Stephen Petronio
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Stephen Petronio is an artistic director, choreographer and dancer based in New York City.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1956, he later received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he began dancing in 1974. Initially inspired by the dancing of Steve Paxton and Rudolf Nureyev, Petronio went on to become the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Company, where he worked from 1979 to 1986. He founded the Stephen Petronio Company in 1984 and has received international acclaim for his groundbreaking choreography as one of the leading voices of his generation. He has developed a unique language that is fast, complex, idiosyncratic, and virtuosic. His dances mix a restlessly shifting, sensual language of movement with provocative rock/art music, visual art, and cutting edge fashion. The Stephen Petronio Company has toured extensively across the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, Australia, Korea and Russia since its inception.
Petronio’s rich collaborative outlook has led him to work with composers Rufus Wainwright (BLOOM, 2006), Laurie Anderson (City of Twist, 2003), Lou Reed (The Island of Misfit Toys, 2004), Michael Nyman (Strange Attractors, 2000), James Lavelle (Strange Attractors II, 2001), Wire (MiddleSexGorge, 1991), Diamanda Galás (#4, 1997), Sheila Chandra (Not Garden, 1999), Lenny Pickett (#3, 1986), and David Linton (numerous works, 1986-2001).
He has also collaborated with visual artists Cindy Sherman (The Island of Misfit Toys and The King is Dead, 1994), Anish Kapoor (Strange Attractors II), Donald Baechler (Extravenous and A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, 1997), Stephen Hannock (Not Garden, 1999), and Charles Atlas (Wrong Wrong, 1990) as well as fashion designers Benjamin Cho, Rachel Roy, Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ, Leigh Bowery, Tanya Sarne/Ghost, and Manolo.
Petronio’s long time collaborator and resident lighting designer is Ken Tabachnick (currently Managing Director of the New York City Ballet).
Petronio’s language began as a continuous, spherical flow of motion that resulted from his early investigations with Steve Paxton (contact improvisation) and his dancing with post-modern pioneer Trisha Brown. Dubbed the “Master of Melt” by the critic Deborah Jowitt of The Village Voice, he proceeded to develop a fiercely aggressive attack to movement and to drop found photographic imagery and other seemingly random information into these continuums, in order to interrupt flow. His style matured into maelstroms of motion, formal and abstract, with expressionist undertones.
Petronio was an early member of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) throughout the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. He engaged in frequent acts of vocal, aggressive and media-savvy civil disobedience. The intent of ACT UP was to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic that was silently crippling the arts and gay communities, and which was largely ignored by city, state and federal officials. He was arrested numerous times during these demonstrations and increasingly used his media space as an artist of note to promote a political agenda of awareness about gay social and health issues.
His artistic life in turn was affected and he began to push aggressively sexual and sensual information to the foreground of his formerly abstract work. This period culminated, most notably, in dances like MiddleSexGorge (1991). The brutal assail, the body and limbs slashing through space, and the violent consensual partnering work between couples and multiple partners became the hallmark of this period.
Petronio was professionally and romantically linked with British choreographer Michael Clark from 1989 to 1992. Outspoken, outrageous and dripping with controversy and style, the couple became groundbreaking gay icons of the dance world often referred to as “Les Enfants Terribles”. They performed in each other’s work and created several together. Perhaps their most significant collaboration was Bed Piece (1989), installed at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, where the audience was invited to watch them in a graphically erotic tryst as a prelude to Clark’s Hetrospective.
In 2006, BLOOM, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, followed a matured and lyrical direction. Made in celebration of hope and of the rite of passage from innocence to self-awareness, the text was culled from the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman as well as the Lux Aeterna from the Catholic Mass. Alongside the dance, Rufus’ recorded score is accompanied live by local youth choirs and performed all over the world.
Stephen Petronio is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988[1], fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1985 and 2004[2], the first of the American Choreographer Awards in 1987[3], and a New York Dance & Performance Award (Bessie[4]) in 1986. He has been awarded choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from 1985 to 1988, and company grants from the NEA and the New York State Council on the Arts consecutively since 1988[5].
He has been commissioned to create new works for companies including William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet (1987), Tulsa Opera (1990 & 1991), Lyon Opera Ballet (1994), Deutsche Opera Berlin (1992), Sydney Dance Company (2003), and The Scottish Ballet (2007), among numerous others.
[edit] REPERTORY
Entries marked by an asterisk are part of the current repertory.
- 2007 Bird Gurhl - Music: Antony; Costumes: Tony Cohen
- 2007 Without You II - Music: Placebo; Costumes: H. Petal
- 2006 For Today I am a Boy - Music: Antony; Costumes: Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ
- 2006 BLOOM* - Original Music: Rufus Wainwright; Costumes: Rachel Roy
- 2006 Bud Suite* - Music: Rufus Wainwright; Costumes: Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ, H.Petal
- 2006 The Rite Part* - Music: Igor Stravinsky, Mitchell Lager; Costumes: Manolo (ex Full Half Wrong 1992)
- 2005 bud* - Music: Rufus Wainwright; Costumes: Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ
- 2003 The Island of Misfit Toys - Music: Lou Reed; Set: Cindy Sherman; Costumes: Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ
- 2002 City of Twist* - Original Music: Laurie Anderson; Costumes: Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ
- 2002 Broken Man* - Music: Blixa Bargeld; Costumes: Tara Subkoff/Imitation of Christ
- 2000 Strange Attractors (Prelude)* - Music: Placebo with David Bowie; Tanya Sarne/Ghost
- 2000 Strange Attractors (Part II)* - Original Music: James Lavelle; Costumes: Tanya Sarne/Ghost
- 1999 Strange Attractors (Part I)* - Original Music: Michael Nyman; Set: Anish Kapoor; Costumes: Tanya Sarne/Ghost
- 1998 Not Garden - Original Music: David Linton, Sheila Chandra; Music: Bach/Gounod; Set: Stephen Hannock; Costumes: Tanya Sarne/Ghost; Lighting: Axel Morgenthaler
- 1997 ReBourne - Music: The Beastie Boys, Sheila Chandra; Costumes: Paul Compitus
- 1997 I Kneel Down Before You - Music: Hratchik Nigohossian, Djivan Kasparian; Costumes: Gene Meyer
- 1996 Drawn That Way - Original Music: Andy Teirstein; Music: Suede; Costumes: Manolo
- 1996 #4 - Music: Diamanda Galàs; Set: Arnaldo Ferrara; Costumes: Manolo
- 1995 Lareigne* - Original Music: David Linton; Music: The Stranglers; Costumes: Manolo
- 1995 X-Obsessed - Music: Deborah Harry, The Buzzcocks
- 1993 The King Is Dead - Music: Elvis Presley, Maurice Ravel; Set: Cindy Sherman; Costumes: Manolo
- 1993 She Says - Music: Yoko Ono; Costumes: Manolo
- 1992 Half Wrong - Music: Igor Stravinsky
- 1992 Full Half Wrong - Music: Igor Stravinsky, Mitchell Lager; Costumes: Manolo; Hairpiece: Leigh Bowery
- 1992 Half Wrong Plus Laytext - Music: Igor Stravinsky, Mitchell Lager; Costumes: Manolo
- 1992 Wet Within Reason - Music: Rogers/Hammerstein; Co-Choreographer: Michael Clark
- 1991 Wrong Wrong - Music: Igor Stravinsky; Co-Choreographer: Michael Clark; Costumes: Leigh Bowery
- 1990 Bed Piece - Music: silence; Co-Choreographer: Michael Clark
- 1990 MiddleSexGorge* - Original Music: Wire; Costumes: H. Petal
- 1989 Close Your Eyes and Think of England - Original Music: David Linton; Costumes: H. Petal; Lighting: Stan Pressner
- 1988 AnAmnesia - Original Music: Peter Gordon; Set and Costumes: Justin Terzi
- 1987 Simulacrum Reels - Original Music: David Linton; Set: Justin Terzi; Costumes: Yonson Pak
- 1986 #3* - Original Music: Lenny Pickett
- 1986 Walk-In - Original Music: David Linton; Set: Justin Terzi; Costumes: Yonson Pak
- 1985 The Sixth Heaven - Original Music: Pat Irwin; Costumes: Yonson Pak
- 1984 Adrift with Clifford Arnell - Original Music: Lenny Pickett
All lighting by Ken Tabachnick unless otherwise noted.
[edit] COMMISSIONS
- 2007 Ride the Beast - Scottish Ballet
- 2007 deCapulet - Washington Ballet, DC
- 2006 He and She (2 works) - Norrdans/Harnosand, Sweden
- 2005 Photo Booth Project - Ricochet Dance Company/London, England
- 2004 Quiver - Second Avenue Dance Company/New York, NY
- 2004 Unchained Melodies - Norrdans/Harnosand, Sweden
- 2003 The Human Suite - CanDoCo/London, England
- 2003 Underland - Sydney Dance Company/Sydney, Australia
- 2002 La Preza A Quo - Danza Contemporanea/Morelia, Mexico
- 2001 House of Magnet - Ricochet Dance Company/London, England
- 2000 Secret Ponies - AXIS Dance Company/San Francisco, CA
- 1998 Fetch Boy and Fox - Ricochet Dance Company/London, England
- 1995 A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Maggio Danza/Florence, Italy
- 1994 ExtraVenus - Lyon Opera Ballet/Lyon, France
- 1992 Cherry - Annapolis Ballet/Annapolis, MD
- 1992 Laytext - Deutsche Oper Berlin/Berlin, Germany
- 1990 Le Trouvère - Tulsa Opera
- 1988 Surrender - De Rotterdamse Dansgroep/Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 1987 Simulacrum Court - Ballett Frankfurt/Frankfurt, Germany
