Dance and dreams will blur together with MOMIX’s Alice at the Stranahan Theater this Tuesday.
The latest creation of famed choreographer Moses Pendleton, Alice is a “rabbit hole that we invite everybody to jump into,” he said. “An escape from the realities of the real world into something that is more dreamlike and surreal.”
MOMIX, a dance company founded by Pendleton, has performed on stages throughout five continents since its 1981 formation.
Billed as dancer-illusionists, MOMIX performers use an interplay of lighting, props, the human body, visual physical theater, and music to create a dynamic production unlike anything audiences have seen before, Pendleton said.
MOMIX dance captain Seah Hagan asserts that between dancing, projections, music, and lighting, there’s “something for everyone,” at Alice , especially those intimidated by the idea of seeing a live dance company perform.
IF YOU GO
What: Alice
When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., Toledo.
Admission: $38.50 to $84
Information:
stranahantheater.com “It’s not modern dance. It’s not ballet. It’s not Cirque du Soleil. It’s not performance art. It’s a mix of all of those,” Pendleton said.
Terribly popular and tremendously influential, the 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been a rich vein for adaptation since the book first graced Victorian shelves.
The first MOMIX show themed after a pre-existing narrative, Pendleton chose Alice in Wonderland as his next subject because Alice and her author, Lewis Carroll, were “kindred spirits” for his company.
“We were kind of impressed by Alice,” he said, as well as “inspired by the nonsense, the surrealism, the dream. All of this was something that was close to the aesthetic of MOMIX.”
Tackling dreamlike concepts is familiar to MOMIX dancers like Hagan.
Since joining MOMIX in 2017, she has performed choreographed representations of everything from desert wildlife, the moon, and alchemy during traveling productions that perform up to ten months in a year.
As the only adaptation in MOMIX’s oeuvre, Alice is able to “capture the characters and the essence of Lewis Carroll’s work, while still taking a MOMIX twist,” said Hagan.
As dance captain, Hagan oversees six other dancers tasked with bringing the show to life. Playing several characters from Alice to the Mad Queen while working with props is often challenging, she said.
“That takes a special kind of learning curve, really, because you’re dancing not only with your own body, but with this other object that can be sometimes unpredictable,” Hagan said.
For the dancer, the result is rewarding both on stage and off.
"Being able to see places like Toledo and finding little local spots ... exploring the area that we’re in, performing, is really, really fulfilling,” Hagan said. “And the work itself, it’s just incredibly fun. It's challenging, it’s artistic, and it never gets old.”
While Alice has the trappings of a familiar story, it’s not a linear narrative, even when defined by Carroll’s surreal original.
“It’s more Alice in MOMIX-land than Alice in Wonderland ,” Hagan said.
Alice pulls major characters from the book for motifs used throughout the performance. An example, Pendleton said, is when the dancers onstage use an undulating collection of blue exercise balls to form a familiar image.
Outside the Stranahan stage, one might never guess it was meant to represent that slow-talking, hookah-smoking caterpillar so imbedded in our cultural vernacular. But when seen from within the Alice performance, its role becomes clear.
From Walt Disney to Salvador Dali, Tim Burton to the novel’s original illustrator John Tenniel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland “lends itself for interpretations,” Pendleton said.
Carroll welcomed adaptation, Pendleton said, and would have loved to see how much has been made of his work.
“He imagined that his book was not going to be the end of it,” Pendleton said. “It’s continued to be illustrated, and people have continued to interpret, make music, make theater, and that is delightful for him.”
With many of Alice’ s motifs so omnipresent in our culture, Pendleton says audience members don’t need to read the book or see any movies beforehand. Instead, they should “get a good night's sleep, have a cup of coffee and pay attention.”
Hagan agreed that audience members should come ready to experience something new.
“Let yourself be a kid again. Laugh when you want to laugh, cry when you want to cry, be scared, be intrigued. Whatever it is, come in with an open mind, and let us take you into Wonderland,” she said.
Once down the rabbit hole, audiences will hopefully discover a night as magical as the material it’s based on.
Coming up:
■ Steel Magnolias , Friday and Saturday, The Ritz Theatre, 30 S. Washington St., Tiffin, Ohio.
■ Bright Star , Friday through Sunday, 3B Productions, Maumee Indoor Theater, 601 Conant St., Maumee.
■ Life Sucks , Friday through May 19 at the Black Swamp Players' Oak Street Stage, 115 E. Oak St., Bowling Green.
■ Escape to Margaritaville , Friday through May 19 at the Croswell Opera House, 129 E. Maumee St., Adrian.
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