- Projects
- A Marriage: 1 Jake Margolin & Nick Vaughan
- Botch Joe Diebes
- Chimera Deborah Stein & Suli Holum
- City Council Meeting Aaron Landsman
- Epyllion Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith
- Floating Point Waves Shige Moriya & Ximena Garnica
- Keep Your Electric Eye On Me Shaun Irons & Lauren Petty & Mei-Yin Ng
- Lush Valley Kristin Marting & Yana Landowne & Tal Yarden
- Miranda Kamala Sankaram
- Science Fair Hai-Ting Chinn
- Sonnambula Michael Bodel
- The Scarlet Ibis Stefan Weisman & David Cote
- The Strangest Betty Shamieh
- Weights and Balances Bora Yoon
- Wooden Laura Peterson
- You Are Dead. You Are Here. Christine Evans & Joseph Megel & Jared Mezzocchi
Wooden • Laura Peterson
Show Description
Wooden is a series of three dances set in three contrasting environments. Disjointed movements, liquid improvisations and circular compositions reference the mathematical precision of nature’s geometry. In Part 1, dancers move through a dessicated landscape of hanging driftwood trees. Part 2: ground embodies natures lush and verdant cycles, staged on a living lawn that covers the space. In Part 3: end, the two environments collide. The choreography blends smooth, liquid movement, highly structured improvisation and complex circular composition with the mathematical precision of nature’s geometry.
With additional support from the Greenwall Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space Residency. Project space is donated by Capstone Equities.
Featured Media
Artist Bio
Laura Peterson is a NYC-based dance artist. Her company Laura Peterson Choreography is currently part of the HERE Arts Residency Program. She has been commissioned by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, received two Dixon Place commissions and was a Dance New Amsterdam Artist-in-Residence in 2007-2008. Laura’s work has been presented extensively in NYC, produced in Argentina, Germany, and throughout the US including Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out, Philadelphia’s NEW Festival and others. She has been commissioned by Pennsylvania Ballet, Hartford Ballet, and DROP Dance. She has been supported by the Bossak/Heilbron Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, PA Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Council, Trust For Mutual Understanding and the Greenwall Foundation. Laura’s performance credits include Julie Taymor’s film, Across The Universe, as well as Risa Jaroslow & Dancers, Poppo & the GoGo Boys, Paule Turner’s court, Group Motion Dance Co., Asimina Chremos and others. She currently teaches modern dance at Lehman College and NYC dance studios. Laura holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BFA in Dance from University of the Arts.
Artist Statement
Modern dance is modern art.
As I am often inspired by visual arts I create set design that is integral to the concept of each piece. When developing the movement vocabulary for a new piece, I narrow the parameters of movement and create extremely specific phrases from which dances are built.
For me, form is always the primary focus, and meanings emerge during the dance. I place a high value on attention to detail and spatial patterns. I share the Minimalist interest in removing the artist's hand from the work. This translates to a matter-of-fact performance, which removes indulgence. I am always drawn to patterns, forms, geometry and constantly translating these to movement vocabulary and composition.
Dance is a visual art form. It is seen. It is designed and although it is performance it also asks the audience to look at the details and forms in space. Therefore, I look to each set design as integral to the concept. This means developing a world, which arises from a clear concept where movement, color, texture and design integrate creating a complete visual and visceral experience with each work.
Press
- “"Wooden, through its music, décor, uncommon movement vocabulary, and unfettered performance style, evokes intense and affecting mood. Even the title implies layered meanings—“natural” of content and “stiff” or “unnatural” of manner—and the material we saw seems a fierce contemplation of both. Massive tree limbs—stripped of bark, bonelike—dangle in sparse formation across the black-painted Mainstage. One could be a mastodon carcass; another, a colossal fork of coral; a third, a dinosaur’s thighbone. They seem benign, if odd, and suggest a ravaged landscape—a site of extinction; a site where survival resumes."”
- — LJ Sunshine, The Brooklyn Rail
- ““I’d settle for more choreographers as hip as Laura Peterson””
- — Tom Phillips, Danceviewtimes
