featuring an original score by David Poe and created by Pilobolus dancers and artistic staff in collaboration with Steven Banks, the lead writer of SpongeBob SquarePants, Shadowland tells a story of self-discovery and acceptance.

“She’s super curious and she’s a risk taker and she just kind of wants to figure out her place in the world, like we all do,” Favretto says of her character. The program begins with the girl standing in front of a mirror, picking apart her flaws. “Her parents catch her and they’re laughing at her, and as you can imagine that’s the most mortifying thing to a teen-something, and she gets very upset and she falls asleep.”

Her dreams bring her to a universe of shadow, where she meets a range of characters—some kind, others devious.

“She’s sort of traveling from one magical place to the next and that young girl experiences what it means to be different and to find love and to conquer fear,” Kent says, “It’s a journey that kind of ultimately teaches her and hopefully all of us a little bit about growing up.”

Co-presented by Washington Performing Arts and CityDance, Shadowland premieres at GW Lisner Auditorium this Saturday and Sunday. Buy tickets here.