September 6, 2001

MASS MoCA and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival present MOMIX's Baseball

(North Adams, MA) With their trademark combination of classical ballet, acrobatics, and circus tricks, the athletic dancers of MOMIX will reinterpret America's pastime in Baseball on Friday, October 5, at 8 P.M. and on Saturday, October 6, at 2 and 8 P.M. TIME magazine says Baseball "revives the buoyant, untrammeled spirit of what playing and watching the game has been and ought to be." MOMIX at MASS MoCA is co-presented by Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

MOMIX's visual illusions in Baseball include a batter that sinks so far over the plate she's only two feet off the floor and a 'wind up' pirouette so fast that it's impossible to tell which hand holds the ball. At one point a dancer transforms into a giant ball and roller-blades away from a chasing mob carrying bats. There is a ballet of beer cans the size of trashcans, a hilarious series of umpires' signals, and video and sound bites remind ball-lovers of Hank Aaron's record-breaking hit, Casey Stengels's Congressional testimony, and Joe Jackson and the Black Sox scandal of 1919. The New York Post calls it "a joyous celebration of the grand old game."

Known internationally, MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists under the direction of Moses Pendleton, co-founder of Pilobolus. For 18 years, MOMIX has been celebrated for its ability to conjure up surrealistic images using props, light, shadow, humor and the human body. MOMIX has made five Italian RAI television features broadcast to 55 countries and has performed on Antenne II in France. MOMIX was also featured in PBS's Dance in America series. The company participated in the Homage ˆ Picasso in Paris and was selected to represent the United States at the European Cultural Center at Delphi. MOMIX dancers played the role of "Bluey" in the film FX II. The company is featured on a Decca Records laser disc, appearing with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony in the Rhombus Media film of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, winner of an International Emmy for Best Performing Arts Special. MOMIX is featured in one of the first IMAX films in 3-D, IMAGINE, premiered at the Taejon Expo 93 and subsequently released at IMAX theaters worldwide.

According to the Toronto Star, "if contemporary dance has a Renaissance man, it must be Moses Pendleton." MOMIX founder, artistic director and choreographer, Pendleton was born and raised in Vermont. Before founding MOMIX, he co-founded Pilobolus Dance Theater. He choreographed and performed in the Paris Opera's Intergrale Eric Satie as well as the closing ceremonies for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid. He revived Picabia's Dadaist Ballet, Relache for the Joffrey Ballet and created the role of the fool for Yuri Lyubimov's production of Mussorgsky's Kovanschina at Milan's La Scala. In Berlin he staged and performed in the Deutsche Opera's production, Tutuguri. He choreographed Stravinsky's Pucinella for the Ballet de Nancy and Rameau's Platee for the Spoleto Festival in 1987. He also contributed choreography for Lina Wertmuller's Carmen with the Munich State Opera and has choreographed for the Romanian National Gymnastic Team as well as several music videos, including Julian Lennon's Too Late For Goodbyes and Prince's Batdance. He won a Cine Golden Eagle award for his film work which includes the Emmy Award-winning film of Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition as well as the Connecticut Commission on the Arts' Governor's Award, Italy's Positano Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

MOMIX dancers - Craig Berman, Jane'l Caropolo, Joshua Cohen, Kori Darling, Francesca Romana Di Maio, Michael Holdsworth, Pi Keohavong, Suzanne Lampl, Yasmine Lee, Nichole Loizides, Kara Oculato, Cynthia Quinn, Brian Sanders and Brian Simerson - are trained in classical ballet, modern dance and gymnastics.

Moses Pendleton will participate in an informal pre-curtain talk before the performance on Saturday, October 6, at 6 P.M., looking behind the illusions of this extraordinary piece. Tickets for the talk are $5.

For the Friday and Saturday evening performances, MASS MoCA museum galleries will remain open until 7:30 P.M. Same-day gallery admission is just $5 with the purchase of tickets for Baseball. Discounted gallery tickets may be purchased in advance or on the day of the show.

Tickets for Baseball are $34 for orchestra, $29 for mezzanine, and $24 for students. Saturday's matinee will have special family pricing of just $10 for children under 16 accompanied by an adult. The matinee also features special $24 pricing for seniors. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. daily. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings. Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts, is a premier center for all forms of dance established in 1933, comprised of an international summer festival, a renowned school, archives and year-round community and artist residency programs.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org