2002 Jacob's Pillow season closes with a bang

August 21, 2002 performance reviewed by Connell McGrath

Momix’s 1991 evening-length piece Passion was extremely well-received at it’s Jacob’s Pillow premiere this week. Moses Pendleton’s ensemble gives the final performance on the big stage at the Pillow this summer, and it’s an ending with a bang.

Passion blurs the lines between entertainment and “higher” art. The dancers of Momix are technically brilliant and highly accomplished, and many of the short works in Passion are exciting and crowd-pleasing. However, there are more thought-provoking and symbolic segments (sometimes disturbing) as well, and the audience responded well to this mix, although some of the stranger passages left them subdued.

The piece is set to music by Peter Gabriel from his soundtrack for "The Last Temptation of Christ," directed by Martin Scorcese, so the most obvious connection, even before the piece begins, is that it is a revised Passion Play. Certainly, themes from the Christian story are clear in some of the work, but so is Moses Pendleton’s desire to make the story his own. Gabriel’s music is compelling, rhythmic and sensual.

Some of the dance mirrors that sensuality, as demonstrated by the choice in costumes. This is a piece that accentuates the sensuality of the dancers’ bodies, and many sequences show them in nothing by loinclothes. There are sensual—even erotic—scenes of partners almost naked writhing together on the stage, joined in various positions.

One idea that Passion explores is desire and its consequences. The piece explores the spiritual and emotional complications of this kind of passion.

Passion goes beyond the Christian story to present other cultural images, music and motion. The set includes a scrim at the front of the stage on which a variety of images are projected, some of them Christian, and many from other cultures. The scrim remains in place for the entire performance and the dancers work behind it, giving the piece a dreamlike quality. There are a few nature images as well, and many forms that are abstracted by their lack of surrounding or context. Peter Gabriel’s music is drawn from other cultures as well; two of the songs are cowritten by Shankar and Mahmoud Zadeh, respectively.

The choreography is gymnastic and requires a lot of trust and synchronization between the dancers. The most exciting parts of the piece rely on this need for trust, and it informs the meaning of the work.

Pendleton comments on many topics in this work: spirituality, evolution, desire, control, domination, love, cooperation, trust. He effortlessly balances his messages with humor, fear and powerful movement. Passion is a vintage piece that shows Pendleton’s mastery of his form to dazzling effect.