Stephen Petronio Company Presents Second Season of BLOODLINES, Beginning Tonight

Stephen Petronio Company returns to The Joyce Theater with a highly anticipated second season of BLOODLINES, a multiyear project that embraces significant works by inspirational trailblazers of American postmodern dance. Incorporated into the company's repertory, these works are presented alongside creations by Stephen Petronio. The 2016 season will feature Trisha Brown's pioneering work Glacial Decoy (1979), Petronio's acclaimed MiddleSexGorge (1990), which celebrates its 25th anniversary this season, and the premiere of Big Daddy (Deluxe). Performances will take place tonight, March 8, through March 13, 2016 (Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm), at The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Avenue, in Manhattan.

Trisha Brown's landmark Glacial Decoy was her first work for the proscenium stage. This dance for five women uses the edges of the stage to magnify the reach of dance beyond its frame. It features an iconic visual design of projected images depicting classic Americana, along with billowing white costumes, both by Robert Rauschenberg. Petronio plays Brown's cool, all-female meditation against the heat and volatility of MiddleSexGorge, his signature anthem to gender and power. MSG propels Petronio's dancers through space in bold, sensually charged encounters inspired by his involvement with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in the late '80s. The piece is set to a commissioned score by the British post-punk band Wire, with costumes designed by H. Petal.

Glacial Decoy is especially significant for Petronio as it was created the same year he joined Brown's company, with which he danced from 1979 to 1986. He credits the work's formal rigor and continuous flow of movement as leaving an indelible impression on his evolving aesthetic. "Its elusive movement is like razor- sharp mist that shifts magically between juxtaposed physical states." MSG employs a more aggressive "hot steel" quality. This is precisely the kind of dynamic alchemy that provides the inspiration and impetus for BLOODLINES.

The program also includes the premiere of Petronio's talking dance, Big Daddy (Deluxe). Based on an uncharacteristically personal and emotional solo, Big Daddy, the work features text about his father culled from his recent memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict. Originally commissioned by the American Dance Festival in 2014, Petronio's solo is expanded here to include his company of formidable dancers.

The Stephen Petronio Company dancers are Davalois Fearon, Kyle Filley, Gino Grenek, Cori Kresge, Jaqlin Medlock, Tess Montoya, Nicholas Sciscione, Emily Stone, and Joshua Tuason. Lighting design is by Petronio's longtime collaborator Ken Tabachnick.

Tickets range from $10 to $60. Prices are subject to change. Tickets can be purchased by calling JOYCECHARGE at 212-242-0800, or online at www.joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), in Manhattan.

With BLOODLINES, Petronio curates an important lineage of American dance that focuses on iconoclasts devoted to pure movement in tandem with new music and contemporary visual art. Through the incorporation of works by these masters into his Company's repertory, Petronio delineates a significant moment in history and creates a dialogue among these choreographers' different languages that speaks to the larger context of his own choreographic foundations. The first work in the series was Merce Cunningham's RainForest (1968), which the company continues to tour. The next few seasons will feature works by Anna Halprin, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and Lucinda Childs.

Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio is widely regarded as one of the leading dance makers of his generation. His unique movement language speaks to the intuitive possibilities of the body within the shifting cultural moment. For more than 30 years, he has created a haven for dancers with a keen interest in history and an appetite for the unknown. BLOODLINES is a natural extension of this impulse.

Stephen Petronio was born in Newark, NJ, and received a B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he began dancing in 1974. He was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Company (1979-1986). He formed Stephen Petronio Company in 1984, and has created over 40 works for his company. Petronio has received numerous honors, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Award, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award, and a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Petronio published his first memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict, in 2014.

Stephen Petronio has built an extraordinary body of work with some of the most exciting and inventive contemporary artists, including composers Atticus Ross, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nico Muhly, Fischerspooner, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Son Lux, James Lavelle, Michael Nyman, Sheila Chandra, Diamanda Galás, Wire, Lenny Pickett, and David Linton; visual artists Janine Antoni, Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor, Donald Baechler, Matthew Brandt, and Stephen Hannock; and fashion designers John Bartlett, Jillian Lewis, Adam Kimmel, Benjamin Cho, Michael Angel, Tony Cohen, Rachel Roy, Tara Subkoff, Tanya Sarne/Ghost, Leigh Bowery, and Manolo.

Stephen Petronio Company has performed in 26 countries throughout the world, including more than 35 New York City engagements with 21 seasons at The Joyce Theater. The Company has been commissioned by Dance Umbrella Festival/London, Hebbel Theater/Berlin, Theater Scène National de Sceaux/France, Festival d'Automne/Paris, CNDC Angers/France, The Holland Festival, Festival International Montpellier-Danse/France, Danceworks UK Ltd, Cannes International Danse Festival, and in the U.S. by San Francisco Performances, The Joyce Theater, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, and White Bird, among others. The company's recent performances include the Dance Center at Columbia College (Chicago), Princeton University (NJ), Fall for Dance (New York City), and SITE Santa Fe (with Janine Antoni), and a site-specific work in New York City's Madison Square Park underneath the art installation of Teresita Fernandez. Upcoming engagements include performances at the Byham Theatre, presented by the Pittsburgh Dance Council, and at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. Ally, a collaborative project by Petronio, Janine Antoni, and Anna Halprin opens at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia on April 22, 2016 and runs through July 31, 2016.

For more information about the company, visit www.petron.io.