Botanica
July 2013
Award winning American contemporary dance company Momix are returning to Melbourne with their latest work, Botanica. The work, exclusive to Melbourne and featuring an eclectic score that includes some Vivaldi, will be a feast for the senses as the company has been acclaimed for its Cirque du Soleil-style visuals.
The company’s artistic director and founder, Moses Pendleton, suggests that growing up on a farm in Vermont in the New England region of the US has led to him having a strong connection with nature.
“I’m someone who gets inspiration from the natural world,” he says. “And that can be whether it’s plant or mineral. I grow prize-winning sunflowers and have been a keen gardener all my life. So I get a lot of inspiration in seeing how humans connect with the non-human. Nature is my passion.”
Pendleton says Botanica, which has travelled the world since its inception, is full of imagery.
“We take a kind of painterly approach to our work in that we try to build a structure in much the same way as a painter would attempt to create an image,” he suggests. “So we create very visual, physical theatre that is not like most contemporary dance companies. It’s like seeing if you can create a sunflower on stage and then working out how to make it dance. So we use a blend of lighting, projection and costumes to extend the human body which allows the audience to see other forms that are still connected to the body.
“I also choreograph my work in such a way that makes it quite musical,” Pendleton continues. “Audiences are seeing marigolds dance to music rather than just watching dancers. It’s a very visual approach.”
Pendleton chose some 30 pieces of music to make up Botanica’s impressive score.
“That ranges from Vivaldi through to some Peter Gabriel as well as some trance music,” he explains further. “There are also some birdsongs. And while some people think I may have chosen Vivaldi due to Botanica’s theme of the four seasons, it was actually when I first heard violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter playing that wonderful lament from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons that I realised it would work wonderfully well in Botanica. I thought that particular piece of music would work so well in trying to evoke the essence of spring.
“But as with all of our shows, none of the imagery needs to be taken literally by the audience,” Pendleton quickly decides. “The visual aspect of our shows can be taken on so many different levels depending on the viewer and their own perception.
“We did take a kind of Momix approach to Botanica in that we move through the four seasons by beginning the work in the dead of winter and then move into spring through to summer showers and then the falling leaves to depict the coming of fall. So the show does have a through-line in the way it depicts the cycle of the four seasons.
“And audiences love it because it’s very spectacular,” Pendleton concludes. “It’s also very fanciful, sensual and funny. Botanica is sometimes quite erotic. So it has all the elements of taking a magical walk in a Botanic Garden. And like walking through a Botanic Garden, if you don’t like what you are seeing, it’s not too long before you move on and everything changes.”
Momix: Botanica shows at State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, from Wednesday August 7 to Sunday, August 11.
artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/event.aspx?id=3621
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