Dance review: MOMIX’s “Passion”

Passion" is 75 minutes of uninterrupted kinetic illusion.

Although the work, created by MOMIX founding member and artistic director Moses Pendleton in 1991, was inspired by Peter Gabriel's sumptuous score for Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ," it does not attempt to mimic the movie or even tell a story. Instead, Pendleton allows the movement, shapes and illusions to allude to a variety of multicultural pantheistic images. MOMIX's final performance of "Passion" will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at University of Richmond's Modlin Center. Tickets are $8-$38. Call (804) 289-8980 for information.

Although the predominant flavor is Christian, there are others, such as multi-headed, multi-limbed gods and goddesses, translucent, wraithlike figures and visual projections of ziggurats (they look like pyramids with steps) and other cultural icons throughout the work's 21 scenes.

A couple of these scenes are particularly haunting. In one, a man is suspended from the ceiling by a trapezelike contraption -- props are one of MOMIX's signatures -- with a female figure draped in red hanging on each side. Since all the work is performed behind a filmy scrim, with ever-changing projections that slowly morph from one image to another, the entire project has an otherworldly feel, but this particular scene is clearly an allusion to the Crucifixion.

The three dancers eerily maneuver themselves through a series of suspended positions, from the man hanging head first, to all three spinning rapidly like dervishes of death.

Another striking scene is for three partially nude women, wrapped in yards of shimmery white fabric that trails behind them, ghostlike and ethereal.

The final scene, "Bread and Wine," is more a celebration than a solemn communion. Flexible rods create the illusion of flower petals or a globe representing the unity of all various cultures represented.

MOMIX is known for combining elements of dance, acrobatics, gymnastics and theater with lighting, props and all manner of special effects.

Often, the human body is submerged in the imagery, as in the breathtaking "Lunar Sea" that was presented on this same stage a few seasons back. But "Passion" seems to rely less on gimmicks and Circque de Soleil-type spectacle in favor of an emphasis on celebrating the human body -- sometimes extending it beyond the norm, but celebrating it nonetheless.

The Connecticut-based company, which began as a spinoff of the similarly themed Pilobolus, is mysterious about the origin of its name.

A former company member explained in an interview in 1999 that MOMIX is a combination of Pendleton's nickname, Mo, and the fact that the work is a mixture of many styles and media. Another explanation is that the company is named for a brand of cattle feed, or -- my favorite -- for a type of phototropic fungus that is commonly found in barnyards.