Sound and vision from the past, present and future
Over the last 30 years Stephen Petronio has established himself as one of the most influential names in American dance. His iconoclastic works fuse eclectic elements of pop culture to often explosive effect. He talked to Civilian about some of his landmark productions
"Jordan Gray is a star in near-vertical ascent, and she’s bringing all of us with her"
"Sexual perversion is so ingrained in the history of 20th-century queerness that it's the rule, not the exception"
"Where else can I savour the choices of often esoteric programmers whose idea of a great film is a far cry from mine?"
In a year defined by a sense of stultification, existential dread and a slender grip on sanity, there were some remarkable works of art
"In the programme, there are many lovely photos but one especially captures that time - him peeking under the covering of one shark, his father at the its head"
"Who needs Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovsky or Godard when there's a bright Texan rebel lurking around the arthouses?"
"First the good news. It's good. The bad news? It's nearly two and a half hours long. Take sandwiches"
"Pig is mythic, macho and very serious about what it wants to say. But what does it want to say?"
"It looks like a classic teen comedy – all California pop colours and Charli XCX – but it’s a genre movie of a darker kind: rape revenge"
"Todays conservative Millennials and Gen Z readers will view all this as if it’s a TikTok from another, more prurient planet, and recoil"