The Joyce Theater Foundation to Present Stephen Petronio Company World Premiere Performances

The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) welcomes the return of Stephen Petronio Company to the New York stage. The triple bill, featuring a world premiere collaboration with Monstah Black and the Young People's Chorus of New York City, will play The Joyce Theater from May 17-22. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information and to read about The Joyce Theater's detailed health and safety protocols, including required face-coverings and proof of vaccination policies, please visit www.Joyce.org.

More than two years after their most recent New York season was put on hold along with the rest of the performing arts world, Stephen Petronio Company makes a triumphant return to The Joyce stage with a joyful trio of works. Leading the charge is the world premiere of New New Prayer for Now, a moving meditation conceived during the aforementioned lockdown and now reimagined as its own fully-fledged work. The piece is a bold and visceral dialogue between bodies, space, and the viewer's eye. Set to commissioned score by Monstah Black with the Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC), under the direction of Francisco J. Nuñez, the piece celebrates the ability of artists to move and create together again.

Also on the bill is a re-staging of founder Stephen Petronio's Bloom, which saw its world premiere at The Joyce in 2006. The joyful work is an iconic collaboration with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, with live performance by the YPC singing compositions based on the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Rounding out the program is a tribute to Petronio's history with Trisha Brown in a re-staging of her quietly thrilling 1973 masterpiece, Group Primary Accumulation.

ABOUT Stephen Petronio COMPANY

Stephen Petronio Company (SPC) was founded in 1984 to support the creative work of modern dance choreographer Stephen Petronio. Since then, SPC has expanded from a single-choreographer model dance company to also honor the past, present, and future in the field of dance through new initiatives (artist residencies, youth education, re-staging of important postmodern works, and new work commissions from young choreographers) designed to amplify and complement Petronio's original mission. The Bloodlines initiative was launched in 2014, which preserves a legacy of postmodern artists that deeply affected Petronio dancemaking. In 2017, he founded the Petronio Residency Center (PRC) to support future generations of artists and provide a platform for a greater inclusivity of artistic voices. 1) Stephen Petronio continues to develop and present original choreography; 2) through the Bloodlines initiative, SPC has restaged and presented 12 postmodern dance projects, and commissioned two new solo works from young choreographers to date; and 3) PRC, located in the Hudson Valley, supports future choreographic invention in the field with artist residencies as well as education initiatives. Considered a leading talent of his generation, SPC has produced more than 80 of Petronio's works since its founding nearly 40 years ago, and Petronio and his dancers have performed before tens of thousands of audience members nationally and internationally, including a regular New York City performance presence.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Stephen Petronio is a choreographer, dancer, and the Artistic Director of the Stephen Petronio Company. For 38 years, Stephen Petronio has honed a unique language of movement that speaks to the intuitive and complex possibilities of the body informed by its shifting cultural context. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists in many disciplines over his career and holds the integration of multiple forms as fundamental to his creative drive and vision. He continues to create a haven for dancers with a keen interest in the history of contemporary movement and an appetite for the unknown. He was greatly influenced by working with Steve Paxton and was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Dance Company (1979 to 1986). He has gone on to build a unique career, receiving numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award, and a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Petronio has created over 40 works for his company and has been commissioned by some of the world's most prestigious modern and ballet companies, including William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyon Opera Ballet, Maggio Danza Florence, Sydney Dance Company, and The Scottish Ballet, among others. Petronio received the distinction of being named the first Artist-in-Residence at The Joyce Theater from 2012 to 2014. He has written a memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict, and his latest limited edition book, In Absentia, features entries from his personal journals written in quarantine at the Petronio Residency Center.

Monstah Black (they/them) is a recording/performing artist. They began their career as a spritely, fireball, performance artist with an emphasis on gender/genre fluid dance (post-modern / vogue / house dance), club kid infused, costume design and electro funk musical compositions. They are currently one half of the electronic duo The Illustrious Blacks (with their husband, Manchildblack). Together they write, produce, record, and perform internationally their original music within the framework of their electronic dance music DJ sets. Monstah received an MFA in New Media Art and Performance from Long Island University with an emphasis on Audio/Visual through the lense of a black, queer, non-binary aesthetic. Monstah's work has been commissioned by The Phillips Collection x The Royal Collection as well as several dance companies along the east coast. Awards include: Bessie Award Nomination for Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design For _AShadowPrince by Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Open Call The Shed 2018 recipient, The Tom Murrin Performance Award, Franklin Furnace Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, American Music Center Live Music for Dance, and NYSCA. They have garnered support from New York organizations including The Shed Open Call, Dixon Place, Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Out Of Doors, The Field and Movement Research. Monstah is a Queer Arts Mentorship fellow as well as a fellow of Yaddo Residency. theillustriousblacks.com.

Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC), an internationally acclaimed children's chorus based in New York City, provides children of all ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds with a unique program of music education and choral performance while maintaining a model of artistic excellence and humanity that enriches the community. Founded by MacArthur Fellow Francisco J. Núñez nearly three decades ago, YPC provides children of all ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds with a safe haven for personal and artistic growth. The chorus has performed at the country's most prestigious institutions including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the United Nations and the White House, and has performed in venues throughout Europe, South America and Asia, as well as on nationally televised programs such as CBS Sunday Morning, The Today Show and many more.

ABOUT The Joyce Theater

The Joyce Theater Foundation ("The Joyce," Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for almost four decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 400 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center, and to outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (K-12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce's annual season of about 48 weeks of dance now includes over 340 performances - both digital and in-person - for audiences in excess of 150,000.

The Joyce Theater presents Stephen Petronio Company from May 17-22. The performance schedule is as follows: Tue-Wed 7:30pm; Thu-Sat 8pm; Sun 2pm. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information and to read about The Joyce Theater's detailed health and safety protocols, including required face-coverings and proof of vaccination policies, please visit www.Joyce.org.