Vox is the Latin word for voices and these dancers speak with a total experience of movement color, shape and sound. BodyVox combines diverse forms of dance, media and stage design to create theatre experiences that are moving in multiple ways. Uplifting and often uproarious, this progressive dance company entertains audiences with breathtaking physicality, striking imagery, wit and whimsy. In short, expect boundless enjoyment.
There's more to a BodyVox experience than meets the eye. The two founders and artistic directors, Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland, husband and wife team and alumni of dance groups Momix and Pilobolus, launched their visionary dream of a dance ensemble in 1997. Since then, BodyVox has created five critically acclaimed productions which have toured throughout the U.S. and the world. Their body of work includes choreography for the Academy Awards as well as music videos for Sting, U2, Pat Metheny, John Fogerty and others. David Bowie selected Hampton and Roland to choreograph his arena concert production, "The Glass Spider."
"Deere John," a dance on film which premiered in BodyVox's A Thousand Little Cities in June 2000, won first prize at the NXNW Digital Media Festival in the fall of 2000 and was a finalist in the Media Master Digital Film Festival 2000. In "Deere John," Hampton passes by a construction site, where he spots his ideal romantic partner -- a massive back-hoe, named Excavator 690EC-LC. A ridiculous dream sequence ensues, as Hampton indulges his fantasies. The pas de deux for man and machine, set to the music for "The Dying Swan," unfolds with hilarious delicacy.
A Thousand Little Cities is a multimedia joyride, composed as a collage of movement, film and spoken word. The evening work takes us on a geographic adventure in 14 different scenes. A collaboration with filmmaker Mitchell Rose, playwright Tad Savinar and set consultant Michael Curry (who designed the sets and puppets for Broadway's acclaimed The Lion King), Cities is an innovative work of movement theatre. The intrepid travelers on this multifaceted joyride are some of Portland, Oregon's most accomplished dancers, most of them alumni of Oregon Ballet Theater. They are as much in their element performing the difficult jetés and pirouettes of ballet as they are in capturing the physical abandon of modern dance's unrestrained vocabulary. In group work and solos, the company manages to appear both impetuous and technically polished.
BodyVox's A Thousand Little Cities will be presented on Wednesday, February 15 at 7:30 pm in the Rose Lehrman Arts Center Theatre, HACC. Tickets are $27 for adults and $22 senior citizens/students. RLAC Box Office phone is 717-231-ROSE (7673). You can see the schedule for the entire Performing Artists Series by clicking on the Website below.