Ad
Featured
Down the rabbit hole: 'Momix: Alice' takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll's classic
Dancers are seen in the caterpillar scene from “Momix: Alice.”
Visions dance through Moses Pendleton’s head constantly.
Oftentimes, it is fleeting.
Yet, there are moments when something sticks in his head long enough, he can get it to stage.
This is exactly the case of dance company Momix and its presentation of “Momix: Alice.”
“Momix: Alice” will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at Popejoy Hall.
“It’s not a visual translation,” Pendleton says. “We’re not bringing the book to life. We’re using the book as an inspiration in bringing some iconic ‘Alice in Wonderland’ characters to the stage. We used the book as more of a stepping stone for us to go down our own personal rabbit hole.”
Pendleton is the artistic director of Momix, which is a dance company that was founded in 1980. Over the course of more than 40 years, Pendleton and the company have pushed the boundaries of contemporary dance.
Down the rabbit hole: 'Momix: Alice' takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll's classic
Based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” the performance features Alice and her encounters with various landmarks and denizens.
Pendleton says Wonderland serves as the perfect landscape for Momix’s signature style, which combines dance and illusions to highlight not just the beauty of the human form, but the music, choreography and life that every production brings to the audience.
Ad
He says the story of Alice fits perfectly with the company’s style, as the absurd logic and vibrant imagery offers room for unique dance interpretations.
“I don’t intend to retell the whole Alice story,” Pendleton says. “But to use it as a taking off point for invention.”
Pendleton also takes inspiration from Carroll’s photography career, a passion the director shares, for the visual projections and presentation of the performance.
He says the performance transforms the dancers.
Using blue exercise balls, dancers assemble and roll themselves into the looming caterpillar that Alice encounters after she drinks from a mysterious bottle and shrinks.
“Momix is a physical theater,” he says. “We need to do it our own way. We’re very familiar working with exercise balls. If you have six people and two balls a piece, you can create a moving visual image. Each dancer has red shoes, which adds to the caterpillar.”
A quartet of dancers with enormous baby masks alternate between dancing together and apart to represent the twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Along Alice’s journey, she discovers new characters and locations, each revealing their own delightful surprises.
“Did you know that a group of rabbits is called a trip?” Pendleton asks enthusiastically. “We have a piece where we have highly physical dancers who are looking and feeling like rabbits. Each dancer needed to be more dynamic because the animal is. We pushed them a lot.”
“Momix: Alice” is made up of eight dancers.
“There are lots of costume and scenic changes,” Pendleton says. “We have a strange humor with this piece. I always tell people to expect the unexpected with Momix.”
