Saints Alive!

BodyVox was in St. Joseph, MN last week for a tour. After touring the world for over 25 years, it’s always great to know that there are still new experiences to be had.

We stayed in St. Cloud, performed Friday night at St. Benedict/St. John's which is in St. Joseph and on Saturday, performed a very special matinee at St. Scholastica. Saints alive, it's crazy! We went to noon prayer on Friday at St. John’s Abbey, and not one of us burst into flames. It’s a very reassuring way to start a tour. The abbey is an amazing modernist church with one of the most interesting bell towers I’ve ever seen. Ashley taught a dance class and Jamey did a film workshop where he created an entire BodyVox style film with the students in two hours. A highlight of the tour for us was having our dance colleague, BV alum, friend and frère, Zach Carroll, back on the road. He really brought back a great camaraderie to the tour and always keeps us laughing. Right across from St. Ben's is Lake Woebegon, where the women are strong,  the men are good looking and all the children are above average. There is a visitor's center and a trail that leads to the lake, it's a bit of a hike and it was pouring rain, so we went to Kay's Kitchen and had pie instead. It was a good call.

We performed ‘Reverie’ Friday night and the show went very well. Afterwards, we went out to Legends, the bar/restaurant attached to our hotel, and had a few drinks and pizzas when our tech assistant thought to ask the band if he could step in to sing a song with them. They were totally into it, and Jamey wasn’t going to sit that one out, so they each got up and did a song at the top of the second set. Portland was well represented! Liam sang ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and Jamey jumped up like the rock star he is and did a spirited version of ‘Wild Night’ by Van Morrison. He jumped off the stage and busted a move that raised the bar higher than the local band could aspire to, but I’ll bet they work on it.

The singular experience that will be forever remembered by all who were there was the matinee we did for a group of retired nuns at St. Scholastica. There were over 50 sisters between 66 and 101 years old, most too aged or infirmed to travel to the theater to see our evening performance. So we brought the performance to them and danced in their chapel. The thing about this particular group of women is that they are the ones who, many years earlier, founded the arts presenting program at the school. If it were not for their vision and work, we would not have been performing there at all. It was an absolute honor for us to bring our show to them. After the performance, we were thanking them for the opportunity and they were thanking us for dancing in the chapel when one of them stood and asked if they could bless us. I pictured a quick work of good will as if we had collectively sneezed, yet was surprised when all who could stand, got up. They lifted their arms and pointed them at us as we stood in a line facing them and sang a song of blessing in multi-part harmony that was the sweetest gesture ever brought to us. Each of us in the company had tears well up in our eyes. We were speechless as we turned around and started collecting our costumes to pack up to head to the airport. Not one of us in the company is Catholic, but the sincerity of the blessing had clearly moved us all equally. The sisters of St. Scholastica will always hold a special place in our hearts.

~Daniel