This season, Eugene Ballet Company audiences can look forward to a visit from MOMIX, a creative and divergent company with a long performance history arcing back to the glory days of hooded unitards and colorful amorphousness.
It’s art as splooge, dance as design. It’s the human body, transformed — And MOMIX makes it look easy.
“They’re a dance-illusion company that stretches the boundaries of audience members’ concept of dance,” says EBC artistic director Toni Pimble.
Founded in 1981 by choreographer Moses Pendleton, MOMIX offers consistently fun and accessible work that fuses acrobatics, dance, gymnastics, mime, props and film within traditional theatrical settings.
“MOMIX presents inventive work that delights and stimulates the viewer,” Pimble says. “The company is a strong group of dancers with diverse dance backgrounds in classical and contemporary dance, bringing an eclectic style to the stage.”
Audiences will enjoy visually stunning images, Pimble says, that are “aesthetically delightful and thought provoking.”
Thinking of introducing the young’uns to dance? MOMIX is a great place to start.
“MOMIX will be performing Opus Cactus, an illusionist work by Pendleton that uses poles, aerial work, fabric and rolling units to reference creatures of the desert and create dynamic images of beauty and drama,” Pimble says.
The piece also features puppets by famed production designer Michael Curry, whose team of 50 Portland-based artists specializes in — according to Curry’s website — “transformational scenery, large-scale puppetry, costuming and character design.”
Curry’s 30-year career spans collaborations with the Walt Disney Company, Cirque du Soleil, the Olympic Committee and the Metropolitan Opera — and more. (Curry is probably best known for his mask and puppet creations for the Broadway show The Lion King.)
In Opus Cactus, dance and design meld seamlessly in an endeavor that was first gestated in 2001 for Ballet Arizona, then brought back into the studio and redeveloped as a full-length work.
Eugene Ballet is co-presenting MOMIX with the Hult Center.
“Eugene Ballet has always supported bringing in dance companies that tour nationally,” Pimble says.
Catch MOMIX at 7:30 pm, Oct. 31, at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts; tickets at hultcenter.org.