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La Jolla Music Society will present Momix dance company performing \u201cAlice\u201d on Dec. 6 at the San Diego Civic Theatre.(Sharen Bradford)<\/p>\nThe MOMIX performance of \u201cAlice\u201d is a multimedia experience that combines athletic dance, eye-popping costumes and imaginative props to create an environment intended to trick and tweak the imagination.<\/p>\n
Presented by the La Jolla Music Society, the show on Saturday at the San Diego Civic Theatre, is inspired by Lewis Carroll\u2019s \u201cAlice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland,\u201d the story about a young girl who dreams a of falling down a rabbit hole and meeting a bizarre cast of characters that include a hookah-puffing caterpillar, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit.<\/p>\n
If the fictional Alice were consulted, she would undoubtedly claim that the upcoming show named after her is \u201ccuriouser and curiouser!\u201d<\/p>\n
La Jolla Music Society will present Momix dance company performing \u201cAlice\u201d on Dec. 6 at the San Diego Civic Theatre.(Sharen Bradford)<\/p>\n
Founded by artistic director Moses Pendleton, MOMIX is an offshoot of the dance company Pilobolus, which Pendleton co-founded in 1971 while attending Dartmouth College.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take a different approach to the show and to MOMIX,\u201d Pendleton explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see my work as a sculptor, a photographer or visual artist who is putting together visual phenomena and interesting things that might lend itself to choreography. My background is different from a normal dance background.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pendleton grew up on a Vermont dairy farm (Momix is the name of a powdered milk supplement for calves), and much of his choreographic inspiration comes from being outdoors and photographing nature.<\/p>\n
Last month, many of Pendleton\u2019s images were exhibited at the University of Texas, where he was honored by members of the Dallas arts and performance community with a 2025 Brettell Award, which included a $150,000 prize and a residency.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhotography trains the eye in seeing things that others find invisible,\u201d Pendleton says. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the aesthetic of MOMIX. It is making visible what it is at first, unseen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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La Jolla Music Society will present Momix dance company performing \u201cAlice\u201d on Dec. 6 at the San Diego Civic Theatre.(Sharen Bradford)<\/p>\n
When on tour, the props used by the company travel separately by truck and include ladders, stilts, ropes, pool noodles, stretch fabrics and multiple inflatables.<\/p>\n
There are eight main dancers in the show, four men and four women, who have proven to be physically strong, graceful and with what Pendleton describes as possessing an \u201cinnate musicality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Caterpillar in \u201cAlice,\u201d for instance, is depicted by dancers manipulating large, blue exercise balls so that it looks as if the insect is moving.<\/p>\n
The Queen of Hearts, known for beheading her subjects, is a soloist who performs an illusionist trick that makes it look as if a disconnected head can spin independent of the spine.<\/p>\n
At the end of \u201cAlice,\u201d there are invisible performers behind a black curtain with slits and they manipulate large red roses attached to stems created with eight feet of black pipe.<\/p>\n
MOMIX dance rehearsals and a variety of music help to incubate ideas. Pendleton wants his dancers to not just move to music, he wants them to become music.<\/p>\n
The Connecticut studio, where Pendleton works with his longtime partner and associate director Cynthia Quinn, is equipped with quadraphonic sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use music in the creative process, almost like a therapist or psychologist,\u201d Pendleton says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSound frees up the dancer, and I get them not to think choreographically but to react to the environment of sound, so, they begin to put on a performance of play. There is much going on in the stream of the unconscious, and I\u2019m trying to tap into that, so they improvise. I come up with a lot of interesting things. I try to be a catalyst \u2014 inspire them, humor them, excite them, frighten them but video tape them, as well. At morning coffee, the next day, there may be shards of information that can be reworked into the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlice\u201d is an all-ages show and Pendleton stresses that it\u2019s not a literal depiction, rather, it\u2019s a fantastical and figurative portrayal.<\/p>\n
Like past interpretations of the Alice in Wonderland story by Tim Burton, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney, Pendleton says he took the iconic characters and images from the original and created a MOMIX in Wonderland.<\/p>\n
The show is accompanied by 20 pieces of music, chosen to be heard as \u201ca musical curve to the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the songs picked for \u201cALICE\u201d is Jefferson Airplane\u2019s 1967 recording of \u201cWhite Rabbit,\u201d a song written by Grace Slick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to put that in there,\u201d Pendleton says warmly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very recognizable. And if you don\u2019t know what you are looking at, ask Alice. When she\u2019s 10 feet tall.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Jolla Music Society presents MOMIX: \u2018Alice\u2019<\/p>\n