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Peter Carpenter
lab artist, 2008

My goal has been to deepen existing choreographic methodologies in relationship to political history. Understanding why a work about Reagan's presidency still feels important in 2008 has undoubtedly been the richest aspect of the project.

Peter Carpenter is an independent choreographer whose physical theater performances have often intersected with political activism and critical theory. He has dedicated the majority of his career to tracking the complex ways in which identity has been shaped in subaltern communities by HIV/AIDS. His independent work has resulted in numerous repertory pieces and four evening-length works including Bareback Into the Sunset (2003), which, since its premiere performance at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, Calif., has been seen in excerpted and full-length versions at numerous conferences and performances in Los Angeles in Chicago. Since returning to Chicago in 2005, Peter has worked as a collaborator with The Seldoms and Lucky Plush Productions and has presented his work in numerous festivals and independently. Peter holds an MFA in dance from UCLA and is currently writing his dissertation for a PhD in Culture and Performance Studies. He is a full-time faculty member at the Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago and a 2008 Artistic Associate of Links Hall. Peter has received numerous grants and commissions for the creation of new work.

My Fellow Americans was an evening-length dance theater work exploring the shifting identity of Ronald Reagan from the perspectives of the "special interest groups" that his rhetoric and policies consistently admonished. At stake is a targeted historical revision designed to interrogate the discrepancy between his optimistic political speeches and the negating effects his policies had on the Americans who deviated from his conception of morality.

My Fellow Americans

October 8,9, 15,16, 2009
Hamlin Park Field House
3035 North Hoyne, Chicago

My Fellow Americans, a new evening-length dance-theatre work, presented by Peter Carpenter Performance Project, explored the shifting identity of Ronald Reagan from the perspectives of the "special interest groups" that his rhetoric and policies consistently admonished.

Featuring performances by Carpenter, Lisa Gonzales, Suzy Grant, Atalee Judy and Donnell Williams, My Fellow Americans was a work of targeted, potent, and ultimately, devastating juxtapositions. At stake was a targeted historical revision designed to interrogate the discrepancy between Reagan's optimistic political speeches and the negating effects his policies had on the Americans who deviated from his conception of morality.

These juxtapositions were conceived in terms of madness: The madness of AIDS-induced dementia, the madness of Alzheimer's at the end of Reagan's life, the madness of the thousands of institutionalized Americans turned out onto the street to become the largest wave of homelessness since the Great Depression during Reagan's presidency, the madness of Cold War paranoia, and the madness of a thousand points of light.

more info at www.petercarpenterperformance.com