One of the greatest hallmarks in 20th century choreography was a broad movement of multi-media dance compositions performed by the Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, Pilobolus and MOMIX. Influenced in part by the legendary choreographer Alwin Nikolais, these groups have honed elements including multimedia, costumes, music and lighting techniques.
One example was Physalia, a 1977 work (which, for example, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company has performed), originally choreographed by Moses Pendleton and Alison Chase, co-founders of Pilobolus. Physalia incorporates extensive acrobatic choreography to suggest the imagery of the work’s title, which refers to a Portuguese man-of-war. It’s often mistaken as a jellyfish but in fact, it is what marine biologists refer to as a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together – an apt description of the creative intent behind Physalia.
In 1980, Pendleton founded MOMIX, along with Chase, and the company has since perfected its creative brand with generations of dancer-illusionists. As part of UtahPresents‘ already phenomenal tenth season, MOMIX will bring this Thursday (March 26, 7:30 p.m., Kingsbury Hall) the Utah premiere of ALICE, inspired, of course, by Alice in Wonderland in a production that has continuously been sharpened since its 2019 premiere.
As Alice’s body grows and shrinks and grows again, Pendleton’s dancers extend themselves by means of props, ropes, and their fellow performers. The Alice story is full of imagery and absurd logic – before there was surrealism there was Alice. Alice is an invitation to invent, to let imagination run and play outside. “Ask Alice,” sang Grace Slick in White Rabbit – she also said “feed your head.”
The Salt Lake City audience is the third next to the last stop in MOMIX’s domestic tour, before it heads to Italy in April and May to present one of its greatest classics BOTANICA, which is set to an eclectic soundtrack which includes Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
In an interview with The Utah Review, Pendleton said regarding ALICE, as a boy, he was entranced by the 1951 Disney animated fantasy version of the Lewis Carroll classic, which featured a terrific performance of the Queen of Hearts by Verna Fulton. “I was terrified by the Mad Hatter and the Queen,” he added. Pendleton also was motivated by the fantasy punch of Tim Burton’s American Gothic take in his 2010 adaptation as well as the rare heliogravures that Salvador Dali created for a 1969 limited edition illustrated book of the story which was commissioned by Random House.
While MOMIX’s take does not necessarily follow the literary plot, Pendleton said the story has provided a “wonderful launch pad for MOMIX’s own inventions of the iconic characters and the 3-D settings, in part inspired by the famous illustrations for the 1865 book which were created by Sir John Tenniel as well as those by Dali. As Pendleton explained in his own program note, “You can see why I think Alice is a natural fit for MOMIX and an opportunity for us to extend our reach. I want to take this show into places we haven’t been before in terms of the fusion of dancing, lighting, music, costumes, and projected imagery.”
For instance, there is a distinct athletic flavor in the undulating caterpillar, as dancers combine iconic blue exercise gym balls to give audiences the kinetic experience of watching these visuals unfold on stage. Playing on the logic of the illogical and the hallucinatory effects of a dreamy landscape, Pendleton described ALICE as a “visual poem,” which represents an ongoing evolution of an aesthetic that the choreographer started more than 50 years ago with Pilobolus.
He also has curated a soundtrack of more than 20 compositions and songs which include the likes of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, Franz Ferdinand’s The Lobster Quadrille, Joey Pecoraro’s The Sea, Shpongle’s Divine Moments of Truth, Polo & Pan’s Mexicali and Jacquadi, and Origamibiro’s Cracked Mirrors & Stopped Clocks, among others. Pendleton mentioned that one audience member attending the MOMIX show had erroneously assumed that it was going to feature the music of rock legend Alice Cooper.
Pendleton’s creative process encourages MOMIX artists to engage their playful personalities, as they collectively improvise and figure out how these characters should move. It rises to the proverbial action of going down the rabbit hole to leverage the powers of dance, magic, athleticism and magic for people to escape reality, at least temporarily, and explore a world of fantasy where we can free our minds from every limit.
He sees the process as therapeutic in liberating artists to become more confident about infusing their performing roles with their own personalities. He regularly films rehearsals, always looking for ways to sharpen even minute details.
Taking his own Einsteinian perspective, Pendleton, an alchemist at heart, said the process brings more oxygen into a creative situation which hopefully will leave audiences leaving after the show, with a “little less gravity in their step.”
For tickets and more information, see the UtahPresents website.