Stephen Petronio Company to give final performances at Jacob’s Pillow

BECKET — When choreographer Stephen Petronio attended Hampshire College in Amherst in the 1970s, he didn’t set out to become one of the best-known dance makers in America.

“I went to Hampshire with the intention of being pre-med,” Pretronio said during a recent interview with The Republican. “Then I took a dance class on a recommendation of someone I was chasing.”

And, like love at first sight, Petronio instantly knew he was drawn to dance during that fateful class.

“It was an improvisation (dance) class, and in that class, the thunderbolt hit me,” Petronio said.

“I was studying science and dance the whole time I was there” at Hampshire College, Petronio added. “But really, towards the end, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m in love with that’.”

Petronio’s love for dance resulted in a half-century long career — performing, choreographing and eventually running his own dance company, Stephen Petronio Company, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and which will perform for the last time July 23-27 at Jacob’s Pillow’s dance festival.

“What an amazing opportunity for them to invite me to have my last season there,” Petronio said, referring to his company’s upcoming performances at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires.

After his company’s final performances this month at Jacob’s Pillow, Petronio won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Instead, the 69-year-old New Jersey native will continue to create new works through Petronio Projects, his next endeavor.

Petronio Projects will allow him to “focus more on what I want to do when I want to do it” rather than running a large-scale dance company like Stephen Petronio Company. “When a project comes and I’m interested in, I will make it happen,” Petronio said.

Petronio’s dance company last appeared at Jacob’s Pillow in 2003. More recently, his company performed at the UMass Fine Arts Center in Amherst in 2015.

Petronio has a long, rich connection to The Pillow, the nickname for Jacob’s Pillow. But that connection didn’t start when he was a student at Hampshire College. Back then, he didn’t know about The Pillow.

“I was a total novice, which is, I think, part of the reason that my past, opened up the way it did,” Petronio said. “I had no preconceptions. I did not go to (dance) festivals or that kind of thing. I took (dance) classes and was in love with it and I did a lot of reading about it. And then in the summers (at Hampshire College), I was always working because I was on scholarship at Hampshire. I didn’t learn about Jacob’s Pillow until I moved to New York.”

Petronio first came to The Pillow in the late 1970s when he danced there as a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, the groundbreaking modern dance company founded by Brown.

“I was the first male dancer with Trisha Brown Dance Company,” Petronio said. “She took me there and it was one of my early performances with her and my first time at Jacob’s Pillow. It was quite a revelation.”

While he was at The Pillow, Petronio recalled many magical nights hanging out in cabins in the woods, talking and drinking wine with other dancers, dance writers and many other people involved with the dance world.

So when Petronio decided to start his own dance company in 1984, he knew he wanted to bring his company to The Pillow to perform.

“There’s an infamous quote by me that I think they (Jacob’s Pillow) use on their website… My quote was going to Jacob’s Pillow is like being trapped in paradise unless you had a car,” he said.

Initially, Petronio’s company performed on The Pillow’s outdoor stage. “It was all very bare bones for me at the time,” Petronio said. “I was just beginning the company. There was not that much. There was no money around us, but it was a beautiful, amazing opportunity. And I’ve loved dancing on the outdoor stage. I really cut my teeth as a choreographer there.”

“I did that for a couple of years,” Petronio added, “and then worked my way up into the Ted Shawn Theatre,” referring to the large, main theater at The Pillow. “It was very exciting for me.”

Performing around the world

Petronio’s work as a dancer and choreographer has taken him far beyond the Berkshires. His dance company has performed in 40 countries throughout the world. He’s worked with other dance companies in France, Germany and Australia, and he’s also collaborated with a wide range of artists and musicians, including Lou Reed, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Anderson and Nick Cave.

He also developed a signature dance style that’s uniquely his own. “I worked very hard to build a language that people would not mistake for anything else,” Petronio said. “That’s a very old fashioned goal, but I really had that goal from the very beginning.”

“My language is very unique, it’s fast and multi directional and sexy,” Petronio added. I mean, I really am a sensualist. I really like lush, complicated movements. I love speed in that context. So, yeah, I think it’s fast, sexy and multi directional.”

Those lush, complicated movements will be on full display during the performances this month at The Pillow, which will feature several of Petronio’s best-known works.

One of the oldest pieces on the program at The Pillow is “MiddleSexGorge.” First performed in 1990, the piece was inspired by the name of a fictional town Petronio came up with. “It was a place in my mind,” he said. “The name, the word, came first. Then I began building a place to inhabit that word. Somehow, words really trip my imagination.”

Certain words often serve as the inspiration for many of Petronio’s works. “I’m an avid reader and my early life was very much involved with books,” Petronio said. “The printed page remains very important to me. So words are super, super crucial to me and having the right word to anchor as a thought process and the creative process is really important for me.”

However, not every piece Petronio creates starts with a specific word. “I would say every piece is its own animal. But I often think the works that are, for me, the best ones start with a title,” Petronio said.

Other Petronio works on the program this month at The Pillow include “BUD,” “Broken Man,” “American Landscapes” and a new version Petronio’s solo “Another Kind of Steve.”

First performed in 2005, “BUD” is a duet for two men set to the music of Rufus Wainwright. “It’s the beginning of something,” Petronio said. “It’s very fresh. It’s a young thing. It’s also buddies, two men, two buds. So that’s how it germinated.”

“I’m very gay. I’ve been very out from the very beginning,” Petronio said. “So making duets for men has been, it’s like breathing for me. I never make work about something, but they are informed by something. And so my sexuality and my orientation kind of underpin the duet and it’s quite athletic and very musical.”

Many of Petronio’s works are responses to current events. “Broken Man” (2002) is a solo he made after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But Petronio noted that the piece — and other timely ones like it — “are not about those things, but they’re kind of journals of the feeling of those moments in time,” he said.

The same is true for “American Landscapes,” which Petronio created in 2019 in response to the political climate at the time. “After Hillary Clinton lost the election… for a year, I was kind of numb,” Petronio said. “And then I began, I felt that it was time to make something that felt like America and that smelled like the landscape in America right now.”

The Pillow program also includes “Chair Pillow” by Yvonne Rainer. (“It’s one of my favorite works of hers,” Petronio said.) and Petronio’s solo “Another Kind of Steve,” which he will perform himself.

Petronio decided to revise “Another Kind of Steve” for “this particular moment,” meaning the dance company’s final performances at The Pillow. “It’s talking and dancing and I can’t really tell you more about it,” Petronio said.

Even though Petronio isn’t retiring, he realizes the final performances of Stephen Petronio Company this month at The Pillow is a significant moment in his career.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s coming to a close,” Petronio said. “The whole thing is very emotional, but I’m so proud of what we’ve done. It’s been an incredible 40 year journey and I just felt like it was the time to close that chapter. And what an amazing place to close it. So I feel as bittersweet as it is, it’s just very exciting for me to have this presentation at Jacob’s Pillow.”

“I feel like I had a great moment to wrap this up and to celebrate it,” Petronio added. “So I hope people will come and celebrate with us.”

Stephen Petronio Company performs July 23 to July 27 at Jacob’s Pillow, 358 George Carter Road, Becket. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.jacobspillow.org or call 413-243-0745.