Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – With the recent return of MOMIX and COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI, The Joyce smartly leans in on fan favorites

• By drediman
• January 8, 2026
• No Comments

This holiday season and just beyond, The Joyce Theater has smartly leaned in on fan favorites, namely with the heavily sold three-week engagement of MOMIX’s celebrated production of Alice, which was followed up by the return Compagnie Hervé KOUBI’s signature work What the Day Owes to the Night. Read on if you’d like to learn more about these crowd-pleasers at the Chelsea venue, arguably New York’s most prolific presenter of dance.

COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI: WHAT THE DAY OWES TO THE NIGHT
The Joyce Theater
Through January 11

This week, the virtuosic Compagnie Hervé KOUBI has returned to The Joyce with What The Day Owes To The Night (RECOMMENDED), one of the company’s signature pieces. Inspired by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra’s novel of the same name, the work finds French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi — the company’s artistic director — contemplating his Algerian roots. Collaborating with street dance performers during a trip back to Algeria, the full length piece is a expressionistic evocation of the desert and sun-soaked streets of his homeland, as well the solidarity amongst the people of the region, particularly the men. Choreographed using Koubi’s distinctive aesthetic — which seamlessly integrates martial arts, acrobatics, street dancing, and contemporary dance — the work’s alluring strength and masculinity pops off the stage, whether via explosive high-flying maneuvers or stage-hugging movements. Indeed, no one flies quite like the Compagnie Hervé KOUBI dancers, and their crowd-pleasing daredevil athleticism and cool confidence are nothing short of breathtaking to behold. Despite the ravishing physicality of it all, the piece moves with serene grace and a contemplative air — which are evident even during the work’s most gravity-defying moments, thanks to the phenomenal body control and grounded discipline of the work’s thirteen dancers — altogether giving the poetic impression of a fleeting mirage. What The Day Owes To The Night concludes on a hushed note as it hauntingly fades into darkness, as if what Koubi has uncovered about his heritage is being once again lost to the swirling sands of time.

MOMIX: ALICE
The Joyce Theater
Closed

Prior to Compagnie Hervé KOUBI’s arrival this week, The Joyce Theater played host to another gravity-defying presentation — the three-week holiday engagement of MOMIX’s production of Alice (RECOMMENDED), a popular and very imaginative full length choreographic retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland. As an offshoot of the popular dance troupe Pilobolus, it’s no surprise that MOMIX is adept at the same kind of acrobatic and highly physical dancing and movement that has made the former such an iconic and beloved force in the landscape of American and international dance. Employing efficient storytelling and opulent optical trickery — made possible by the ingenious and artful use of projections and deceptively simple props (e.g., exercise balls, ropes), as well as the smooth incorporation of several cirque-like skills and acts — MOMIX has concocted an episodic, delightfully escapist pageant that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Indeed, as envisioned and choreographed by Moses Pendleton, Alice is essentially a parade of beguiling stage pictures that creates the dizzying and hallucinatory sensation of falling through the rabbit hole. But despite the spectacle built into many of the set pieces — which includes Alice’s various trippy encounters with such recognizable characters as the caterpillar, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, and many others — it all unfolds with the poetical and whimsical sensibility of a sensuous waking dream, in the process likely invoking child-like wonder in the minds of viewers. With all its fantastical elements, the production continues to be a wonderful introduction to dance for many of the young ones in the audience.