– By Cate Marquis –
Dance St. Louis brings Momix’s dance fantasy ‘Alchemia’ to Touhill PAC
Dance St. Louis brought the amazing dancer-illusionists Momix back to the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center for three performances of their fantasy production “Alchemia,” on Jan. 29-30.Once again the troupe wowed audiences with a mix of breath-taking dance, hypnotic music, mysterious projections and magic-inspired staging.
Last year, Momix thrilled audiences with “Botanica,” so it was no surprise the Touhill was packed on Friday, Jan. 29. As the lights came down, black-and-white dashes were projected on the stage curtain, as a mix of eerie music and ocean sounds played. The curtain rose on a mostly-darkened stage with large, slender columns, as an enormous blue fish seemed to swim in and out of the columns. It was a perfectly mysterious, magical, nature-inspired way to open “Alchemia,” in which dancers moved through haunting effects created with combination of amazing lighting effects and video projections, set to haunting music.
The two-part dance production was presented without intermission. “Quest for FireWater” had the dancers dressed in bright scarlet – the women in bare-armed dresses with long, flowing skirts and the men bare-chested dressed in long loose skirts. The costumes were used like props, as dancers created illusions of flowing water, blowing wind and leaping flames. In the second part, “Led into Gold,” dancers were costumed to golds and whites, more structured costumes that again were incorporated into the dance. “Quest for FireWater” was darker, filled with a primitive energy and images of nature, suffused with a feeling of exotic prehistoric ritual and sexual urges. The second half took a more romantic and formal tone, like humanity after the restraints of culture have been applied. The first part was all about “natural” man, whereas the second half focused on the transformations of human civilization, a transformation by alchemy.
Although alchemy’s traditional goal is transforming lead into gold, choreographer Moses Pendleton’s “base material” are the four classic elements of water, air, earth and fire. What that base is transformed into seems to be human culture and technology.
“Quest for FireWater” focused on the women, who leap, spin, slink and stride around the stage, while the male dancers encircled and seem to worship their Earth Mother power. The dance began with the watery world, progressing through earth and air portions, to end with a spectacle fire sequence that was breathtaking in its beauty and energy. Momix performances usually include sensuality, even sexiness, but often with a humorous spin. This performance was no exception, including a dance where the women use pads hidden under their skirts to creating the wide-hipped panniers of the 18th century, and strutting around the stage waving their hips. They then transform these bumps into prominent buttocks, large breasts and finally into large bellies. The women cap those transformation with an unlikely placement that undercuts the sexuality with silly humor.
Transitioning to the second part, dancers performed a black-light illusion sequence. Dressed in black suits decorated with glowing white patterns suggesting arteries and veins, dancers seemed to float or run above the darkened stage, like forces of nature or mysterious beings moving through a subterranean world.
“Led Into Gold” brought a turn to the truly romantic, and one of the visual delights of the evening. In a gorgeous pas-de-deux, a female dancer in a white dress soared above the stage, and her male partner, while illuminated with dozens of tiny spotlights that seem to cover her in stars. It was followed by a striking piece in which women dressed in double-layered hoop skirts, transformed the skirts and themselves into flowers or clams in shells. Adding the evening’s comic highlight, the men appear in costumes made of black fabric stretched over wire frames, which they manipulated in series of ways as they marched about the stage. Another pair of illusions featured dancers in front of angled mirrors that multiplied their number, and one where dancers moved back-and-forth across the stage, vanishing and re-appearing from behind screens reflecting projected patterns.
Momix likes to use both stage illusions and large-props in their dance pieces but “Alchemia” leaned more to the former. The major big-prop piece was the finale. In this piece, dancers used a pair of large semi-circular forms that they walked inside, rocked back-and-forth, rotated or up-ended at various points, transforming them into gateways, caves and other objects.
“Alchemia” filled the audience with awe of the dancers skills, while creating a sensation of magic, mystery and the occult. However, the lack of an intermission may have left some audience members as wrung-out as the dancers must have been by the end.
© The Current/Cate Marquis
