INTERVIEW: MOMIX heads to the desert for Joyce revival

MOMIX, the dance-illusion company founded by Moses Pendleton, has explored many themes and geographic areas in their decades of performing. Now they are ready to begin a three-week residency at New York City’s Joyce Theater, and they will bring one of their most memorable explorations to the stage once again.

Opus Cactus is an evening-length piece, last seen in New York City a dozen years ago; it centers on the American Southwest and desert cultures. Through a sweeping parade of tableaux images, and using Pendleton’s choreographic touch, the company is able to offer a visual display of energy and physicality built around tumbleweeds, fire, birds, insects and one unforgettable gila monster.

“I think with MOMIX, you should expect the unexpected,” Pendleton said recently in a phone interview. “It’s called Opus Cactus, and MOMIX is doing this show at the Joyce for three weeks. And it is typical of MOMIX, taking the theme of the Sonoran Desert and kind of alchemically boiling it down into some form of dance theater, a kind of mixed-media extravaganza using surreal images, props, costumes, lights, shadow. We use the human body, to see how the human body is connected to the non-human, and we create other worlds that are inspired by the flora, and the fauna and the basic magic of the American Southwest.”

Pendleton stressed the “mix” part of MOMIX because the company’s shows offer a combination of dance, acrobatics, lighting effects and music showcases — all working together to make a unique evening that sometimes defies categorization. He called the resulting works “image-istic,” “exciting” and “imaginative.”

“If you can’t bring the audience to the desert, we do the best we can to bring the desert to the audience,” he said. “I think there was a demand for it. It’s been 18 years since we premiered [Opus Catcus], and we’ve been running it for a year. And there seems to be a lot of excitement about it, so we thought we’d bring it back. There’s almost a new generation for it. I mean, we make new shows. We have eight different programs that we’ve been doing over 37 years, and it’s time to bring this one back and see how it does resonate with a new audience. So it’s a new show for a lot of people, another generation of people.”

Pendleton believes that audience members who enjoy sports and athletics will enjoy a MOMIX performance. At its core, the company consists of athletes achieving amazing routines.

“I kind of take an approach almost like a sculptor or painter to try create imagery, and then move it through time and space, and create choreography out of images,” he said. “You take four athletic men and combine their bodies in a way to create a giant … gila monster. And so you’re looking at a lizard dance rather than you’re looking at a human. I think one of the fun things, exciting things, imaginative things to see is how many images that are created with the human body. … It’s human bodies, but you’re looking at something non-human — plant, animal, mineral. Those connections to nature really do nurture me and nurtured our aesthetic over all these years.”

The show doesn’t have a set narrative from beginning to end. Instead, audiences should expect an experience akin to walking through the Museum of Modern Art and taking in the works of several different artists. Each scene (or portrait) tells its own mini-story.

Heightening the action on stage is a soundtrack that Pendleton arranged himself. Originally the music for Opus Cactus was influenced by Native American culture, and then he moved more into Arabic songs and Aboriginal songs.

“It kind of gives a feeling of moving through not just the Sonoran Desert and the American Southwest but also the music from other deserts in the the world,” he said. “When I first did this piece it was a commission from the Ballet Arizona in Phoenix, and it was a 20-minute piece that I used basically Native American music. That was quite successful, and I came back and added other kinds of sound to give it a more global desert feel. But it has a lot of physical daring, and we use props like 10-foot poles to create a kind of warrior dance let’s say. But they use the prop to create new means of locomotion, to create new emotion consequently by kind of pole-vaulting about and using that. That’s very characteristic of MOMIX, how you extend the body through prop and costume to create this large body of new imagery you couldn’t do otherwise.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

MOMIX presents Opus Cactus June 27 to July 16 at the Joyce Theater in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.