Maybe no single person has done more to expand the boundaries of contemporary dance than Moses Pendleton.
In the early-1970s he co-founded Pilobolus, the legendary dance-theater company named after a fungus that grows in dung. A decade later, he started Momix (stylized all-caps), his current company, named after a brand of cattle feed.
Momix returns to Tampa this weekend with an update of Pendleton’s classic work “Botanica” happening at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
“It’s a piece I did 18 years ago and bought it back and revived it,” Pendleton said in a phone interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “It’s a series of images around the idea of the four seasons, a loose interpretation of it . We are a visual theater and it’s a series of physical, visual images that connect to the natural world. The human making contact with the non-human, the plant, the animal, the mineral, etc.”
That’s an accurate description but it sort of bypasses how startlingly original, strikingly beautiful, and just-plain-fun Momix works are.
“Botanica” combines elements of traditional modern dance—and Momix dancers are some of the best in the word—with Pendleton’s playful imagery.
“It’s a theater of visual illusion, camouflaged in nature,” Pendleton said. “It’s humorous, it’s poetic, it’s very physical, it’s surprising and weird and funny at the same time.”
Imagine a blend of George Balanchine and H.R. Pufnstuf when dancers take the stage Saturday evening (note the time has been changed from a previously announced afternoon show.)
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This article appears in Nov. 12 – 18, 2026.
