MOMIX DESERT DANCE A DAZZLING OASIS

MOMIX

The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th Street. (212) 242-0800. Season runs through Feb. 18.

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THE recent world premiere of “Opus Cactus” at the Joyce Theater showed Moses Pendleton and Momix, his troupe of dancer/athlete/gymnast artists, at their fine-toned best.

Inspired by the flora, fauna and simple magic of the American Southwest, Pendleton’s ingenuity, theatricality and cunning imagination are seen at full stretch in strange vignettes of the Sonoran desert, all craftily lit by Joshua Starbuck and Pendleton himself.

Pendleton’s vision ranges from a fantastic impression of a sidewinder snake (which at one moment disconcertingly seems to morph into a lobster) to some kind of tribal pole dance done with Olympic skill and Olympian grace by Pi Keohavong, Craig Berman and Brian Sanders.

Sanders is also responsible – choreography, too – for the ballet’s leisurely opening in a hammock on bungee ropes, and, most spectacularly, for a fire dance with real fire.

The women, such as the elegant, classically trained Kara Oculato, are, like the men, all part of this collective dance experience devised by Pendleton and executed to perfection. Brilliant.

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