ARTIST BIOS

Fox Whitney  [he/him] is a multi-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of dance, music, film+video, theater, writing and visual art. Fox is obsessed with the surreal nature of transformation, how we identify ourselves and others and how personal and collective  identity is an ever shifting and evolving  landscape. His projects center his queer and transgender point of view. His current methods are informed by the interdisciplinary performance project Gender Tender he started in Seattle in 2012. Gender Tender movement research continues to influence his performance practice, teaching artist style and life in general. He is grateful for the way Gender Tender practices and performances have created a safe space for many different kinds of queer and trans people and their friends to move together beyond binary thinking and limited ideas about body based art practices, identity formation and community building. He fronts the trans-futurist psych band Light Aloud that grew from his performance project MELTED RIOT inspired by research into what played on the jukebox the night that the Stonewall Riots started in 1969. His work is inspired by the history of QT art + activism and his experience as a trans dancer, drag performer, gigging musician and event producer that started his medical transition well into his public performance career.

Fox’s work has been commissioned and produced by the Henry Art Gallery; On the Boards; Velocity Dance Center; Seattle International Dance Festival; Yellow Fish Epic Durational Performance Festival and was selected for the inaugural season of Seattle’s Gay City Arts. Light Aloud has played at Trans Pride Seattle, Capitol Hill Block Party and the Seattle Art Fair. He has performed in work by Meg Foley, Will Rawls, keyon gaskin, Morgan Thorson, Andrew Schneider, CommonForm Dance Project, Malic Amalya and Gabrielle Civil. He got his MFA in Studio Art  from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited his short films and visual art nationally. Fox is also a yoga and meditation teacher, movement teaching artist and arts journalist currently writing for SeattleDances and Variable West.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Fox Whitney wants to take your photo. He is obsessed with the surreal nature of transformation, how we identify ourselves and others and how personal and collective  identity is an ever shifting and evolving  landscape. His projects center his queer and transgender point of view. His current performance work in development, LOOKOUT, is a psychedelic blend of autobiography and metafiction inspired by image making practices, experimental drag and dance, meditation techniques and Seattle’s queer nightlife + indie music scene. He invites a group of collaborators to move with him in structured and improvised ways  informed by QT art history,  somatic techniques and the ever evolving practice of culture + community building informed by Fox’s lived experience as an anarchistic director, performer and producer.

Fox and a crew of dancer collaborators that also practice photography, film + video, sound making and community building through somatic practices join him in creating performances that blur the lines of self+other, gender and artistic genre. 

“My choreographic practice has been called cinematic and sculptural and is deeply informed by my love for dancing at queer bars, the tradition of tableau vivant, Afrofuturist and independent filmmaking (Sun Ra and Fellini are big inspirations), and acting practices rooted in risky curiosity and compassion for self and others. I create experiences for people to meditate on how we become who we are, how we might evolve into who we want to be and all the trippy spaces we find along the way even if we don’t stay.”

HOW TO SUPPORT

To join the community of support, please contact erin@velocitydancecenter.org, or make a gift at the link below. As a fiscally sponsored project, all gifts to maia made through Velocity Dance Center are tax deductible.