On Friday night McCain Auditorium hosted Momix Botanica, a unique show blending dance, music and lighting effects.
“Momix is known worldwide for its clever artistic blend of illusion, dance and technology,” Todd Holmberg, executive director of McCain Auditorium, said.
Holmberg had brought in another Momix show prior to Botanica and was very pleased with the audience reaction.
“The last time Momix was at McCain, we had several hundred people in the audience, a very high number for an event of this kind,” he said.
Moses Pendleton, the artistic director and founder of Momix, said Botanica was inspired by “the natural world.”
An avid gardener based out of Connecticut, Pendleton said the show was created to celebrate “not just pretty flowers, but the mystery and the magic and the sensuality and the basic surreal nature of nature itself.”
The fast-paced show — which took about a year to create — begins in the dead of winter with the dancers hidden beneath snow drifts through the use of special lighting and props. As the snow begins to melt, the dancers emerge. The sun comes out bringing blue skies, and spring buds bloom during spring. The spring subtly fades into summer, featuring thunderstorms and sunflowers. When snow falls on the fall leaves, it signals the cycle repeating itself.
From black lights to dinosaurs and centaurs, stretching the imagination was another key element in the show.
Ten dancers, assisted by just three backstage crew members, brought the show to life with the help of enchanting lighting and carefully chosen music. The dancers presented each of the seasons in an artistic way, not meant to tell a story.
“[The show] evokes images with the use of special lighting, costumes and fantastic bodies to form things beyond the human,” Pendleton said.
Emmianne Jagosz, freshman in apparel and textiles, said that she thought that the performance was unpredictable.
“I was constantly wondering, guessing as to what was coming up next,” Jagosz said. “I really enjoyed the big props because they were surprising and unexpected.”
Props were used to create things such as dinosaurs, drifiting snow, tornadoes and much more throughout each of the seasons.
“It gave me a different perspective on nature,” Haleigh Carlson, sophomore in secondary education, said. “It was unlike anything I have ever seen.”
Pendleton said that it was not just a normal concert, but a mix of various kinds of theater.
“It’s not just a dance concert; it’s Momix.” Pendleton said, “It’s a mix of visual, physical, sensual, mysterious and whimsical theater.”
