Dance company performs at hall
Stephen Petronio Company performs at historic Hudson Opera House.
The dance troupe the Stephen Petronio Company will be performing this weekend at Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House, 327 Warren St., Hudson, with shows Friday and Saturday, July 6 and 7, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 8, at 5 p.m.
For its Hudson debut, the company will perform three dances by choreographer Stephen Petronio. They will include his newest work, “Hardness 10,” which marked his third collaboration with composer Nico Muhly and first with fashion designer Patricia Field. The other works are “Artfashion,” an excerpt from “Underland,” inspired by the dark, sensual music of Australian legend Nick Cave; and “Bud Suite,” which muses on the melodic pop-tunes of Rufus Wainwright.
Also on the program is a revival of choreographer Steve Paxton’s virtuosic “Excerpt from Goldberg Variations,” a Bessie-nominated restaging from Petronio’s Bloodlines project, established to revive works by post-modern dance masters.
Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio is widely regarded as one of the leading dancemakers of his generation. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists in many disciplines over his career. He continues to create a haven for dancers with a keen interest in the history of contemporary movement and an appetite for the unknown.
Petronio was greatly influenced by working with Steve Paxton and was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Dance Company (1979 to 1986). Since then, 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, most recently, a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
The Stephen Petronio Company’s engagement, which coincides with the recent establishment of the Petronio Residency Center in Round Top, marks a coming of age for dance in the Upper Hudson Valley. Together with the recent opening of PS21 in Chatham, the imminent opening of the Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts Center in Catskill, DRA’s Hudson Valley Dance Festival and the arrival of several noted choreographers, including Jonah Bokaer, Lucinda Childs, and Adam H. Weinert, to name a few, Hudson and Catskill are quickly becoming a mecca for dance artists and enthusiasts.
Tickets are $35 each. Call (518) 822-1438 or visit hudsonhall.org for tickets or more information.