Tonight the venerable Tennessee Theatre will play host to one of the strangest acts ever to grace its hallowed stage. Coming to town is well-traveled and surrealistic dance company MOMIX.
MOMIX is a multifaceted theatre experience, combining acrobatic dance with narration. Its acrobatic, ethereal stage presence has not only made founder Moses Pendleton a star in the dance world, but it has also drawn favorable comparisons to Cirque de Soleil.
Group founder Pendleton is the best example of why MOMIX is such a unique experience. His story isn’t one that you’d expect from a world-renowned artist and choreographer.
Though he’s well regarded in the dance community, he grew up in Vermont, not exactly a hotbed of dace. Early in his life, he showed his family’s dairy cows.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Pendleton focused on his dance career and has been choreographing ever since.
Pendleton got his start as one of the founding members of the now-legendary Pilobolus dance group before forming MOMIX.
Pendleton quickly grew to fame and in 1980, started MOMIX as a solo dance show. It grew into a company in 1984 with Pendleton as its artistic director.
Since its founding Momix has become wildly successful, performing at the opening of the San Francisco Giants’ training camp, starring in a PBS special and collaborating on a show — entitled “Passion” — with music legend Peter Gabriel.
As a testament to the MOMIX’s decidedly non-linear thinking, the group garnered critical raves and packed houses with their “Baseball” show. The show is about the history of baseball, told through MOMIX’s own unusual dance style.
The show MOMIX is performing tonight is entitled “Opus Cactus,” an attempt by Pendleton to bring to life the scene of the desert.
The show plays in the vein of the hugely popular “Lion King,” with Pendleton bringing nature to life through technically precise dancing that captures the spirit of the subject, in this case the desert flora and fauna.
For those whose curiosity can’t be sated by words alone, MOMIX promises to deliver something far outside the ordinary.
