It´s been a long time since Momix visited us, although my appetite was whetted when last year one of their pieces was included in the Coliseo International Gala. I sorely missed them. It was created by Moses Pendleton in 1980. As an illusionist dance company, it combines acrobatic flexibility with lighting effects of astonishing inventiveness that transform reality into a dream world and adds artifacts with which the artists interact plus variegated costumes that become one with the bodies. Pendleton had been cofounder of Pilobolus in 1980, another marvelous group that visited us twice; one of the numbers was called Momix and it was presented in the Olympic Games of Lake Placid; it would give its name to the new project.
Pendleton gets his inspiration from nature, and he lives and works with his company in the country. He chooses the music (generally popular) that he considers agrees with his idea for a work, and in this sense his taste isn´t impeccable. He has two essential and very talented collaborators whose own creativity fuses with Pendleton´s: technical director Woodrow Dick and stage director Fabrizio Pezzotti, plus several lighting, video and costume designers. Their professionalism is absolute. The four performances were shown at the Coliseo by Julio Álvarez and Grupo Ars.
Nine dancers were brought in this tour: four men and five women; two shone with particular brilliance: Steven Ezra and Rebecca Rasmussen, but all were very good. The presentation was called Viva Momix Forever and was made up of creations from diverse shows, including some new ones. Part One started with "Pleiades", three girls playing with balloons that seemed to connect with a nocturnal sky with myriad stars; then, a prodigious "Dream catcher" where Rasmussen and Ezra mingled with a metal contraption of irregular form with a virtuosity that had to be seen to be believed; five girls gave us very red "Marigolds" simulations; three male dancers investigated athletically the ways poles can intermix with their bodies in "Pole Dance"; the incredible Ezra did amazing things in "Table talk"; five almost naked women gamboled in sensuous "Baths of Caracalla"; the same five then attached to their bodies neons in "Light reigns"; and the whole company vertiginously left "Paper trails" in the joyous final number.
The Second Part started with "Echoes of Narcissus" where Sarah Nachbauer, helped by the technicians, did wonders with mirror effects; "Snow geese" was a compendium of beautiful aerial movements by the girls; then, that admirable number seen last year, "Tuu", in which the bodies of Ezra and Rasmussen fused and separated in myriad positions; the two following pieces were the weakest: in "Spawning" three women seemed to give birth to balloons, and in "Daddy long leg" three unconvincing gauchos got little humour out of stilts; but "Aqua flora" is a lovely solo number about the Victoria regia; and the exulting finale, "If you need some body" (which has the best music of the evening, the first movement of Bach´s Second Brandenburg Concerto with those glittering trumpet solos) was a masterful expression of how closely knit, positive and funny the whole company can be.
For Buenos Aires Herald
