MOMIX is Joyce's holiday program

The Joyce Theater usually programs some more commercial fare during the holiday season, as opposed to their usual diet of niche modern dance. This season, Moses Pendleton’s MOMIX has a three-week residency performing some of the dance/illusion company’s greatest hits. I attended the second performance.

The audience was unusually full for Joyce Theater, and although I was not familiar with the company, many of the pieces that were performed were obviously audience favorites as they received hearty applause as the dances began.

Moses Pendleton uses a group of 10 dancers, lights, mirrors, and props to create various illusions. The music is for the most part techno/electronica with some heavy percussion. A common theme throughout the evening was dancers creating illusions of the natural world. Dancers became birds, hornets, insects, flowers, the sun, the moon.

Almost all of it is undoubtedly clever, and their dancers are marvels. The show started with a bang in Solar Flairs as dancers furiously manipulated orange rubber tubes to imitate the rays of the sun. The dancers obviously worked hard to maintain the illusion of effortlessness. For instance, in “Daddy Long Leg”, three male dancers perform all sorts of dance moves with a single stilt. It looked so tricky to maneuver, but there they were, smiling broadly at the end of the dance. There was also a wonderful “Snow Geese”, in which the stage is completely dark except for the light on the arms of dancers, who imitate the flapping of birds.

In the final piece “If You Need Some Body”, dancers perform with life-sized mannequins strapped to the front of their bodies. The dances become increasingly acrobatic, and the mannequins are manipulated to seem like they are lifelike. It was weird, creepy and one admired the unflagging energy of the dancers more than anything.

There was one premiere, Floating, in which dancers moved on top of a large reflective panel, so their mirror movements were also projected to the audience. It was quiet and lovely, and the music by Shpongle was quiet and contemplative and a welcome reprieve from the thumping electronica.

But … and there is a but, if dance is meant to be a mix of art and entertainment, I felt that MOMIX occasionally tipped too far into the “pure entertainment” part. So many of the dances on display were “wow, how cool” moments without being anything more than “wow, how cool”. Think about other “entertaining” dance masterpieces. Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. George Balanchine’s Nutcracker. The timelessness is in the steps, not the illusions and stage pictures. MOMIX felt like Cirque du Soleil at times.

Still, it was always watchable, the audience went away happy, and the whole program seems to be selling well. It was appropriate holiday fare for a theater.