REVIEW: Head down the rabbit hole with MOMIX at the Joyce
Photo: Dancers Jade Primicias and Colton Wall appear in Alice by MOMIX. Photo courtesy of Equilibre Monaco / Provided by Kornberg PR with permission.
NEW YORK — There are so many superlatives one can attach to MOMIX’s production of Alice, a dance-work based on Lewis Carroll’s seminal novel of children’s literature. Its movement is equal parts unique and strange, perfectly fitting for a trip with Alice down the rabbit hole. Its spectacle is almost circus-like, forgetting traditional choreography and instead focusing on something more complex and dream-inducing.
MOMIX’s Moses Pendleton, the original purveyor of movement and illusion, is completely in command of the striking images one experiences in Alice, a highlight of the dance season.
But perhaps the plaudit this dance company most deserves for Alice is the level of trust the performers must have that their movements are being properly registered and appreciated by the audience. Here’s the thing about MOMIX’s moves on the stage: Many of the routines are done for the benefit of artistic appreciation on behalf of the audience, and the dancers’ heads are obscured, unable to see their footwork or how their body makes a larger tableau of arresting imagery. That’s what sets MOMIX apart: its ability to form the bodies of multiple performers into a singular, ever-moving picture.
The 85-minute, intermissionless piece, choreographed by Pendleton, opens with a performer, playing the character of Alice, having a seesaw game on a ladder. This is where that circus element is first introduced. The choreography is not made up of intricate steps on the stage of the Joyce, where Alice continues until Sunday, Jan. 4. Instead, the movement escapes this world and ascends to new heights, with the ladder becoming a prop by which the story is told. This is Alice being catapulted into an otherworld, full of rabbits and queens and dream sequences.
Other routines follow in the same vein as this opening sequence. At one point, dancers use what appear to be oil drums as props to hide themselves like gofers popping out of holes. They are able to expertly maneuver their bodies in and out of the drums like a disappearing act from a magician.
Large exercise balls are similarly utilized, allowing the performers to roll across the stage as if on a conveyor belt. There are also scenes where the balls are attached to the performers and lodged under stretchy fabric, making the dancers into mystical creatures that can change their shape and height in a moment’s notice. There’s definitely something chameleon-like about this performance.
Throughout Alice there’s an earned playfulness to the proceedings, making the performance perfect for younger theatergoers as well as more established dance appreciators. Nothing is too scary, although the rabbit mask had this reviewer thinking of the cult movie Donnie Darko with Jake Gyllenhaal.
Amazingly, although Alice feels off-the-cuff and dizzyingly complex, the show actually follows the events of Carroll’s source material fairly closely. Most of the original characters are present and accounted for, although sometimes, given the artistry on display, it can take a few moments to realize what is being represented on stage.
One of the most stunning images in Alice — one of the most stunning on any stage in New York at the moment — is when the title character ascends to the rafters of the Joyce, with her dress extending across the expanse of the stage like the Christmas tree in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Performers down below hold on to the edges of the garment and dance about Alice as if the dress were a maypole. In this one image, the creativity and wonderment of Alice is on full display.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
MOMIX’s Alice, choreographed by Moses Pendelton, continues through Sunday, Jan. 4, at the Joyce in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
