Grand Slam Dancing

Tracing the history of baseball from the time when cavemen first hit a rock with a tree branch to the modern day, Momix's Baseball is an acrobatic fantasia of dance and pageantry. This latest work is an homage to the diverse beauty and pleasures that can be found in the national pastime, according to Moses Pendleton '71, director of the internationally renowned company of dancer-illusionists.

Pendleton is no stranger to sports. He was Vermont's cross-country skiing champion and an Olympic hopeful and then he broke a leg. He enrolled in a modern dance class at Dartmouth to help recuperate from the injury. It was there that he met Jonathan Wolken '71, who helped co-found Pilobolus Dance Theater. They were soon joined by Alison Chase, the instructor of the dance class, and later RobertBarnett '72 and Michael Tracy '73.

Pilobolus made a splash on the performance scene with its ability to combine physicality with intellect, and was praised for incorporating the troupe's non-dance backgrounds. "Momix" was originally the title of a solo performance by Pendleton commissioned for the closing ceremonies of the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics; however, it evolved into an independent touring company which, like Pilobolus, stretches and reshapes the boundaries of modern dance.

The difference? "Pilobolus used bodies as props," says Pendleton. "Momix uses props as bodies."

When Momix was invited to participate in the San Francisco Giants' spring training, longtime baseball enthusiast Pendleton jumped at the chance, Out of that experience came Bat Habits, a tribute to the grace and athleticism of the sport, which was presented at the inauguration of the Scottsdale, Arizona, performing arts center.

Later the concept was expanded to the 17-part, two-hour Baseball, with segments varying from the comedic ("The Umpire Strikes Back") to the more poetic ("Prospero's Pitch").

"This is Momix's impression of baseball, complete with bat, ball, and glove. The bat is male, the ball is female, and the glove is the mother of us all," says Pendleton. "It's abstract and surreal, playful and erotic, sensuous and mythical. It's glove at first sight."

Pendleton makes baseball dance.