MOMIX Celebrates The Holidays at The Joyce Theater

Moses Pendleton's wildly popular, internationally acclaimed MOMIX,a company that defies categorization as easily as its dancers defy gravity, will burst onto the stage of The Joyce Theater just in time for the holidays from December 13 – 31 with a trimmed-down version of the beautiful earth-friendly-focused Botanica, sure to seduce audiences and leave them enlightened and electrified. Tickets can be purchased online at www.Joyce.org or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

This updated version* of the acclaimed Botanica – a fantasyland of breathtaking beauty one season at a time – will be the treat audiences have been waiting for this holiday season, when it plays three winter-white weeks at The Joyce Theater this holiday season. In it, MOMIX transforms the theatre into other worldly beauty, transfixing the audience with their special brand of stage magic, combining imaginative athletic dance, riveting music, inventive costumes and spellbinding choreography to create a world of surrealistic images and childlike wonder brought to life by a cast of dancer-illusionists. It's a brilliant exploration of nature as large scale puppets, projected imagery and larger-than-life props (designed by Michael Curry whose work is featured in The Lion King) evoke a vivid landscape populated by Artistic Director Moses Pendleton's whimsical, fertile and mythical imagination.

*Artistic Director Moses Pendleton has edited the piece down to 90 intermission-less minutes, keeping the best of the best from the original. Please note: all matinees during this engagement will be "family-friendly" performances (without nudity), making this the perfect holiday treat for audiences of all ages!

With multiple companies performing seven full-length works by Pendleton, MOMIX is the most toured American dance theater in the world. It has maintained an environmentally conscious profile at its headquarters in rural northwest Connecticut since long before the current fashion for all things green.

Moses Pendleton was born and raised on a dairy farm in northern Vermont. He co-founded the famed Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and his choreography for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid led to his founding of MOMIX. He has choreographed for the Paris Opera Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet, played the fool in Lyubimov's production of Mussorgsky's Kovanshina at La Scala, staged Artaud's "Tutuguri" at the Deutsche Opera in Berlin, and choreographed Stravinsky's Pulcinella for the Ballet de Nancy, as well as Lina Wertmuller's Carmen at the Munich State Opera and Rameau's Platee for the US Spoleto Festival. Among his film collaborators have been Sam Peckinpah and Julian Lennon for F/X II, Prince for Batman's "Batdance", and MOMIX Associate Director Cynthia Quinn, with whom he choreographed "White Widow" for Robert Altman's The Company. His 1982 autobiographical film for ABC Arts won the Cine Eagle Award. Mr. Pendleton was a 1998 recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Governor's Award. In 1999, he was awarded the Positano Choreographic Award by the Italian Government. Recipient of an American Choreography Award for his work on AEROS-The Illusion of Flight for the Bravo Television Network, Mr. Pendleton recently choreographed F.L.O.W. (For Love of Women) for ballet superstar Diana Vishneva on her groundbreaking triple bill of ballets which received The Golden Mask Award from the Russian National Theatre. He is a recipient of a 2002 American Choreography Award for his contributions to choreography for film and television. In May 2010, Mr. Pendleton received an honorardoctorate of fine arts (HDFA) and delivered the keynote address to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

ABOUT MOMIX
Based in Washington, CT and founded 31 years ago, MOMIX has been celebrated worldwide for its ability to conjure up a universe of surrealistic images using props, light, shadow, humor and the human body. They have astonished audiences on five continents. In addition to stage performances, the company has worked on numerous special projects in film and television. MOMIX has made five Italian RAI television features, which have been broadcast to 55 countries (including the USSR and China) and has performed on Antenne II in France. MOMIX has also been featured on PBS's "Dance in America" series. The company participated in the "Homage a Picasso" in Paris and was selected to represent the U.S. at the European Cultural Center at Delphi. MOMIX is featured in the air and under the water in one of the first IMAX films in 3-D, "IMAGINE," which was released at IMAX theatres worldwide. MOMIX also appeared with the Montreal Symphony in the Rhombus Media film of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for a Decca Records' laser disc, which received an International Emmy for Best Performing Arts Special. In 1999, the company was commissioned to create gala performances for the Fiat Corporation's month long 100th Anniversary Celebration in Torino, Italy. Moses' inventive choreography can be seen in commercials for Hanes Comfort Soft and Target, both of which aired all over the United States. Mercedes Benz commissioned 30 MOMIX performers to perform in the 2007 International Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany.

MOMIX will present an all-new version of internationally lauded BOTANICA, a full evening-length piece, at The Joyce Theater from December 13 – 31. The performance schedule is as follows:
December 13-18
Tue-Wed 7:30pm; Thu-Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 8pm; Sun 2pm & 7:30pm
December 20-24
Tue 7:30pm; Wed 2pm & 7:30pm; Thu-Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 7pm
December 27-31
Tue 7:30pm; Wed 2pm & 7:30pm; Thu-Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 7pm
Tickets are $10 – $59 (Joyce members: $44) and are available by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at www.Joyce.org. Note: Ticket prices subject to change. For more info, visit www.momix.com. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Ave at 19th Street.