Chesapeake native Adam Ross has played the bugle boy from Paul Taylor’s “Company B " and danced in works such as “Classic Kitetails” and “New Moon” by Erik Hawkins. This week, Ross performs in Hampton Roads as a rabbit, a woman and a madman in the world-touring production of "ALICE," the season opener for the Virginia Arts Festival.
“It’s always been a part of who I am,” the 24-year-old said about dance. He began classes when he was 3, but danced around the house before that, emulating his older sister. He grew up in Western Branch and danced competitively before being accepted and taking classes at The Governor’s School for the Arts in high school.
In 2022, during his senior year at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the Connecticut-based dance troupe MOMIX hired Ross. MOMIX, founded by Moses Pendleton, has been exploring innovative ways to tell stories using the body, lighting and props for more than 40 years.
“We like to say that rather than being professional dancers, we are dance illusionists,” Ross said. “The props are performers with the dancers; it is not merely a tool, but they are also coming to life themselves.”
Ross said that this unique prop work, combined with technique and athleticism, helps create the illusionary effects. The style is especially fitting for the whimsical and surreal story of "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland."
Alice grows, shrinks and multiplies on stage, pulled off by meticulous choreography and optical trickery.
Ross said, “We are anywhere and everywhere all at once.”
The production references the story, and Ross said that Pendleton uses music, inspiration from nature and the human body to “create his own sort of world within the concept of wonderland.”
MOMIX is a small company, and Ross said the behind-the-scenes choreography required for seven dancers to play so many characters is “almost as impressive, if not more impressive, than what you see on stage.”
Quick costume changes, including several hairstyles for the women, must be completed in as little as 30 seconds. Props are exchanged, lighting is adjusted and dancers move between wings, hiding behind moving curtains.
“It's like working a machine,” Ross said.
The show has been performed more than 400 times across the United States, Europe, South America and the Middle East. Ross said it’s been a blessing to see so many beautiful places and cultures at such a young age, but he’s on tour so often that he doesn’t even have an apartment lease.
It’s a demanding profession, but it’s his dream.
“I fell in love with sharing a part of myself with an audience,” Ross said, and he loves how the show “connects with people all over the world.”
But, this week, he’s focused on the Norfolk and Newport News shows, where family, friends, dance teachers and students from his former studio will watch him perform.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” Ross said, “but more than anything, I’m just really excited.”
ALICE comes to the Chrysler Hall on Wednesday and the Ferguson Center for the Arts on Friday. Tickets are available at vafest.org.
