The Stephen Petronio Company is performing the dazzling new “Ghostown” and more at the Joyce this week (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
April 27 – May 2, $10-$49
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.stephenpetronio.com
Contemporary dance’s reinvigoration and ever-widening appeal at the end of the twentieth century is due in no small part to a bounty of amazing, daring, and boundary-pushing choreographers; among the more prominent is Stephen Petronio, known for integrating visual arts, new music, and cutting-edge fashion into his works. Last year the New Jersey native began celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his company with a whirlwind international tour, culminating at the Joyce this week in a wonderful chronological program that looks back at Petronio’s history while forging ahead into the future. Petronio opens the evening himself with his signature solo, “#3” (1986); in a partially undone tux after what appears to have been a long night, Petronio announces his unique visual language, fluidly twisting and turning his neck and upper body, speaking out with his arms while standing, rooted, at the front of the stage, at times beckoning to the audience. Petronio then lets his powerfully muscled company show its astonishing stuff in the steamy, bravura “MiddleSexGorge” (1990). The dancers torque, thrust, and flex their torsos, pivoting arms and legs with swift, sharp, angular motions to an extended techno-industrial remix of British punk band Wire’s “Ambitious.” Petronio’s explosive take on the AIDS crisis features the men in white corsets and the women in slinky, structured tight black outfits, their serious facial expressions and speedy yet deliberate movement complemented by Wire repeatedly calling out, “Are you hot?”
After intermission, Julian DeLeon performs 1993’s “Love Me Tender,” a cute and charming evocation of the Elvis Presley classic, followed by the trio of Amanda Wells, Reed Luplau, and Shila Tirabassi dancing 1997’s “Foreign Import,” set to an acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep,” Wells and Tirabassi angelic in white, incorporating ballet techniques while Luplau, in circus-like garb, moves around and between them demonically, evoking, as the song says, a “weirdo.” The entire company then returns for the world premiere of the dazzling “Ghosttown,” a complicated, unpredictable dance set to the Wordless Music Orchestra’s performance of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s “Popcorn Superhet Receiver.” In front of a screen continually changing colors, the performers, draped in diaphanous, shredded shroudlike costumes, cross the stage with mysterious precision, executing breathtakingly close yet emotionally distant moves. The piece marks a sophisticated new high point in Petronio’s work and a promise of even more exciting things to come.
Petronio will participate in a Dance Chat following the April 28 show. In addition, he will be teaching a master class on May 21 at the Joyce’s Dance Art New York Studios.