Hordes of San Diegans are mourning the Chargers' loss and gearing up for the Super Bowl. But if you were one of about 1,400 lucky people who attended a "Best of MOMIX" performance Saturday at the Birch North Park, you're still thinking about a different kind of athleticism. Images of men and women defying gravity, balancing on a giant gyroscope, and twirling with Dervish intensity linger long after you've left the theater.

A MOMIX dancer whirls a headdress of strung beads in

"Aqua Flora,"an excerpt from the company's latest

creation, "Botanica." Nicole Loizides performed the

mesmerizing dance on Saturday.

^{Courtesy photo}

The matinee and evening programs were packed and consisted of excerpts from vivid dances that have made director Moses Pendelton famous. He and imaginative buddies from Dartmouth co-founded Pilobolus Dance Theater in 1971, a company known for its gymnastics, humor and sculptural shapes that performed here last January.

Pendelton began to branch out from Pilobolus in 1980. Many remember his solo "Momix" that closed the ceremonies for the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. He founded MOMIX the following year and continues to favor clever props, theatrical lighting and dancers that morph into creatures and fantastic images.

In the duet called "TUU" and set to music "One Thousand Years" by TUU, Rebecca Rasmussen and Steven Beckman appear as a static statue and slowly open their limbs as a flower in time-elapsed photography. Seductive and provocative, the dance is beautiful. It could remain a study in grace and impossible positions, but it gradually becomes humorous and quite reverent as the couple arcs into crab-like creatures and a four-armed God.

"Moon Beams" and "Medusas," excerpts from Lunar Sea, are fun fantasy trios for Rasmussen, Heather Magee and Paula Rivera. The first has the three women gliding over clear exercise balls in dangerous unison. They flick their ponytails and make it look so easy, but don't try it at home. In the second, the women are ghostly creatures that pulsate to Middle Eastern rhythms. The fascination is watching the opaque fabric shrink and bloat, an illusion created with an umbrella that forms trembling jellyfish and other oddities.

Other highlights are from Orbit. In "Millennium Skiva," Nicole Loizides and Brian Simerson are dressed in shiny silver and dance on skis. With feet locked into boots and bindings, they lean over so far that they roll over the tips of their skis like astronauts without gravity. "Sputnik (Fellow Traveler)" is a tribal fantasy that conjures thoughts of fertility rites, perfect love and flight. Set to "Diamante" performed by Dead Can Dance, the glorious climax has three couples soaring on rotating poles that rise up and down, magically propelled by their own inertia and weight.

Sound quality is excellent. Costumes by Phoebe Katzin add greatly to the imagery. Lighting is simply genius. The final work, "E.C.," a clever light show that plays with human forms to create giants, little men, spiders, and flowers, is engaging for a while but feels too long. Would MOMIX leave us nodding off, you ask? Not a chance. The company fully recharges everyone's battery with exciting final bows - to a blast of "Burning Down the House" by the Talking Heads - that allow members to really cut loose and remind us of their physical prowess and personality.

I salute the La Jolla Music Society for its continuing support of contemporary dance and professionalism. By adding matinees, they've doubled the number of shows. Prelude presenters such as Marcus Overton also welcome new dance audiences to the art form.

The dance season continues with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, April 24, and Paul Taylor Dance Company, May 8.

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Revised program, order and cast changes:

Discman

Tuu (Samuel Beckman replaces Steven Marshall)

Aqua Flora

Moon Beams

Pole Dance (Jared Wootan replaces Steven Marshall)

Medusas

Excerpt from LUNAR SEA, performed by Heather Magee, Rebecca Rasmussen

and Paula Rivera. Music: "Like This" by Aaron Dysart.

The Last Vaudevillian

Choreographed by Brian Sanders, performed by Brian Simerson. Music:

Romanian by Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Zaar

Millennium Skiva (Brian Simerson replaces Steven Marshall)

Geese

Dream Catcher

The Wind Up

Sputnik (Fellow Traveler) (Samuel Beckman replaces Steven Marshall)

E.C.