Fly to the moon with Momix

I love my job. I have the opportunity “to bravely go where no one has gone before” when I am thinking about education and outreach activities for PCA Great Performances.

When I was reading up on Moses Pendleton, founder and artistic director of Momix, and his piece Lunar Sea, I wanted to know more. I wondered if his inspiration for choosing the moon as the setting for the piece had something to do with his being influenced by the emerging USA space program when he was a child or watching Star Trek. Then I thought maybe he just liked gazing up at the moon and the stars while he was on his family’s farm in Vermont, or that he majored in astronomy at Dartmouth College.  Those ponderings led me to ask the director of USM’s Southworth Planetarium, physics professor Dr. Jerry LaSala, about the moon and its seas.  I wondered if there might be some correlation between the way scientists look at the moon and the way artists perceive it as an inspiration.

The result of all these ponderings and my incessant questions to both Dr. LaSala and Moses Pendleton is a collaboration between the USM Southworth Planetarium and PCA Great Performances. (You can hear Moses’ responses to questions about Lunar Sea on our Momix page.) “Journey to the Moon’s Lunar Seas,” the pre-curtain lecture for Lunar Sea, will be held at an unusual location and time: at USM Southworth Planetarium, on Tuesday, January 22 from 7:30–8:30 pm (rather than in Merrill Auditorium immediately preceding the performance, as usual). The Momix dance company believes this is the first time any arts presenter has collaborated with a planetarium on behalf of Lunar Sea.

If you are a “lunatic” or someone who just loves gazing at the moon and wonders what dancing on the moon might be like, come journey with us to the Lunar Sea on Tuesday at Southworth Planetarium and on Thursday at Merrill Auditorium with Momix. Take a walk on the moon with PCA.