MOMIX Returns to the Warner
By Clementina Verge
From a studio that was once a horse barn on a back road in Washington, MOMIX has delighted and astonished audiences globally for more than 40 years. This January, you can catch the company in its own back yard in two performances of ALICE at the Warner Theater in Torrington.
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, the show premiered at the Warner in 2019 and has been touring worldwide since.
“The show is a magical mystery tour, fun and eccentric,” comments Artistic Director Moses Pendleton, who founded MOMIX in 1980. “Alice falls down that rabbit hole and experiences all kinds of transformation. The show’s a little trippy – like the books.”
“We’ve created our own wonderland,” notes Associate Director Cynthia Quinn. “We didn’t try for a strict dance realization of the Alice story but used it as a springboard for our own creations. We have the Queen of Hearts, of course, but we also have the Queen of Clubs and the Queen of Spades; all kinds of queens.”
The 90-minute performance fuses dance, light, music, costumes, and projected imagery in a multi-sensory experience. Highly skilled dancer-illusionists extend themselves by means of props, ropes, and other dancers to conjure up the life of Alice in 22 evocative vignettes.
A year in the making, the project began with Pendleton’s research into Carroll’s works. Like Carroll, a serious early photographer, he is passionate about taking pictures and exploring the surreal. “It’s a highly visual and technical show that was first designed on the Warner stage, an excellent place to see it.”
“I often tell the dancers that a great show always merits further rehearsal,” says Pendleton, explaining the process of tweaking performances and working continuously to make them better. “This show has developed a good deal since the premiere five years ago.” Pendleton is quick to credit his team for bringing his visions to life and working hard to transport audiences to a richly imaginative world.
“It’s a collaborative effort and everyone has a role,” he says, acknowledging costumes and props by Litchfield resident Phoebe Katzin, who has been with MOMIX for 20 years, and video design by Winsted resident and MOMIX veteran Woodrow F. Dick.
Though “MOMIX is better known in Italy than Connecticut,” jokes Pendleton, he has called Litchfield County home for nearly 50 years. He moved to the area from Vermont in the mid-70s with other members of Pilobolus, the company he co-founded in 1971. “Nurtured by nature,” as he says, he daily explores the area’s natural features: “A before-breakfast ritual bike ride by farms and fields starts my day, rain or shine. In summer, I swim in the waters of Mount Tom and end up on the edge of hypothermia in October. Fanatical about taking pictures, I’m currently chasing light over decomposing tree stumps at Steep Rock Preserve. What I’ve found there borders on the mythological.”
Whether you’re discovering MOMIX for the first time or going to the Warner shows for years, you’re invited to go down the rabbit hole with the company on January 18 and 19.
“We wanted to take this show into places we hadn’t been before,” says Pendleton. “We hope you’ll join us there in the New Year.”—www.momix.com
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