About This Show
BodyVox, a wild criss-crossing of dance, film and theater, was created by Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland in 1997. The nine-member company presents 14 works–including two films– in their New York debut. Among the pieces is “Reverie,” a lush excursion into another world that features six playful performers, costumed in bamboo, calla lily and tiger lily outfits. Caricature and operatic excess do-si-do in “Twins,” a duet set to a section of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” while in “Dormez-Vous,” sleep is disturbed by pained and happy spirits dancing through the night to music by William Orbit.
Dosed with equal amounts of wit and surprise are also Roland’s passionate solo “Beat,” set to music by Evan Solot; Hampton and Roland’s “Falling for Grace,” a work for six dancers to music by Danny Elfman; “Rip/Tide” by Hampton and Roland set to music by Aphex Twin; and the suite, “Two for One”, “Three for All” and “Four for Nothing!” by Roland with music by Chopin. Grace and power infuse the aerial duet “X-Axis,” choreographed by Company member Eric Skinner, with music by Brian Eno; Opening the show is Hampton’s virtuosic solo for himself, “Moto Perpetuo,” which he performs to Paganini.
The films are “Case Studies From the Groat Center for Sleep Disorders” directed by Mitchell Rose, who the New York Times dubbed “the Woody Allen of the dance world,” with movement by Roland and Hampton. “Deere John”–a pas de deux between Hampton and a two-ton John Deere excavator–which was written and directed by Rose with choreography by Rose, Roland and Hampton.