The holiday season is upon us, but at least there’s one Grinch-proof event to cleanse your palate after T-day—and inoculate against the approaching epidemic of Nutcrackers. Cal Performances will present the Bay Area premiere of Alice (Sat/29 + Sun/30 at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley) performed by MOMIX in artistic director-choreographer Moses Pendleton’s take on Lewis Carroll’s iconic story.
While many productions, from theatrical to cinematic, often adhere to the beloved, almost sacred, text, Pendleton uses the book as a springboard into a fantastical world suggested by some of the characters. A stage filled with acrobatics, illusions, over-the-top costumes and mesmerizing dancers awaits.
In a telephone interview, Pendleton reveals not only how Alice came to be, but explains his methods of creating new works in general. “When I was a child, I was terrified of nightmares, and the Disney film really left an indelible imagine in my mind when I was five years old. The Mad Queen running down and screaming ‘off with their heads’ is something that kept me up at night.”
That was Pendleton’s first impression of the Wonderland tale, but then he had the chance to approach it on his own terms. “My daughter was studying ballet at the Nutmeg Conservatory of Arts and I was asked by the Nutmeg Ballet if I would direct and choreograph something new for the 30 little Nutmeg students that included my eight-year-old daughter. I thought a good thing would be this half-hour piece called the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. That was quite a lot of fun and it brought me further into the world of Alice.”
Three’s the charm, in Pendleton’s case. “We [the MOMIX company] were asked to visualize this large gala for Pirelli tires in New York. It was on the theme of Alice and they asked us to provide the entertainment. That got us working further into pieces that were Alice-like. I’m a big fan of Lewis Carroll’s—his humor and his puns are very agreeable with me. And his nonsense made perfect sense to me as well.”
Later “when it came time to make a new show, why not try Alice and make a full-evening piece for MOMIX. I wasn’t interested in just literally interpreting Alice in Wonderland as many others are evidenced in doing, namely Disney, Tim Burton, Salvador Dali.”
Out of curiosity I ask Pendleton how he comes up with ideas and what elements does he want to use to tie everything together. “I think the process that you’re talking about is collaborative. When we decide with MOMIX that we’re going to do something on the theme of Alice, we go into the studio. Cynthia [Quinn, associate director] and I would bring in costumes or props or something that might have some chance of being part of something connected to Alice in Wonderland very loosely. So there’s no rule, but you bring in grist for the mill.”
“You have to create an environment of energy and play. I wire the barn studio with quadrophonic sound, bring in props and improvise collectively. We put them in the Alchemical Retort spin and eventually you’ll begin to see something that could be a seed for a new section of the piece. It’s an ongoing process. I usually say to our dancers, ‘let’s have fun and get it done.’
“My other three points are: Train the eye, trust the accident, and let nature finish your sentence. In the creative life, there’s not enough choreographic credit given to sunlight, blue jays’ song, corn being husked, applesauce being made in a country kitchen. These kinds of things all influence what ultimately comes out in your performance, in your dance.
“The important thing for me is making contact with the human, the dancers, but the important thing also is having the human making contact with the non-human, the plant, the animal, the mineral. Other forces, other life forms that can energize you, inspire you. I’m not saying go out and hug a redwood, but I don’t say you shouldn’t.
“There are many things in the natural world that can be translated and almost appear to humans as supernatural, or surreal, or dreamlike. But that’s, as Einstein says, the big end: the big question in the end is the big E, energy is really the deal.”
Before starting Pilobolus dance company in 1971 and MOMIX in 1980, Pendleton spent some time in California, particularly in San Francisco in the late 1960s. He attended the Esalen Institute in Big Sur where he experienced “the 72-hour marathon encounter where you’ve got a group of 30 people unknown to each other. We were thrown into a room and you had to stay up for 72 hours and encounter each other and all of that. I understood very profoundly about group dynamics and the ability to use and harness the energies and creativity of multiple people, some having brains better and more creative than your own.”
“I bring up San Francisco because I have impressions from those times that may have some relevance even today. My first dance experiences were in Golden Gate Park as a nude dancer with the [psychedelic] rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. I think there would be folks around San Francisco that would love to see this piece. It’ll remind them of their early youth in the Haight Ashbury.”
Of course, even those much younger might also love experiencing this richly imagined magic.
CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS MOMIX: ALICE Sat/29 + Sun/30 at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. More info here.
