LA's BODYTRAFFIC Makes DanceHouse Debut With Electrifying Mixed Repertoire

DanceHouse presents L.A.-based BODYTRAFFIC in an exhilarating program of four works with Mixed Repertoire - A Million Voices, The One To Stay With, SNAP and PACOPEPEPLUTO, on stage May 5 and 6, 2022 at 8pm at the Vancouver Playhouse. Marrying a youthful, urban edge with technical precision, BODYTRAFFIC's company of dancers unapologetically embodies a wide spectrum of today's most pressing issues, from corporate greed and the growing opioid crisis to conformity, individuality and the power of positive thinking.

"It is an immense privilege to present BODYTRAFFIC's DanceHouse debut this spring, which also represents the company's return to Vancouver since 2015," says Jim Smith, Artistic and Executive Director, DanceHouse. "This is a masterful program of short works that effortlessly showcases BODYTRAFFIC's singular ability to take on any dance genre, moving from hip hop to ballet to jazz and back again. Beautiful, virtuosic, political, and with a dash of much needed lightness, this evening of dance will leave audiences breathless and wanting more."

BODYTRAFFIC opens its 90-minute evening of contemporary dance with the exuberant A Million Voices, from American ballet dancer, choreographer, and co-founder of BalletX, Matthew Neenan, which premiered in L.A. in 2018. A lighthearted and whimsical ode to Peggy Lee's iconic jazz standards, this infectious piece featuring seven dancers reminds us that even during our toughest moments, life is always worth enjoying.

Commissioned by BODYTRAFFIC, the company presents The One To Stay With from New York's politically-charged choreographic duo Baye & Asa, recently recognized in Dance Magazine's 2022 "25 To Watch" list. Inspired by Patrick Radden Keefe's 2021 book, The Empire of Pain, about the Sackler family's role in "Big Pharma" and the current opioid epidemic, The One To Stay With premiered at New York's The Joyce Theatre in March 2022. Renowned for their dance-theatre infusions informed by the rhythms and techniques from their roots in hip hop and African dance, Baye & Asa's work for eight dancers tackles ideas of power, greed and deceit, punctuated by a lively score of Russian waltzes and Romanian folk songs.

Also on the program is the uptempo, multilayered SNAP, from rising L.A.-based choreographic star Micaela Taylor, which the company premiered in 2019 in L.A. Set to a hybrid score of James Brown hits, "I Got The Feelin" and "Super Bad," and infused with original music from SCHOCKE, the work for six dancers is inspired by the ethnically diverse, yet often isolating, crowds of Los Angeles. Taylor's decisive, hip hop-infused choreography urges audiences to "snap out of" pressures to conform, encouraging us to embrace the individuality of our own selves as well as those around us.

Concluding the program is the dreamlike PACOPEPEPLUTO from the Chicago-based Alejandro Cerrudo, who was Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's first-ever resident choreographer from 2008 to 2018, before taking on the same role with Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2020. Having premiered in 2011 in Chicago, PACOPEPEPLUTO showcases three statuesque male dancers who each perform an athletically-charged solo set to a Dean Martin classic. Performed on a bare stage and the dancers wearing minimal costumes other than a thong, the short work's pared down aesthetics highlight the dancers' powerful movement and virtuosic form.

Lauded for their "fierce technique" (Los Angeles Times) and ability to "combine the simple with the smart, the thoughtful with the visceral, the difficult with the detailed" (The Calgary Herald), BODYTRAFFIC was founded in 2007 by two New York transplants, Tina Finkelman Berkett and Lillian Rose Barbeito. Working with some of the world's most exciting emerging choreographic talents, the company has built an international reputation for its genre-defying repertoire and highly kinetic and eclectic movement vocabulary. The company has toured extensively throughout the United States as well as internationally, most notably, as U.S. cultural ambassadors through the national program DanceMotion USA.

Now in its 15th year, BODYTRAFFIC is helmed by Berkett, as sole Artistic Director. Berkett launched her dance career at Aszure Barton & Artists, becoming a feature dancer and dance teacher with the company in the U.S. and abroad. She later toured internationally alongside legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, as a founding member of Hell's Kitchen Dance, before relocating to Los Angeles and co-founding BODYTRAFFIC.

For tickets and further information, visit dancehouse.ca

To post a comment, you must register and login.