Campos’ performance art, such as his current production called ‘Fashionable Diseases,’ always has a message. (Photo by Dale Stine)
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By SHERI ELFMAN
Friday, May 25, 2007
Performance artist Octavio Campos exposes the potentially deadly phenomenon of HIV “bug chasers” in “Subversive Cabaret IV: Fashionable Diseases.” The show, which will be presented Saturday, May 26, in Miami, combines physicians and actors to explore the irresponsible behavior of some gay men who purposely contract HIV and the consequences of their actions.
Campos, who is Cuban-American, was born in Miami, left for 10 years and returned to create performance art in his hometown. After his return, the 39-year-old started “Camposition,” an ensemble that includes local male and female performers between the ages of 20 and 60. The group performs through “Subversive Cabaret,” a combination of dance, theater, music, circus, visual arts and science, Campos explains.
The troupe’s latest show includes a skit about gay men who attend parties where they have sex with people whom they know are HIV positive.
“It’s about HIV and boys that do stupid things to themselves,” Campos says.
Campos says that he is firmly against “bug chasing” and wants to educate the public about the issue.
“It’s kind of sick, but it’s what’s happening,” he says. He says some gay men seek to contract HIV because of misguided ideas they have about receiving free medical care or feeling like they are part of a “community.”
“Subversive Cabaret IV – Fashionable Diseases” will feature noted HIV/AIDS doctors, pharmaceutical reps and activists. The doctors won’t be giving typical lectures on AIDS. Instead, they will be examining the dancers and incorporating their expertise into the performance.
“It will be a lecture from doctors, but done in a theatrical way,” Campos explains. “It will be interactive.”
Campos, the artistic director and executive director of Camposition, will give a performance on the state of disease today. Dr. Alexis Powell, of University of Miami, and pharmaceutical rep, Richard Standifer, from Bayer will speak out on the topic.
“I call it an awareness-raiser,” Campos explains. “It’s not a fund-raiser.”
Campos says that his performances aren’t “art for art’s sake.”
“It’s art that creates social change at some level,” he says.
Campos has been performing in theater, film, television and dance for more than 18 years. He attended the University of Miami, where he majored in music merchandising, and then went on to study dance and composition at the State University of New York. After graduation, he attended the Martha Graham School in New York City. He was out of school for one month when he was hired to perform dance theater in Germany.
“Everyone was against it,” Campos says. “You’re supposed to do dance theater when you’re older.”
He describes the theater work he did as “German expressionism.”
The emotionally “heavy” subject matters of German dance theater were a good primer for the performer and his current troupe.
In 1996, while in Germany, he was asked to start teaching. He began giving classes all over the world, including at the Florida Dance Festival in Miami, the Broward Correctional Institute for Women in Broward County, Catholic University in Belgium and St. Petersburg Music Hall in Russia.
When Campos returned, he was pleasantly surprised by a new presence in Miami — the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts.
“It was very attractive to me,” he says. “The Carnival Center is set up like an opera center.”
He got in contact with the staff and began working on a piece to perform there. This was how “Subversive Cabaret” was born.
At the same time, the performer, who has worked with Miami’s Tigertail Productions, started teaching dance theater at the local New World School of the Arts.
Campos chose the subject matter of “bug chasers” because he felt the topic needed publicity in the community.
“I’m not HIV positive, but I am a single gay man in the community making art,” he says. “It’s important to reach out to the community.”
He says he has been working on the piece for a long time.
“I’m making art that creates dialogue,” Campos says. “I want to infuse outreach with arts and performance.”
“Subversive Cabaret IV – Fashionable Diseases” is geared toward young people who are dealing with issues of beauty and sexuality.
He says that in the performance, diseases will be looked at in different ways, including where they are from, what diseases are popular at the moment and what medicines are being taken to fight them.
“It will be a dance performance that regards sexuality and our bodies,” he says.
Besides HIV, the show will also focus on some diseases that are of particular concern to women, such as bulimia and anorexia.
“There are three women in the piece and four men,” Campos says. “It will also focus on body image.”
The performance will also touch on another disease that has been in the news lately, Human Papilloma Virus.
“They say that in 10 years, 100 percent of the population will have HIV,” Campos says.
Campos explains that doctors will examine dancers on stage and use a projector to show what the diseases actually look like. Diseases will be projected on the dancers’ bodies.
Campos plans to combine his “Subversive Cabaret” pieces into one larger piece called “Bug Chasers,” which will be performed this fall at the Studio Black Box Theater at Carnival Center.
“I want to capture the essence and danger of eroticism,” he says.
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