Joyce Virtual 2021 Season

SPC Virtual Season at The Joyce Theater

May 13-26, 2021
PURCHASE TICKETS

Stephen Petronio Company’s 2021 Joyce Theater program of digital performances features two versions of a new duet, Are You Lonesome Tonight, set to the homonymous song performed by Elvis Presley. One version is a dance film co-directed by Stephen Petronio and Blake Martin. The second version, a collaboration between Stephen Petronio and filmmaker John Fitzgerald, adapts the duet for the stage. Are You Lonesome Tonight explores longing and intimacy as performers Ryan Pliss and Mac Twining dance through memories of being together.

Set to another iconic Elvis Presley tune, Love Me Tender was originally choreographed and performed by Petronio in 1993 as a prelude to a collaboration with Cindy Sherman called The King is Dead. The new version features Nicholas Sciscione and is filmed by John Fitzgerald. Both Love Me Tender and Are You Lonesome Tonight are part of a new suite of Petronio works set to Presley songs.

Petronio will also debut New Prayer For Now (Part 1). This full company work, also filmed by Fitzgerald, features music by Monstah Black with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City inspired by Balm in Gilead by Harry Thacker Burleigh and Bridge Over Troubled Water by Paul Simon. New Prayer For Now (Part 1) is the first installation of a four fronted work for virtual and live performance that employs the intimacy of touch and the power in space that will eventually allow for virtual participation of dancers from multiple locations.

Trisha Brown’s 1973 work, Group Primary Accumulation, marks the 12th restaged work and 7th season of Petronio’s Bloodlines. This autobiographical project not only honors the lineage of American postmodern dance, but also traces the influences and impulses that have shaped choreographer Stephen Petronio, an artist uniquely positioned to preserve this postmodern tradition. This variation of Brown’s Primary Accumulation is performed in unison by four dancers placed equidistant from each other filmed from a long aerial view by John Fitzgerald. This is the first time a male body has been welcomed into this work.

The program will also include Pandemic Portraits, a film by Dancing Camera featuring Petronio dancers. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, dancers across the world have sheltered in place, unable to connect with each other and perform their art. Stephen Petronio Company dancers share their experiences while in “bubble residencies” at the Petronio Residency Center throughout this unprecedented time.

Stephen Petronio presents In Absentia

A unique book in collaboration with Sarah Silver and Rafael Weil, tracing Stephen Petronio Company’s 2020 performance season that wasn’t.
Stephen Petronio Company is proud to offer Stephen’s latest limited edition book, In Absentia, featuring entries from Stephen’s personal journals written in quarantine at the Petronio Residency Center. The text is paired with never before seen studio and behind-the-scenes photos by Sarah Silver and Grant Friedman in anticipation of our 2020 Joyce season that was preempted by Covid-19. This is a rare opportunity to support Stephen Petronio Company as we battle uncertainty through daunting times.

Purchase In Absentia by Stephen Petronio and access the streaming for free.

Limited edition/100, Signed and Numbered. Price: $250.

Streaming On-Demand Thursday, May 13 at 8pm ET through Wednesday, May 26 at 11:59pm ET

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Stephen Petronio Company recognizes Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and SHS Foundation as lead supporters of the 2021 Season and Bloodlines. 

Bloodlines receives cornerstone support from American Express.

Stephen Petronio Company’s 2021 Season and Bloodlines are made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and with additional support from Joseph & Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Shubert Foundation, Serena Foundation and James E. Robinson Foundation.

The opinions, results, findings and/or interpretations of data contained herein are the responsibility of the Recipient and do not necessarily represent the opinions, interpretations or policy of the State or if funded with Federal funds, the applicable Federal funding agency and the all other funding institutions mentioned above, both private and public.