January 20, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Stephen Petronio Dance Company, one of the most daring and delightful contemporary dance troupes, performs work co-commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures

Summary Facts:

• Stephen Petronio Dance Company
• Acclaimed choreographer Stephen Petronio’s work brings together the very best of dance, new music, visual art and fashion
• Dances are set to scores by Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and Blixa Bargeld
• The nine-member company is on its 20th Anniversary Tour
• The program features two works co-commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures
• Tuesday, February 24
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $30, $25 / UCSB students: $19, $16
• Tickets & Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

Stephen Petronio Dance Company brings its powerful and provocative dance to UCSB Campbell Hall on Tuesday, February 24 at 8 pm. These Santa Barbara favorites return, audacious as ever, on their 20th anniversary tour with choreography that explodes with savage exhilaration and sensual freedom. City of Twist, set to an original score (strings, keyboard, guitar, and electronics) by Laurie Anderson, is intensely physical yet often delicately dramatic dance. The Island of Misfit Toys, performed to music by Lou Reed, features sculpture by renowned photographer Cindy Sherman. The evening will also feature Broken Man, a lyrical and charged new solo piece for Petronio himself danced to music by Blixa Bargeld (of Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds). Time Out New York writes, “Petronio’s sinuous, sensual way of moving is not to be missed.”

Petronio refers to City of Twist as “a kind of love letter” to New York City. The Boston Globe claims the work, “beautifully lit by Ken Tabachnick, was created partly in response to Sept. 11 and gives the innovative Petronio’s virtuosic movement a rare emotional context. Solos become duets, trios. Fractured phrases coalesce into ensemble unity. Gradually a community forms, as eclectic and fascinating as the city it represents. Yet with each connection, each embrace, a rebound propels the dancers into their own isolated spheres, driven by individual needs and urges.”

Wildly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio Dance Company has performed in 23 countries as well as presenting 30 engagements in its hometown of New York City. More than just staged choreography, Petronio’s oeuvre is a contemporary art meeting place for dance, new music, visual art and cutting-edge couture. The company has collaborated with some of the most talented and provocative artists in the world, including musicians Michael Nyman, Yoko Ono and the Beastie Boys, visual artists Anish Kapoor, Donald Baechler and Tal Yarden, and fashion designers Tara Subkoff and Matthew Levi of Imitation of Christ and Tanya Sarne of Ghost.

Stephen Petronio began dancing at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and several years later became the first male dancer in the Trisha Brown Company. He founded his company in 1984, and has won numerous awards and fellowships including a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) in 1986 and the first American Choreographer Award in 1987.

The audience is invited to remain after the performance to take part in a Meet-the-Artists discussion.

“One of an arts presenter’s most rewarding responsibilities is supporting artists in the creation of new work,” states UCSB Arts & Lectures Director Celesta Billeci. “For the past three seasons, UCSB Arts & Lectures has enjoyed this privilege: we have helped to commission both new music, theater and dance. In 2002, A&L helped fund Laurie Anderson’s development of Happiness, an evening-length work that premiered in Santa Barbara to two sold-out and delighted Campbell Hall audiences. Last year we co-commissioned a work by Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés that he performed here with its dedicatee saxophonist Joe Lovano. And this year we are gratified to have assisted Stephen Petronio in realizing the two new works his company will perform at Campbell Hall in February.”

“Making a new work in collaboration with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Cindy Sherman and Tara Subkoff was like dying and going to dance heaven,” Petronion claims. “It’s one thing to dream up a project like this but quite another thing to have it happen. And it doesn’t happen without real encouragement and real support. The commissioning team that made this work possible made an investment in something intangible and therein lies the future of art.”

City of Twist and The Island of Misfit Toys were commissioned by Danceworks UK Ltd, White Bird/Portland, Oregon, San Francisco Performances, and UCSB Arts & Lectures. These works are supported in part with funding from Altria New Works Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The music for the entire program was commissioned in part with generous support from Liz Gerring and Kirk Radke. City of Twist was created in part during a residency provided by The Joyce Theater Foundation, New York City, with major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

UCSB Arts & Lectures previously presented the Stephen Petronio Dance Company March 11, 1995 and April 16, 1998. This evening is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Philip Morris Companies Inc. Tickets are $30 and $25 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.