Stephen Petronio: «Bloom», «Bud»

Since founding his company in 1984, Stephen Petronio has continually forged collaborations with intriguing artists from other disciplines including composers, visual artists, and fashion designers. This year, the wonderful singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright composed a suite of songs for Petronio’s “Bloom,” which premiered at the Joyce Theater. Also on the program were “Bud” (another premiere) set to recorded Wainwright songs, and a reprise of “The Rite Part” from 1992, a twist on “The Rite of Spring.

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A liability of working with high-profile collaborators is that sometimes the choreography gets overshadowed. It happened with Cindy Sherman’s gigantic doll set in Petronio’s “The Island of Misfit Toys” (2003). But everything clicked in “Bloom.” Wainwright, as au courant as composers go, draws on (and mostly respects) the traditional, manifested in his free sampling of music and styles. At once an iconoclast and a traditionalist, his style parallels Petronio’s blend of solid technique with daredevil modern twists.
So it made sense that “Bloom” balanced classical elements – ballet and yoga fundamentals, pleated toga-like costumes, and Wainwright’s music – with a fresh sensibility ...