MOMIX Founder Moses Pendleton Named 2025 Brettell Award Recipient

Moses Pendleton, founder and artistic director of the dance-theatre company MOMIX, will receive The University of Texas at Dallas’ 2025 Richard Brettell Award in the Arts on November 1. The biennial award, which carries a $150,000 prize, is the highest honor the university bestows upon artists.

The Connecticut-based choreographer and dancer is known for blending movement, acrobatics, and multimedia elements in his work. Before founding MOMIX in 1980, Pendleton co-founded the award-winning dance company Pilobolus.

“My aesthetic is really that connection to the natural world—the plant and animal and mineral,” Pendleton said. “I take a very strong approach to allowing myself to be influenced and inspired by nature.”

An advisory committee composed of members of the Dallas arts and performance community unanimously selected Pendleton for the honor. Dr. Nils Roemer, dean of the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, chairs the committee.

“He’s a multitalented, transdisciplinary artist,” Roemer said. “We really lucked out with him. We can plug him into so many student communities.”

Residency and Public Events

As part of his residency, Pendleton will present three public programs at UT Dallas. On November 2, he will lead a MOMIX dance performance highlighting some of the company’s most iconic works. A public lecture, Imagination in Motion: The Art of Revealing the Unseen, will follow on November 3, and on November 4, Pendleton will open Pareidolia, a photography exhibition accompanied by an artist talk. All events will take place in the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building.

MOMIX productions have toured internationally and have been broadcast in 55 countries, appearing in commercials for brands such as Target and Hanes. The 1991 film Pictures at an Exhibition, featuring Pendleton and MOMIX, won an International Emmy Award for Best Performing Arts Special, and the company was featured in Robert Altman’s 2003 film The Company.

About Moses Pendleton

Born and raised on a Vermont dairy farm, Pendleton earned his bachelor’s degree in English literature from Dartmouth College in 1971, where he discovered dance. His experiences as a skier and athlete continue to inform his choreographic approach.

“I’m putting the aesthetic on the athletic,” Pendleton said. “It comes from my skiing days—and growing up on a farm. I wanted to take what I knew in my body and turn it into visual poetry.”

About the Richard Brettell Award

The Richard Brettell Award in the Arts was established in 2016 with a gift from philanthropist Margaret McDermott and named for Dr. Richard R. Brettell, founding director of UT Dallas’ Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History. Previous recipients include landscape architect Peter Walker (2017), artist Jorge Alberto Lozoya (2019), musician Esperanza Spalding (2021), and filmmaker Domee Shi (2023).