Costumes in Momix show are extraordinary. Photo by Sharen Bradford.
By WOODY WEINGARTEN
Momix, a troupe of dancer-illusionists, simply can’t be reviewed like one would an ordinary company of hoofers, or, for that matter, even some exceptionally first-rate ones.
This group was so much better — perhaps because it was so different, so fresh.
At times, the eight celestial, acrobatic performers became movable pawns in artistic director Moses Pendleton’s absurdist Alice, their newest traveling show at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. They could disappear and reappear into and out of lighting effects and projections. They could slyly, whimsically exaggerate dance moves as avant garde recorded jazz, rock, and choral music also captured the audience’s toe-tapping attention. And they could get embedded in mind-blowing, quirky choreography and costumes.
The performance was salted with somewhat subtle humor, via odd arm and leg movements and imaginative heads of critters and babies, via hidden wires that shot performers into the air, and via costumes that rapidly changed characters from this to that to the next thing.
The show also contained understated sexuality.
It’s unlikely most of the crowd had ever seen anything like the 105-minute, two-act Cal Performances Bay Area premiere, even from Momix, which has matured in its sophistication and its ability to create illusions over the years. The performance had a plethora of slick smoke-and-mirrors, minus the smoke.
Pick a descriptive word; these all fit — spectacular, amazing, magical, unique.Come to think of it, fantastic, with its multiple meanings, might be the most on the nose moniker.
The book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was the inspiration for the 23-number wonderment, with Act 1 carrying a “Down the Rabbit Hole” label and Act II being tagged “Through the Looking Glass.”
The spectacle was too superb to have only one show-stopper — it had three, the best of which spotlighted male performers toying athletically with extra-large mirrors that marvelously distorted reality.
Even if the last time you’d read Lewis Carroll’s stories was 20 or 30 years ago, you would immediately remember and recognize references to such classic figures as the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat (even though their identities here were somewhat fluid).
Exercise balls become dance props in Momix. Photo by Sharen Bradford.
One don’t-miss moment, another of the show-stoppers, was a synchronized bit that proved massive exercise balls could become extraordinary props.
Missing the red aerial silks of “The Mad Queen of Hearts” would have been a shame. The segment might have reminded you of a Cirque du Soleil act but with even more striking beauty and pizzazz.
Also, “Advice from a Blue Caterpiller” provided some charming, light-hearted moves that you most likely haven’t witnessed before.
So, with all those visual vignettes in mind, this sentence becomes incredibly easy to write: Next time Momix appears in the Bay Area, go!
Other dance performances coming up at Zellerbach that are certainly worth checking out are the Mark Morris Dance Group’s “Moon” from Jan. 23 to Jan. 25 and “Graham 100,” the Martha Graham Dance Company’s anniversary year celebration on Feb. 14 and 15.
Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitalitypress.com.
