‘Alice’ Finds MOMIX Moseying Down the Rabbit Hole 

There have been hundreds of adaptations of Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or works based in part on the story, whether on the stage, in movies, musicals, other books, or even in video and board games. Locally, just within the past 10 months, Ensemble produced Alice, Formerly of Wonderland about the romantic adventures of the real-life inspiration for Alice, while Out of the Box staged the musical Alice by Heart. 

Now, it’s Moses Pendleton’s turn. 

The founder and artistic director of MOMIX, who is still active as his company’s choreographer at age 75, created Alice in 2022, and the piece makes its local debut as part of the Broadway in Santa Barbara series at the Granada on Tuesday, October 1. The book seems such a natural fit for a company of dancer-illusionists – whose inventive work over 40 years has seamlessly blended illusion, acrobatics, magic, and whimsy at nearly every turn – that it’s a wonder it took so long for Pendleton to put his stamp on the piece. 

“I’ve always enjoyed sampling Carroll’s mind, his sense of nonsense and his proclivity for photography and puns and the surreal,” Pendleton said over the phone from his home on a farm in rural Connecticut. “The bells would ring in my head when I’d read him, but I was also very inspired by not just the story, but other people’s impressions – Salvador Dali’s paintings, the illustrations in the initial printing, the visual mark it left on film directors, composers and others. Those strange iconic characters – the Mad Hatter, Alice, the white rabbit, mock turtle, caterpillar – lend themselves to be choreographed upon and put into the MOMIX alchemical retort and spin it in a more physical, visual way. But I hadn’t yet taken it down my rabbit hole. I just hadn’t let my mind flow in that direction.” 

Once he was ready to tackle the project, Pendleton worked the way he always does. “I dig into and through the unconscious and grab something that’s flowing by, just free associate and float. It’s a form of madness to go in there and delve into the imaginary world.” 

Pendleton said the choreography for Alice was forged with his usual method of working “collectively improvisationally” where he provides imagery to his “spirit dancers” and videotapes as they play in the studio. “I don’t want them to think too much, because we’re wanting to tap into the collective unconscious.”

Given the visual aspects of the tale throughout history, Pendleton also wanted Alice to go beyond MOMIX’s usual mix of dance, lighting, music, costumes and projections to more fantastical levels of reverie. Video clips show many flights of fancy, depictions of characters and situations, particularly where portraying Alice growing and shrinking using props and ropes and other dancers. The overall effect, delivered via a series of more than 20 vignettes, is visually stunning if not entirely linear. 

“That’s the point,” he said. “One should go and sit back and enjoy being welcomed into a rabbit hole of fantasies and beauty and strangeness and a few dark edges, without trying to analyze it… The world is a heavy place and we try to paint a picture of how it might be in a fantasy rather than reality. If people walk away with a little less gravity in their step and have a bit more energy, then we’ve been a success.”