By Matthew Wexler
Audiences are beckoned to fall down the rabbit hole with MOMIX at their return engagement of Alice at the Joyce Theater. But if you’re expecting a linear retelling of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 classic children’s novel, you’ve drunk the wrong potion. And that’s a good thing.
Conceived and directed by Moses Pendleton, who founded the company of “dancer-illusionists” in 1980, Alice draws inspiration from the familiar tale of an inquisitive girl who finds herself immersed among an other-worldly cast of characters, including the perpetually late White Rabbit, mischievous Cheshire Cat, and tyrannical Queen of Hearts. But as Pendleton indicates in the program notes, “We don’t intend to retell the whole Alice story.”
In that regard, Alice mostly avoids the tropes found in Disney’s 1951 animated film (save for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed title character, here sometimes appearing in multiples). Pendleton’s version, performed with grace and precision by a company of nine dancers, dives into a world of transforming shapes and illusion, further enhanced by Woodrow F. Dick III’s video design and Phoebe Katzin’s costumes, which nod to narrative without becoming derivative.
Brooklyn’s Company XIV has also previously transformed the classic into a seductive, contemporary live performance, but the two companies couldn’t be more different in their execution (though both are thrilling in their own ways). While Company XIV showcases baroque, burlesque, and cirque elements, Pendleton morphs his dancers into ever-changing shapes, set to a soundtrack that runs the gamut from Shpongle’s psychedelic “Divine Moments of Truth” to Jefferson Airplane’s chart-topping “White Rabbit.”
Holiday classics abound this season, from a five-star Christmas Carol at PAC NYC to cabaret crooners at 54 Below. If you’re looking to mix things up, Alice defies categorization. Pendleton’s inventiveness, fulfilled by a mesmerizing company of gravity-defying dancers, asks us to rethink how we see the world.
This rabbit hole leads somewhere extraordinary.
4 out of 5 stars
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Fast facts: ‘MOMIX: Alice at the Joyce Theater
Pendleton’s inventiveness, brought to life by a mesmerizing company of gravity-defying dancers, asks us to rethink how we see the world.
- The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, New York City
- Running time: One hour and 25 minutes, no intermission. (Family matinee on December 21, one hour and 40 minutes, including intermission.)
- Performances through January 4, 2026
