MOMIX FINDS CREATIVITY AMID CHAOS

To see Momix at work is to believe in the true collaborative process--one defined by these madcap dancing daredevils as artistic anarchy.

The scene is A&M; Studios in Hollywood. Members of the dance troupe (an offshoot of Pilobolus) are rehearsing a descent from a catwalk on professional alpinists’ ropes to the sound track from a Dracula movie. Their bodies askew in the air, Jamey Hampton, Ashley Roland and Morleigh Steinberg slowly twist from waist buckles attached to the ropes.

Pony-tailed Daniel Ezralow, the last permanent part of this add-on performing unit, watches the spectacle and hollers to a sound engineer to “put the last three notes through digital delay.” When the trio touches ground, Hampton and Ezralow argue about “opening the ducts” and “shooting the sunguns.” Finally all four enter the fray, laughing over their “own version of ‘Brazil’ ” as they absent-mindedly munch burgers and fries.

It would appear that these freewheeling humorists who so expertly blur the lines between dance, sculpture, optics, mime and theater could not be less efficient. Yet when they present themselves in concert, as they will Friday and Saturday at the Wadsworth Theater in Westwood, everything runs with high-tech speed and oiled smoothness.

Nothing is set, however, not even the group’s name--which comes from an animal feed and the first syllable of founder Moses Pendleton’s name.

“We just might let ourselves be called ISO . . . standing for ‘I’m So Obnoxious’ . . . or ‘Obscene’ . . . or ‘Optimistic’ . . . or ‘Overworked,’ ” says Steinberg. “Actually, we’re many different things already. When we appear at Pompidou Center as fashion models for (couture designer) Issey Miyake, we’re listed as ‘Miyakemix.’ ”

Accustomed to group interviews, the four take turns chiming in, never dropping a beat in the steady flow of talk. And the conversation flows from topic to topic like a verbal stream of consciousness.

Ezralow is eager to explain, for instance, what the Momixers are doing at the sound stage of A&M.; “There’s more to the current scene than what you see on the university circuit,” he says. “I know that college dance departments are still teaching archaic stuff and their concert programs reflect an indulgent attitude.

“Maybe 20 years ago modern dance at the campus theater was every company’s horizon. But then things turned experimental. Streets and subways became performing venues. And now there’s video. We could hardly think of ourselves as aware or imaginative people without considering MTV.”

Clearly, Momix has not an elitist or academic bone in its composite body. And although the pop market, by definition, veers toward the simplistic, these crossover artists are bent on exploring and expanding that domain to fit their vision.

“They need us,” says Hampton, referring to MTV. “The medium is starving for artistic breakthroughs. Who knows? Maybe we’ll create a whole new genre called ‘D’ (for dance) TV. After all, our commedia dell’arte improvs seem to be a natural for video and the pop aesthetic.”

Meanwhile, the troupe, which works, plays and lives together almost in commune style in Washington, Conn. (population 600), is taking on the challenge of what Hampton calls “longer stories that have an episodic quality” for its stage works.

One of the Wadsworth premieres, “Mr. Seawater’s Pool,” is an example of what Hampton calls “a departure from the short vaudevillian numbers we brought there a year and a half ago. We’re ready to go beyond image-making and deal with more interpersonal things.”

But Ezralow says the UCLA sponsors didn’t want the company to repeat any items from that local debut, regardless of their merit. “We’re unhappy about having to keep ‘Woomen’ off the agenda,” he says, “because it’s our most popular piece. . . . It has endless variations. And what are we anyway if not a commodity?”