Opus Cactus

MOMIX is an award-winning theatrical dance company that employs the flexibility and strength of the human body to “investigate non-human worlds,” says Michael Pendleton, who founded the company in 1981 and remains its choreographer and artistic director. Famous for his use of the human form to create illusionistic natural landscapes, Pendleton has produced several aesthetically remarkable performance pieces. Recently, he and the MOMIX crew revived one of their most renowned pieces. After a 10-year hiatus, Opus Cactus returns to the stage to bring the landscape of the American Southwest to life in a fusion of acrobatics, gymnastics, mime and props. Once a 20-minute segment of a larger work, the piece is now a full-length performance full of optical illusion and confusion. The dancers contort and join their bodies together to create choreographed leaping and slithering sculptures representing the different creatures and plants of the desert. With no solid story line, the performance is meant to transcend consciousness and highlight the beauty of the body, life and nature.