Botanica returns to Italy with new evolution

“The garden is like life. Each season makes it slightly different. We are not separate from time, from the wind, or from a flower. This choreography too is a work in progress. Every time we return to rehearse, we adjust and improve something. It is a continuous metamorphosis, and we change as well.”

This is how Moses Pendleton, the creator of the Momix company, describes Botanica Season 2, the new show by the legendary troupe of dancer-acrobats engaged in an international tour starting in Italy.

The world premiere will take place on April 7 in Bologna at the Teatro delle Celebrazioni, and in Rome it will be staged at the Teatro Olimpico for the Accademia Filarmonica Romana from April 28 to May 10, CE Report quotes ANSA.

It is a total, dreamlike immersion into nature, reinventing and updating—with the latest technological possibilities—the first version created in 2009. Presenting his “creation” in Rome, Pendleton announced that Roberto Bolle asked him to adapt a part of the choreography for his Roberto Bolle & Friends Gala next May in Milan.

“I’ve always been interested in botany, and last year right here in Rome I spoke about a Season 2. I had to make it, otherwise you wouldn’t have believed me. Next year there will be a Season 3—but today is April Fool’s Day, so take that as you wish,” said the American choreographer, known for his humor and wordplay.

“Those who saw Botanica twenty years ago will see it differently today. Time has passed for everyone. We revisited the show with technological advances, added new designs, many of my nature photographs, projections, light effects, and shortened some overly long parts. You’ll see new elements—for example, marigolds that look like mushrooms.”

Pendleton emphasizes the small transformations that change a garden each season. The key word, he says, is metamorphosis—of both nature and ballet.

“Momix is above all about entertainment—we don’t want to preach about global warming. There’s humor, lightness, sometimes a bit of darkness. Our goal is to spin nature into new, exciting experiences through music and choreography.”

He also believes artificial intelligence will be useful:

“There is still a divide between what is human and what is not. The future machine will include the human with the help of AI. It’s growing quickly and could help us live longer and develop our senses, shaping new human beings.”

He describes himself as a gardener—an “avant-gardener,” as he jokes—and says gardens, “in these hectic times, teach us patience and to slow down. If you understand this and remember it, you’ve planted a seed in your soul.”

Botanica Season 2 features twelve dancer-acrobats who transform into wasps, glowing marigolds, tree trunks, and arboreal architectures, in two acts totaling about an hour and a half of emotion and poetry through dance, acrobatics, and visual imagery.

The music, selected by Pendleton together with his wife and co-director Cynthia Quinn, ranges from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (which inspired the original Botanica) to electronic music, traditional Indian sounds, and Peter Gabriel.

“Botanica doesn’t just mean creating something beautiful,” Pendleton concludes, “but awakening the senses, reconnecting with the raw materials of life, and reminding us that we are not separate from nature—we are part of it, shaped by it. The show proves that photosynthesis can happen even in the darkness of a theater.”

After Bologna, the Momix tour will also stop in Mestre, Genoa, Vicenza, Florence, and Trieste.