How Igal Perry's Dance Company In New York Is Integral To Humanity In General

Photo Courtesy Of Cesar Brodermann, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company

"Peridance Contemporary Dance Company was founded by Artistic Director Igal Perry in 1984, one year after he founded the Peridance Capezio Center, one of the foremost training institutions in New York City. Perry wanted to provide a dance home in the city for artists from around the world, both in the Center and the Company. We are located in the heart of New York City, close to Union Square! We rehearse at our home studios, the Peridance Capezio Center.

We employ 10 dancers and three apprentices. All of our dancers are classically trained but are each also incredibly versatile in their movement vocabulary. Most of our current dancers get into the company by attending our annual workshop and open audition. Some also come into the company by first attending the two-year, pre-professional certificate program at the Peridance Capezio Center. Current company members Alexandre Barranco, Greta Zuccarello, Matteo Fiorani, and Sohye Kim attended this program before joining the company.

We are a repertory company, and our work spans many genres, which showcases our incredibly versatile dancers! Many of our works are contemporary and contemporary ballet, but we have also had improvisational, jazz, and flamenco works in our past seasons.

Our main production is our annual New York Spring Season: in this production, we premiere new works by Perry and guest choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Dwight Rhoden, Bryan Arias, Sidra Bell, and many others. This production serves as a springboard for future touring opportunities, in which we tour the works from the season to national and international festivals and venues.

We also have a contemporary version of 'The Nutcracker,' choreographed by Perry, that provides a fun, fresh version of this classic favorite to audiences each December.

Perry is heavily influenced by ballet and elements of folk dance that he grew up with in Israel. But the company is also deeply influenced by the dance culture of New York City: the culture of collaboration, innovation, diversity, and excellence. We invite many New York City-based choreographers to set work on the company, and each of them influences the dancers and the company culture in a unique way.

We believe it is critical: the venues, funding, and popular support for the arts in NYC are arguably more than any other place in the United States. (Although both studio space and funding is becoming more scarce.) But New York City truly has a culture of art appreciation: people support the arts here by coming to performances, giving money, or even participating themselves in recreational dance classes. 

And as a multicultural center, it also has a richness of diversity that shapes the arts and culture here. Peridance is an example of that: with international directors and many international dancers (half of our company!), we see the incredible benefit of having people of diverse perspectives and experiences working together in the arts. And that is what New York City is really all about.

Dance is a form of communication in a world that desperately needs to explore how to better communicate with others. It is a valuable resource for expressing ideas in a different way that makes them more accessible. Dance also has the power to carry powerful, overt messages - or subtle, thoughtful ones. It can ignite discussion as we seek to understand it and appreciate it. And in an often overly polarized cultural climate, this honest discussion and expression can unite and heal where society was once divided. A few of our works have socio-political thematic elements that allow us to speak to the current cultural shifts.

There is something very special about a group of people (most of whom don't know each other) coming together to watch a two-hour dance performance in the same space. That is a shared experience that has just been created between a group of people who may have had nothing in common before.

Humanity needs more shared experiences. Dance is a language that everyone can understand, and dissolves boundaries between people."

 

As told to MBF by Hannah Newman

October 17, 2017