While The New York Times Magazine for March 7th is hotly debating the merits of electronic books on Kindle (“Shelf Life” by Virginia Heffernan) vs. The New York Times Book Review’s “Library Science” which extols the virtues of books printed on paper, I’m finding myself (a dedicated paper book lover, married to a former Knopf designer) not so interested in the debate, and captivated instead by the new home of the BodyVox Dance Center which is located around the corner from our shop in Portland, Oregon.
The BodyVox Company, formed by Artistic Directors Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland (formerly of Momix, ISO Dance and Pilobolus) has developed a form of movement that is wonderfully creative, lyrical, accessible, humorous and enjoyable for all. BodyVox offers outreach programs to schools in the community, and as a result, children familiar with their work take obvious delight in the playful choreography at BodyVox concerts. The center offers a dance camp for kids, boom box ballet and break-dance for teens, modern and classical ballet classes for adults, as well as Laure Redmond’s fabulous Stretch Appeal class, which looks something like this:
(This is the first time all 12 of my paper dolls have been together, since I just finished making them all. They’ll soon each be available in their own kits with creative papers for budding fashion designers to work with, but first they need to get a little exercise.)
I attended the recent BodyVox-2 performance and found the quality of these skilled younger dancers to be excellent and the choreography to be fun and endearing.
I can’t wait for the next BodyVox concert, March 26-April 10, where the whole company will perform Smoke Soup.
Watching the dancers rehearse has been truly inspiring,
and the costumes Ashley Roland is creating for the Smoke Soup concert are beautiful and inspired too.
Imagine, Ashley Roland is not only a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the company, but a choreographer, dancer and costume designer as well! My hat’s off to her!
To find out more visit: www.bodyvox.com
And I hear (from Joe Henry himself) that they are doing a show based on his music.
Cool!!!