MOMIX returns its classic desert study to the stage

On the same evening last week, the two most startlingly innovative dance companies in the known universe both performed within a an easy drive of Bradenton.

Pilobolus came to Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, with a show that reliable sources report was inspirational. Right at the same time, up at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, MOMIX performed its classic work “Opus Cactus.” No matter how good Pilobolus was that night, MOMIX was almost certainly its equal. “Opus Cactus” is ethereally beautiful and unrelentingly clever, full of humor and illusion and athletic dancing.

MOMIX will be in Sarasota Tuesday for another performance of “Opus Cactus” at Van Wezel. It’s a must-see for anyone who loves contemporary dance. And it’s the kind of performance that will convert people who think they hate dance.

MOMIX founder and artistic director Moses Pendleton, who is also the co-founder of Pilobolus, created “Opus Cactus” in 2011 as a 20-minute piece for Ballet Arizona. Like much of Pendleton’s work, its starting point is a visual study of nature, in this case the desert of the American Southwest. After Ballet Arizona premiered the work, Pendleton expanded it into an evening-length work, and added segments that look at the deserts of Asia, Australia and Africa.

It’s actually 18 short pieces, with such titles as “Ostrich of the Imagination,” “Sidewinder” and “Firewalker.”

The opening piece is a whimsical display with unseen dancers wielding balls of pure light. They begin as tumbleweeds breezing around the stages, and then coalesce into a dancing desert snowman.

In later segments, the dancers become toads, and 20-foot-long snakes or insects scuttling across the stage. In the last piece they’re human beings, perhaps on some psychogenic journey, presided over by giant moth god, floating gracefully overhead wielded by a puppeteer.

In between, the dancers perform displays of strength and dexterity that defy comprehension. In at least two segments, dancers appear to hover in mid-air for long periods. There are no wire or harnesses. Even after you figure out how they did it, you can’t believe they had the strength to pull it off.

The music, all of which is striking and some of which is quite beautiful, comes from a variety of semi-experimental composers and performers including Brian Eno, Mickey Hart and Dead Can Dance.

Despite the heady inventiveness and the overwhelming beauty, “Opus Cactus” is at its heart wonderful entertainment, and induced laughter as often as it elicited gasps of amazement.

If it has a flaw, it’s in the relative lack of an emotional arc. “Opus Cactus” moves, very generally, from humorous dances based on illusion to pieces with more gravitas, but essentially it’s just a series of pieces connected only by their association with various deserts.

But images, and the serene moods and the sense of wonder that the piece imparts, will stay in your mind and soul long after you’ve forgotten any quibbles you might have with the episodic structure.

Details: 8 p.m. March 28, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $36-$66 941-953-3368, vanwezel.org.

This story was originally published March 28, 2017 at 12:36 PM with the headline "MOMIX returns its classic desert study to the stage."