BodyVox:
a thousand little cities
White
Bird at Lincoln Hall, Portland State University,
Southwest
Market Street and Park Avenue,
245-1600. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 7 pm Sundays.
Opens June 8.
$12-$24.
Jamey Hampton
and Ashley Roland have worked on a number of music videos,
including ones by U2, David Bowie and Soundgarden.
As a musician,
Hampton has just released a CD of original music titled
Throw Caution.
There was a crisis at BodyVox's studio last week. The company,
one of Portland's leading dance outfits, had been invited
to perform during the Portland Fire's halftime at the Rose
Garden, but one of its principal dancers had to leave town
suddenly on the day of the performance. The crisis was being
ably managed by artistic directors Jamey Hampton and Ashley
Roland, who began reworking the piece to compensate for
the missing dancer. Their rehearsal space--a loft in an
old hemp-rope factory in the Pearl District--was controlled
chaos as they quickly developed and tried new choreography.
"We wanted to work on our new piece this morning," Hampton
told WW, "but things like this happen." In an hour,
confident in the revisions to their halftime piece, the
company returned to their new production, BodyVox's second
full-length work, a thousand little cities, which
premieres Thursday night, June 8.
After several bleak years following the ruthless destruction
of Portland State University's dance department, dance in
Portland is experiencing an astonishing renaissance. Individual
artists, such as Gregg Bielemeier and Mary Oslund, are gaining
wide recognition, as are Portland's Do Jump! Theater (just
back from a New York engagement) and Aero/Betty. Throw into
the heady mix Conduit's continuing work and stellar producers
Paul King and Walter Jaffe of White Bird, and you have the
makings of an important regional dance center. Where else
in the country will you find a nationally recognized company
such as BodyVox performing at a sports event?
Hampton and Roland have long figured prominently in area
dance circles. Hampton, a Portland native, was a member
of Pilobolus Dance Theater and one of the founders of Momix,
both companies known for their athleticism and innovative
choreography. Early on, Roland established herself as an
independent choreographer, collaborating with photographer
Lois Greenfield for the books Breaking Bounds and
Airborne. Together, the two founded ISO Dance.
BodyVox found its genesis at the Portland Opera, where
Hampton and Roland collaborated on the 1997 production of
Carmina Burana. After meeting some kindred souls
among the Carmina dancers, they formed the company
the following year. Their first full-length work, The
Big Room, went on to tour America and Europe. The company
returned to the Opera this season to choreograph and perform
The Cunning Little Vixen, another success.
A thousand little cities is part of White Bird's
PSU Series (a series that may very well bring dance back
to the university permanently). Conceived and choreographed
by Hampton and Roland, the piece is a major undertaking,
including visual elements and text by Portland artist and
writer Tad Savinar, two films by Mitchell Rose, and sets
by Michael Curry. The title, inspired by Thomas Wolfe's
"a thousand points of friendly light," explores life in
scattered small towns that are all tenuously connected through
shared experiences and even weather. The work begins with
a piece entitled "Tornado/Lollapalooza," for which Curry
has constructed a tornado. This phenomenon's appearance
is one of the production's surprises, as is Rose's film
Deere John, in which Hampton performs a ballet with
a large steam shovel (a fanciful realization of the old
Soviet Boy-Meets-Tractor motif).
Hampton also recites Savinar's monologue "The Big Plink"
in a piece choreographed by Roland. Other than Hampton and
Roland, the BodyVox corps includes dancers Leslie Braverman,
Robert Guitron, Jennifer Hileman and Eric Oglesbee, as well
as Daniel Kirk and Eric Skinner, who electrified audiences
last year with their beautiful pas de deux, Apollo and
Hyacinth.
The performers come to modern dance from a ballet background,
which lends a distinctive style. Using the music of John
Adams, Tom Waits and Aphex Twin, the company explores life
in small cities while simultaneously constructing its own
small city out of miniature buildings during the performance.
Hampton also promises to end the evening on a Blair Witch
note. It's quite a roll of elements to fuse, but challenge
fuels Hampton and Roland, and they're fortunate to be a
part of a new experimental age on Portland's stages.
"There's a new enthusiasm for dance in Portland," Hampton
says. "There's a vibrancy here that I don't find in many
places."
It's a vibrancy that's easily detected in the BodyVox studio
and in the work that comes out of it. There was a crisis
at BodyVox's studio last week. The company, one of Portland's
leading dance outfits, had been invited to perform during
the Portland Fire's halftime at the Rose Garden, but one
of its principal dancers had to leave town suddenly on the
day of the performance. The crisis was being ably managed
by artistic directors Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland, who
began reworking the piece to compensate for the missing
dancer. Their rehearsal space--a loft in an old hemp-rope
factory in the Pearl District--was controlled chaos as they
quickly developed and tried new choreography.
"We wanted to work on our new piece this morning," Hampton
told WW, "but things like this happen." In an hour,
confident in the revisions to their halftime piece, the
company returned to their new production, BodyVox's second
full-length work, a thousand little cities, which
premieres Thursday night, June 8.
After several bleak years following the ruthless destruction
of Portland State University's dance department, dance in
Portland is experiencing an astonishing renaissance. Individual
artists, such as Gregg Bielemeier and Mary Oslund, are gaining
wide recognition, as are Portland's Do Jump! Theater (just
back from a New York engagement) and Aero/Betty. Throw into
the heady mix Conduit's continuing work and stellar producers
Paul King and Walter Jaffe of White Bird, and you have the
makings of an important regional dance center. Where else
in the country will you find a nationally recognized company
such as BodyVox performing at a sports event?
Hampton and Roland have long figured prominently in area
dance circles. Hampton, a Portland native, was a member
of Pilobolus Dance Theater and one of the founders of Momix,
both companies known for their athleticism and innovative
choreography. Early on, Roland established herself as an
independent choreographer, collaborating with photographer
Lois Greenfield for the books Breaking Bounds and
Airborne. Together, the two founded ISO Dance.
BodyVox found its genesis at the Portland Opera, where
Hampton and Roland collaborated on the 1997 production of
Carmina Burana. After meeting some kindred souls
among the Carmina dancers, they formed the company
the following year. Their first full-length work, The
Big Room, went on to tour America and Europe. The company
returned to the Opera this season to choreograph and perform
The Cunning Little Vixen, another success.
A thousand little cities is part of White Bird's
PSU Series (a series that may very well bring dance back
to the university permanently). Conceived and choreographed
by Hampton and Roland, the piece is a major undertaking,
including visual elements and text by Portland artist and
writer Tad Savinar, two films by Mitchell Rose, and sets
by Michael Curry. The title, inspired by Thomas Wolfe's
"a thousand points of friendly light," explores life in
scattered small towns that are all tenuously connected through
shared experiences and even weather. The work begins with
a piece entitled "Tornado/Lollapalooza," for which Curry
has constructed a tornado. This phenomenon's appearance
is one of the production's surprises, as is Rose's film
Deere John, in which Hampton performs a ballet with
a large steam shovel (a fanciful realization of the old
Soviet Boy-Meets-Tractor motif).
Hampton also recites Savinar's monologue "The Big Plink"
in a piece choreographed by Roland. Other than Hampton and
Roland, the BodyVox corps includes dancers Leslie Braverman,
Robert Guitron, Jennifer Hileman and Eric Oglesbee, as well
as Daniel Kirk and Eric Skinner, who electrified audiences
last year with their beautiful pas de deux, Apollo and
Hyacinth.
The performers come to modern dance from a ballet background,
which lends a distinctive style. Using the music of John
Adams, Tom Waits and Aphex Twin, the company explores life
in small cities while simultaneously constructing its own
small city out of miniature buildings during the performance.
Hampton also promises to end the evening on a Blair Witch
note. It's quite a roll of elements to fuse, but challenge
fuels Hampton and Roland, and they're fortunate to be a
part of a new experimental age on Portland's stages.
"There's a new enthusiasm for dance in Portland," Hampton
says. "There's a vibrancy here that I don't find in many
places."
It's a vibrancy that's easily detected in the BodyVox studio
and in the work that comes out of it.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 26,
2000
|
