• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

The Stephen Petronio Company returns to UCLA Live for the third time this weekend with the show &

They’re finally coming home.

For many involved in the Stephen Petronio Company’s production of “BLOOM,” their performances Friday night and Saturday night at Royce Hall will be a homecoming of sorts.

This weekend marks the company’s third time returning to UCLA Live, after having performed here in both 2001 and 2004.

“I feel like being back over the past couple years has been building an audience for me, and I love that,” said Stephen Petronio, the company’s founder.

The New York-based Stephen Petronio Company was created in 1984 and has since become internationally acclaimed. What makes the company unique is its unusual style of choreography – a combination of ballet, lyrical jazz, modern and unnamed movements.

While traditional dance has defined movement, Petronio’s choreography is avant-garde, with movements inspired by emotions, particular parts of the body or spirals of energy running through the body.

In “BLOOM,” the audience will experience three drastically different pieces, each involving this unique choreography: the optimistic “BLOOM,” the emotional “Bud Suite” and the sexual “The Rite Part.”

In “BLOOM,” the first piece in the set, the dancers look like the twisting figures of a neoclassical sculpture, with turns in the air and kicks to the sky.

“(The message of ‘BLOOM’) is one that deals with the sense of potential and hope,” Petronio said.

To accompany this message, the company will be dancing to the original music of singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright sung by the Paulist Choristers of California.

Under the artistic direction of UCLA alumnus Luke McEndarfer, a choir of 20 L.A. students, ages 9 to 18, will be singing in “BLOOM.”

The music is a challenging modern sound that is reminiscent of an old Latin choir but with occasional timed breaks where the rhythmic line is continued through the bodies of the dancers as they dance a capella.

“These kids are pretty sophisticated,” McEndarfer said. “They are extremely smart and they learn quickly.”

McEndarfer himself will also be returning to his roots as he graduated from UCLA in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in English and again in 2004 with a master’s in music and conducting.

“My music education at UCLA has given me a solid foundation upon which I have been able to build an extensive network of career experiences and advanced knowledge,” McEndarfer said.

“Having performed many times as a singer at UCLA’s Royce Hall, it is a special opportunity for me to return as conductor.”

For Michael Badger, one of the company’s dancers, coming to UCLA on Friday night marks a return to Los Angeles, where he grew up, and also to the University of California system as he graduated with a degree in dance from UC Berkeley in 1995.

Badger said his experience as a student at UC Berkeley prepared him well for the future.

“It definitely set me up perfectly for what I experienced in the dance world,” he said.

Badger enjoys the intellectual and physical challenge of Petronio’s choreography, which he calls “organization within chaos.”

“I often end up really thinking about the character I am portraying and then delving deep, pulling out a piece of my soul, and showing it for the world to see,” Badger said.

Compared to “BLOOM,” the other two pieces in the UCLA Live show are darker, more intellectual and more emotional.

“Bud Suite” is one of these dances as it is a piece all about relationships. While it is stylistically different than “BLOOM,” it is still distinctly a Stephen Petronio original, with intertwined partnering but a more grounded aesthetic.

The biggest contrast to the joy of “BLOOM” is the last piece in the show, “The Rite Part.”

It is based on Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” which centers around the pagan ritual of sacrificing a virgin so the crops will grow.

In contrast to “BLOOM,” the movement in “The Rite Part” is more jagged and asymmetrical in a seductive style.

“I thought it would be a nice contrast to the innocence of youth,” Petronio said.

Although Petronio choreographed “The Rite Part” 16 years ago, it will still seem innovative to a modern audience as it is less about perpetuating the agricultural cycle and more about sexuality.

“The woman is no virgin, and it is no sacrifice,” Petronio said, laughing.

While “BLOOM,” “Bud Suite” and “The Rite Part” may not seem like they fit together, each piece is inspired in part by nature. Together, they collectively span 16 years of a choreographer’s work and growth.

And if nothing else, it’ll be a nice break from watching “Friends” reruns.

“It has great music, great athletic dancing and amazingly beautiful costumes,” Petronio said.

“And it is always nice to go to the theater and see something live instead of sitting in front of your TV screen.”