BENNYROYCE DANCE / Bennyroyce Royon

The Company:

BENNYROYCE DANCE is a project-based contemporary dance company based in Brooklyn, NY that cultivates multidisciplinary collaboration and inspires collective innovation under the artistic vision of Filipino-American dancer and choreographer Bennyroyce Royon. Founded in 2010, BENNYROYCE DANCE delivers fresh, energetic, and inventive works that engage audiences in imagining unknown possibilities, in seeking boundless connections and meaning, and in enjoying the dynamic movements of life.

Royon fuses an eclectic range of dance styles, imprinting his movement with a tactile physicality sensitive to the enigma, grace, and energy of the ever changing landscape of the human condition. A sense of playfulness and wonder motivates his work, typified by kinetic gestures and movements connected to the intellect and instinct of an individual or group. Royon sees his work as a conversation not only between the body, space, and time, but also between artists from different fields.

BENNYROYCE DANCE has appeared in New York City at Manhattan Movement Arts Center, The Ailey Studios, The Joyce Theater, The Salvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance, Baruch Performing Arts Center, The Wild Project, and at The University Settlement. Outside of New York City, the company has appeared at: Ohio Dance Theatre’s LINES 22 Mixed Repertoire program in Oberlin, OH; Bennyroyce Royon: Behind the Scenes, Velocity Dance Center, Seattle, WA; New Orleans Fringe Festival, Cafe Istanbul, New Orleans, LA; Chop Shop Dance Festival, The Theatre at Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA; and at Kaleidoscope: An Afternoon of Diverse Dance, Roxy Theater, Morton, WA.

The company has received space residencies from Brooklyn Music School in Brooklyn, NY (2014), Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, WA (2014), Armitage Gone! Dance Studio at MANA Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ (2013), and The Art Mill in Jeffersonville, NY (2011).

The Artistic Director:

Filipino-American dancer and choreographer Bennyroyce Royon holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. Royon has been noted by The New York Times for his “keenly focused, succinct way with movement” and lauded by his contemporaries for his sophisticated ability to blend kinetic physicality, tactile gestures, and fluid energy. He has worked with notable choreographers such as Karole Armitage, Aszure Barton, Sidra Bell, and Carolyn Dorfman, and has performed with numerous acclaimed dance companies in New York City including Armitage Gone! Dance, Bad Boys of Dance, Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and Sidra Bell Dance New York.

Outside of New York City, Royon has guested with Alaska Dance Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska, and toured Canada and Europe with Cas Public, a Montréal-based contemporary dance company. He has appeared in PBS Great Performances, on Good Morning America, and in the music videos of producer and composer Son Lux, experimental-pop artist My Brightest Diamond, and German rapper and record producer Danny Bokelmman (or D-Bo).

Royon has received choreographic commissions from Atlanta Ballet, Bad Boys of Dance, The Juilliard School (Senior Dance Showcase), The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Harvard Ballet Company, and Columbia Ballet Collaborative among others. Atlanta Ballet presented the world premiere of FLUX (2011), a multimedia dance creation incorporating set design, large-scale video projection, and an original score by Son Lux. FLUX was praised by dance critics as “unexpected and heart-stoppingly dramatic” and “refreshingly original.” Bad Boys of Dance presented the premiere of Take 4 (2007) during the company’s debut at Jacob’s Pillow’s 70th Anniversary Season. Take 4 was also featured in the documentary dance film NEVER STAND STILL (2012) by award-winning producer and director Ron Honsa. The Boston Globe applauded this highly charged work as “dynamite” and ”pushed at the edges.”

Other choreographic credits include originating the lead role for iLuminate’s Off-Broadway production of Artist Of Light (2012) at The Duke on 42nd Street, and as the Assistant Choreographer to Karole Armitage for the New York Philharmonic’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen (2011).

Royon most recently received Velocity Dance Center’s Creative Resident Award in 2014 and The Joffrey Ballet’s Choreographers of Colors Award in 2012, and has been commissioned to create a new work by Point Park University in January 2015. He is a Teaching Artist at Brooklyn Music School, a Volunteer Artist at Sing For Hope, and a guest faculty at various schools around the US.

Find out more at: http://www.bennyroyce.com
Instagram: @bennyroycedance