Sparks from the Fire

Last night I sat transfixed and totally inspired at a performance of MOMIX’s Botanica.

Known internationally for its ability to conjure a world of surrealistic images using props, lights, shadow, humor and the human body, MOMIX is a Connecticut-based company of dancer/illusionists under the direction of the brilliant Moses Pendleton.  Mr. Pendleton’s illusionist dance company has unveiled a dazzling new show at the Joyce theatre in Manhattan entitled Botanica.

MOMIX Dancer

Botanica is billed as a ‘herbal remedy and natural aphrodisiac for our current universal blues’ and features fantastical costumes and mind-bending concepts of illusion and dance.

One of the founding members of the ground-breaking Pilobolus Dance Theater in 1971, he formed his own company, MOMIX in the early 80s and has been its artistic director since 1984.

I went because I have been working on a huge environmental Radio City Music Hall type musical extravaganza for a number of years now with producer and fellow conceptualist, William Spencer Reilly, called H2O.  Bill rightly thought I should see this production of Botanica to consider the work of Moses Pendleton.

This was one of those longed-for moments in creativity where all the ducks suddenly get in line, where all the pins drop in place.  I looked at Bill after the show was over and said, “Wow, this is exactly what we’re looking for.”

It was an evening of awe.  Beyond dance, it told stories, made you laugh out loud, made you think, all while entertaining you completely.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage and the elegant sensualism of some of the pieces was simply overwhelming.

It closes its run here in New York this coming weekend.  It will surely tour internationally.  Watch for it in your city.  Don’t miss it.

New York, New York: A place so big you have to say it twice.

New York New York is a wonderful town
The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down
The people ride in a hole in the ground
New York New York is a wonderful town

I live two blocks from Times Square, one block from the Broadway theater district and in an apartment on the 38th floor with a spectacular southern view of Manhattan – the Empire State Building to the left, Wall Street, NY Harbor and the Statue Of Liberty head on, and the Hudson River landing strip to the right. In between are buildings, buildings, buildings.

On Saturday mornings the QE2 and the S.S. United States sail up the Hudson and park in our side yard. Last month I watched people stand on the wing of a jet plane landed in the river and get saved from my dining room window. Standing on my terrace you could have watched the World Trade Center go down in my front yard and on New Year’s Eve if you lean out far enough, you can watch the ball drop and hear the roar of the people.

It’s a historic and inspirational view. We love it, live in it, look out at it and appreciate it every day. I open my living room door and walk out on my terrace and stand on the edge of the universe, its bright lights blazing before me, its millions of people scurrying below. It is a city of wonder.

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I come from the theater.  Oh I grew up on rock n’ roll and folk, but my real training in lyric writing was in the theater.  It wasn’t until then that I really began to grow as a lyricist, as a storyteller.

The lyrics of a theatrical song have to have movement, they have to go from point A to point B dramatically.  Otherwise they just tend to sit there on the stage, no matter how beautiful, and often end up getting cut from the show because they don’t move the plot forward and are too much of a stage wait.

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