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"I try
to hit the brain center and the pelvic center at the same
time: the animal and the evolved."
--Stephen
Petronio
In a
new triptych, Stephen Petronio and company explore chaos
in motion.
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The
Stephen Petronio Company: Strange Attractors
White
Bird at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 224-8499.
7:30 pm Wednesday, Nov. 15. $17.50-$39.
The brief partnership between America's "bad boy of dance"
and Britain's seemed fated. The work of Stephen Petronio
and Michael Clark shared a driving, dangerous romanticism
just on the edge of cynicism that outraged many, though
not as much as when they publicly cut themselves on a New
Year's Eve and held their bloody wounds against each other
as a bond. It was a recklessly passionate gesture, like
so many that invested their separate choreographies with
compelling power.
Petronio came to dance late, discovering his destiny
at the age of 19 while watching Nureyev in Sleeping
Beauty. After finishing college, he became the Trisha
Brown Company's first male dancer, performing with Brown
from 1979 to 1986. But in 1984, he founded his own company
that quickly gained a name for its provocative and complicated
work. Though highly regarded in Europe, Petronio's company
had not always enjoyed the blessing of American critics
until his 1998 work, Not Garden, signaled a change.
Not Garden still married hazardous movement with
extreme passion, but it also struck a deep, lyrical note.
This week, Petronio and his company return to Portland
to present his first full-length work, Strange Attractors,
which was co-commissioned by Portland's White Bird. A triptych
comprising a prelude (danced by Petronio) followed by two
parts, the work shows Petronio moving further into lyricism,
an abstract expressionist more attuned to the spirit of
Rothko than the action of Pollock. The piece's title was
inspired by the work of James Gleick (who is also in town
this week at Powell's), whose book Chaos: Making a New
Science explains chaos theory in layman's terms. Strange
Attractors is an exploration of chaos and order.
Part I (which premiered a year ago in San Francisco)
is a collaboration with composer Michael Nyman, best known
for his score for The Piano and his work with Peter
Greenaway. Nyman has composed a haunting and romantic score,
which Petronio interprets with movement that is emotionally
charged yet delicate. Petronio has said he is "looking for
a sense of intimacy between the audience and dancer, for
the audience to get to know each dancer, and to feel that
each move is especially for them." This hoped-for intimacy
is successfully achieved even in the video of Part I.
Part II is receiving its West Coast premiere here
in Portland. The piece, backed by Turner Award-winning artist
Anish Kapoor's set with a score by British underground composer
James Lavelle, sounds like classic Petronio. It will be
interesting to see how much further the "bad boy" has matured
into one of America's greatest choreographers.
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