Momix's Bothanica (莫米克斯舞蹈奇藝坊的四季狂想曲)

Imagine a stage all dark. You hear some electronic music gushing out rhythmically with the steady beat of thumping bass notes from huge speakers somewhere. The bottom of the stage lights up. You see what appears to be some white gauzy cloths fluttering on the stage floor. From time to time, you see what appears to be a wave head about to crash. It subsides. Another wave head appears at another spot close by. It subsides too. And then another and then it's back to the always non ceasing flow again. The wave effect is in fact produced by the movements of certain dancers under that undulating cloth. That's how the dance of llght and dynamic visual images begin. It was done at the Cultural Centre last night by an extremely innovative dance troupe from America called the Momix in a production called Bothanica. .According to the programme notes It's "dance as illusion" and Momix is
an "avant-garde movement based troupe created by Pilobolus co-founder
Moses Pendleton in 1981. The groups is made up of 5 male and an equal number of female dancers.
During the show, called Bothanica, which is supposed to convey the changing moods and activities of the four seasons of the year in the order winter, spring summer and fall, the dancers sometimes dance solo, in duets, in quartets and in larger groups, with the help of silk cloth, flexible plastic tube with interior metal ring support, foldable silk flower on umbrella or fan like opening and closing mechanism or such mechanism with flower-or wing like feather opening and closing  on analogous principles. You see on the stage ingenious play of light. colors  and shapes like sunflowers and orchids, fountains, worms, centaurs, dinosaur, people in rituals of religious worship, the creation of the world or the coming and going of seasons etc.always synchronized perfectly with the flow and rhythm of the ethnic fusion music. It's the first time ever that I saw such a dance cum light performance executed with such precision and elegance. There really is no limit to human ingenuity and creativity. Our limit is the limit of our imagination. It makes me feel so blessed to think that I am part of the human race still able to join in the celebration of their talents.Credit must be given not only to the excellent dancers also to Costume designer Phoebe Katzin, the Puppet Designer Michael Curry, the Lighting Desinger Joshua Starbuck and the Production Stage Manager Corrado Verini for their imaginative creations and co-ordination.
Here's what the programme note says about each of the four session which contain different dance and image sequences:
Winter/Spring:  Aurora Rose the Dead of Winter, Cateraction, Geese Return Overhead Beckoning FantasyTree-Flower to Tempt Three Graces from the Foam to Taste the Pollen Snow And Fall Back into the Flow.  Loons Laugh in Darkness for Swans to Dream of Genesis and New Green. Fro ZEN Awakening Love from Above Delivers Persephone to the Subsoil Riding Old Bones to Romance with Ancient Stones. The Worm Turns Night Crawlers into a Sea of Green, Spring Pools, Marigold Bloom, Hornets Hop, Owls Hoot the Arrrival of Centaurs Amid Summer Night's Dream Fire Flies.
Summer/Fall  God's Hammer, August of Wind, Storms, Rain, the Beaded Web. INSEX Meet the Beetles and Egg On, Birds of a Feather to Drop Seed on Sun Flower. Finches Startled by the Avant Gardner as the Green Man is Leading the Charge of Indian Summer. Branches Gathering for Autumnal Ball. Last Leaf Catches the First Snow Fall. Cold River Runs Again But There's More a Solar Flare Tonight's Encore.
One can see from these hints the changes of images, action and the moods evoked in the choreographer's mind and heart along with the texture of the sound and rhythms of the different songs or pure music always playing in the background and guiding the movements on the stage. It's not a narrative, but rather more fragments of a narrative, joined not linearly, nor causally, but more like being juxtaposed and each proceeding along its own path simultaneously. It's not a display of depth but more of endless surfaces bumping into each other, joined for a while and then go their separate ways, as in Life and the rhythms of Nature.



Start of show and various excerpts

Other excerpts

Dancers performing with flexible plastic bands

Solo dancer creating images of movement and light reflection.

Dancers with feather wings switching from birds to flowers.


Play of light and shapes