Joey Vice first saw a Cirque du Soleil performance when he was eight
Photos courtesy of Joey Vice
years old. By age 12, he had decided that performing was his chosen career path and got his parents’ support to begin online courses and homeschooling.
“I was really waiting every single day to be there,” Vice says. “Since I was homeschooled and I didn’t have a normal life like everyone else gets – going to prom and hanging out with friends constantly – I was so in with my career, I gave up so many things.”
Dance stayed on Vice’s mind every minute of every day until he accomplished his goal.
“Since I was waiting every single day back at home, it’s like the anticipation you get waiting for Christmas or your birthday or something,” he says. “It’s what kept me pushing more and more forward, that excitement inside me. And so, when I got the call, it was such a good moment for me.”
Developing a Dream
Vice has always been enamored with dance. Some of his earliest memories are of watching dance TV shows with his mom and bouncing around the room in her clothes and scarves.
After predominantly seeing dance performances through a screen, one of Vice’s first experiences seeing a live performance pushed him to pivot and has since always stuck with him.
Photo courtesy of Joey Vice
“One of my friends, he has a sister who danced. I watched his sister dance and her dancing was so beautiful that it inspired me to start dancing, so I took some dance classes,” he says.
Vice quit soccer shortly thereafter, already knowing he wanted to focus his efforts on dance. He hit the ground running looking for opportunities to perform.
“I did Westerville Civic Theater for about four years, I think,” Vice says. “I was in shows like Tarzan, Annie, Seussical, The Little Mermaid, so I had a bit of a ‘musical theater era,’ I guess you could call it, but I always loved to dance.”
Vice found that when he’s onstage, everything else slips away and he adopts a new persona.
“I feel like when you meet me, I’m more shy in person than onstage … my mom likes to say I become two feet taller,” he says. “It does scare me before I go onstage but once I’m onstage I’m usually completely fine in the moment. … It just makes me so happy to be onstage. Always.”
Vice says his parents, Amy and Todd, have always been his best friends and biggest supporters.
“Luckily, my parents were always so supportive of my decision to do homeschool and really focus on my career, so I got to really focus on dancing and really perfect my craft because of them,” Vice says.
After graduating high school, Vice was finally able to go all-in on his dancing career and lined up intensive camps where he would dance from 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
“I literally had a summer lined up from June to August and I was away competing and doing dance intensives,” he says. “It was a full 12-hour day dancing the entire time, every single day. I was flying to Florida, Tennessee, all these places. It was crazy.”
While he was on his trip, he finally got the message he was always waiting for.
“In the middle of that, I got an email from Cirque. They emailed me saying they have a spot opening up for the role of the Trickster in Kooza … I was freaking out,” Vice says. “So I was calling my mom like, ‘Oh my God, this would be such a perfect opportunity.’”
Becoming the Trickster
The audition process took a few weeks. Vice sent videos to Cirque,
Photo courtesy of Joey Vice
including dance samples and personal information.
*“I get the email that says that I got the role and I was with my parents at the time,” Vice says. “I just remember my parents were so happy for me and obviously, I was happy too. But I remember they were most excited for me because not only have I been dreaming of this moment for so long, but they have too.”
This meant that, at 18 years old, just a few months after graduating high school, Vice was leaving Westerville to train in Quebec at Cirque du Soleil headquarters. He spent about four weeks in Montreal with a dance coach and an artistic coach.
“They both basically guided me through the character, and they really wanted me to interpret myself into the Trickster, they didn’t want me to be the same as the other person,” he says.
Vice’s character is onstage for about 70 percent of the show, and every second he spends backstage during the performance is used for complex wardrobe changes. He has performed the Trickster role for two years now, and once his tour is complete in October, he will be moving to Los Angeles to pursue other opportunities.
“It’s been going great and since I’m so young there’s some things I still want to explore while I can,” he says. “I’ll be leaving and I’ll be researching and figuring things out in L.A. and trying to touch the dance scene there and see how things go. I could always come back to Cirque one day.”
What’s next?
Vice, naturally drawn to the spotlight, is showing no signs of stepping away from performing. He is steadfast in working on his craft, stretching and exercising constantly to keep his body ready for any challenges that come his way.
“I’ve had to learn to trust myself so much,” he says. “There are times where you do fall, and it’s obviously terrifying. I’ve had multiple injuries throughout my career, and it is super scary that that could ever happen again. The more that happens, the more you’re like, ‘OK. I should take it one step at a time, like go slower.”
Not only does he keep his body sharp, but his mind is in the right place, too. He says he is constantly trying new movements and performing tricks nobody has done before him.
“Dance is such an art, that’s what makes it different from anything else,” Vice says. “(It’s) so much art that we’re creating, and I’m a really creative person. … I think that’s why I like Cirque so much because I could see their creative vision. Maybe one day I’d like to direct things and choreograph more, and be more on the creative side.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
