Moses Pendleton, who in 1980 founded the dance troupe Momix, said the group's newest show, "Alice", was inspired by the world "beyond the looking glass" created by Lewis Carroll.
Pendleton likened the show to "a journey inside the white rabbit's den".
"It's a trip into the depths of our unconscious, a journey that you don't know whether it will be pleasant or unpleasant, but that's inevitable for rebirth, for growth," he said.
The new show will have its world premiere in Rome from February 20 through March 3, to close the 9th edition of the International Festival of Dance sponsored by the Rome Philharmonic Academy and Teatro Olimpico theatre. Pendleton said Alice is a character that's "inside each of us".
"I see Alice as an invitation to invent, to open oneself to the impossible," Pendleton said.
After its debut in Rome, the show will travel to Trieste from March 6-10, Cremona on March 16 and 17, and Turin from March 20-24, before taking off for a world tour.
Pendleton said he and his former partner and Momix co-director Cynthia Quinn didn't go in search of Alice, but rather "she came to find us".
He said the idea came after Momix was asked to perform a small show at the launch of last year's Pirelli calendar, which was dedicated to Alice.
In the magical world of Momix, four dancers will play Alice, wearing white costumes and long, light blonde wigs.
Pendleton said it's a way to let the audience project onto the character any changes or deconstructions they can imagine, "facilitating a dreamlike vision".
He said that principle applies to everything in the show.
"The Cheshire Cat, who appears and disappears, we show with projections of cats and little by little they all come together to form a Chinese dragon, and then they transform into a large spiral, undertaking metamorphoses of dreams both a bit sweet and a bit dark," he said.
Although the show is called simply "Alice", Pendleton said first he had considered calling it "Alice Underground", which was Lewis Carroll's first title for Alice in Wonderland, which he later rejected.
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