Stephen Petronio Company to Perform at The Joyce Theater in April 2015

The Stephen Petronio Company's 30th anniversary culminates in transformation: the launch of Bloodlines, a five-year project to incorporate dances by trailblazers of American postmodern dance into the Company's repertory and present them alongside new works by Stephen Petronio. The first season pairs RainForest, Merce Cunningham's iconic, 20th-century masterpiece, with Locomotor/Non Locomotor, Petronio's now complete two-part work.

Merce Cunningham's RainForest is a spare and bracing foray into animal abstract motion and sound, set loose amidst a world of floating silver pillows. RainForest features an electronic score composed by David Tudor performed live by John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Matt Rogalsky, and Stephan Moore (two musicians perform each evening), and visual design by Andy Warhol.

Also on the program is Petronio's Locomotor/Non Locomotor. Last season's Locomotor cast Petronio's virtuosic dancers careening forward and backward through time and space. Non Locomotor, a companion work and world premiere, explores movement deep within a torquing center, sending surges of action throughout the body while stationary in space. The full two-part work features an original score by electronic pioneer Clams Casino (Michael Volpe), with vocal elements by the Young People's Chorus of New York City; costumes by Narciso Rodriguez, one of America's foremost designers; and lighting design by Petronio's longtime collaborator Ken Tabachnick.

The Stephen Petronio Company dancers are Davalois Fearon, Gino Grenek, Barrington Hinds, Jaqlin Medlock, Nicholas Sciscione, Emily Stone, and Joshua Tuason. Guest dancer Melissa Toogood, a former Merce Cunningham dancer, performs with the Company.

For thirty years, Petronio has pushed his distinctly virtuosic movement to new realms. His unique language speaks to the intuitive possibilities of the body within the shifting cultural moment, and he has created a haven for dancers with a keen interest in history and an appetite for the unknown. The creation of Bloodlines is a natural extension of this impulse yet also marks a significant shift in direction for his Company.

With Bloodlines, Petronio curates an important lineage of American dance focused on iconoclasts devoted to pure movement in tandem with new music and contemporary visual art. Through the incorporation of works by these postmodern giants into his Company's repertory, Petronio hopes to delineate a significant moment in history and create a dialogue between these choreographers' different languages that speaks to the larger context of his own choreographic foundations. Petronio has selected Cunningham's RainForest as the first work. Coming seasons will include works of other postmodern innovators who have shaped the course of Petronio's thinking. Next is Trisha Brown's Glacial Decoy.

Performances will take place at The Joyce Theater, April 7-12, 2015 (Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm). A post-performance discussion is scheduled for Thursday, April 9. Tickets range from $10 to $59. 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.

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