pdf - chuthis

Peter Chu - Artistic Director
Peter Chu
Company Profile:
chuthis. is a project-based contemporary dance company that showcases the work of Artistic Director Peter Chu
and his esteemed collaborators.
Formed in 2008, chuthis’s company members are among the industry’s most talented and sought aer dancers,
performing with such luminary artists and companies, including Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Robert Lepage,
The Rockettes, and Cirque de Soleil, among many others.
The company’s critically acclaimed premiere work, Nothing Sticks, performed to enthusiastic audiences in New
York City and Vancouver, BC. Most recently, chuthis. has been selected as 2014 Emerging Principal Company for
Springboard Danse Montréal.
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Touring Repertoire:
Work: Nothing Sticks I Choreographer: Peter Chu I Year: 2010
Running time: First half - 35 minutes / Intermission - 15 minutes / Second half - 40 minutes
Total running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes including intermission
Synopsis: Nothing Sticks is a tale about resistance and change.
Exploring the temporal nature of entertainment and life, this work tackles the complexities of impermanence
and the human tendency to doubt even our own perception of reality. Ideas, thoughts, and sensations break up
into flowing, smooth, liquid-like energy that expands, contracts, undulates, and vibrates. This multi-disciplinary
show combines innovative lighting and sound with live contemporary theatrical movement.
Five lines, a circle, two dots and a half circle are the elements that help form a stick figure. This simple type of drawing can be
used to help express the beginning of a story. Oen drawn in pencil or chalk, the stick figure can be erased and re-drawn in
order to perfect the shape of its structure. These sketches serve as a way to try out different ideas and establish a composition
before undertaking a more finished work. They are temporary, not permanent.
Nothing in this world is permanent. Just as the stars form and collapse and the continents shi and climates change, our minds
evolve and relationships come and go. We live in a world of constant flux. Understanding that we may change and that other
people may change, we can recognize and accept when a different approach or a “new sketch” is needed.
Nothing in this world is forever. Nothing is certain. Nothing Sticks.
Dancers: Matthew Peacock / Jillian Meyers / Pam Chu / Jenni Berthelot / Stephen Hernandez / Peter Chu
Composer and Sound Designer: Djeff Houle I Lighting Designer: Rob Sondergaard I Costume designer: Linda Chow
“Chu’s choreography is aesthetically pleasing, yet undeniably difficult in nature…
I can only hope this show continues to run so everyone can have a chance
to be in the audience.” - Dance Informa Magazine
> VIEW
“Nothing Sticks… is a work that really marks the promising beginning of a choreographic
talent who’s just starting to harness his wild imagination.” - The Georgia Straight
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Peter
Chu:
Artistic Director /
Choreographer / Dancer
Peter Chu, originally from Cocoa Beach, Florida is a distinguished artist who strives to push the physical bounds of
dance. He began his training as a competitive gymnast, later nurturing his artistry at Dussich Dance Studio where his evolution
into dance began. As a BFA student at The Juilliard School (under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy), Chu was pushed further
as a technical mover and began an explosive journey into choreography. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Hector Zaraspe
Prize for Choreography.
Chu is a remarkable and multi-faceted artist; as a performer he has danced with BJM _Danse, EZdanza, as the lead in singer Christina
Perri's Jar of Hearts music video, in Celine Dion's Vegas spectacular A New Day, and with Crystal Pite's company, Kidd Pivot.
In 2008, Chu formed his own project-based company chuthis. Most recently they performed their wildly popular show, Nothing
Sticks in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The company has also been selected as the 2014 Emerging Principal Company for Springboard
Danse Montréal.
Recipient of the prestigious 2010 Capezio A.C.E. Award for Choreography, Chu has created for Naomi
Stikeman's Çaturn (consulted by Robert Lepage), ARTV series in Québec - Meneuse de Claques, he
was awarded the honour of being the selected choreographer for the Perry-Mansfield New
Works Festival (directed by Linda Kent), and choreographed for the ninth and tenth seasons
of So You Think You Can Dance.
Much of 2012/13 was spent touring the US as a faculty
member with the 24 SEVEN Dance Convention. Chu
also premiered a new work for Orlando Ballet Theatre,
under the direction of Robert Hill, and most recently
choreographed a full-length work for Houston Met
Dance Company.
Over the summer, Chu was a guest teacher at BODYTRAFFIC’s
Summer Program and choreographed a new work at
Nederlands Dans Theater’s Summer Intensive in August.
During the academic year, he will participate in a
dance residency at Western Michigan University, and,
later in the year, join Kidd Pivot for a North American
and European tour.
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Press Quotes:
[CHOREOGRAPHY]:
“Chu's piece, full of sharp movements contrasted with an unfolding physicality,
has an unearthly quality both robotic and hypnotic.”
- Orlando Sentinel regarding Peter Chu’s Hollywood en Pointe choreographed for the Orlando Ballet.
“Given the opportunity to speak with Peter Chu, insight, brilliance, compassion,
and devotion threaded each expression, verbal as well as nonverbal.”
- West Orlando News
“Chu is a torpedo of a mover, seamlessly integrating the syncopation of
hip hop with balletic fluidity.” – Dance Magazine regarding Peter Chu’s work that opened the Top 8,
Season 9 show of So You Think You Can Dance.
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Choreography
Highlights:
2004 | Houston Met Dance Company - A Polite Social Gesture (Houston, TX)
2006 | Houston Met Dance Company - Pts. in Space for 7 (Houston, TX)
2007 | Southern University of Utah - Smell Memory with 9 (Cedar City, UT)
2008 | New Works Dance Festival (Perry-Mansfield) - Then…until now (Steamboat Springs, CO)
2008 | Seventy-five minute multimedia dance show, Çaturn (Directed by Naomi Stikeman,
co-choreographed with Crystal Pite, consultation by Robert Lepage)
2009 | San Diego Dance Theater - Grounded Steps (San Diego, CA)
2010 | Dance Teacher Summit - Capezio A.C.E. Awards - This Thought (New York, NY)
2011 | chuthis. - Nothing Sticks U.S. tour
2012 | So You Think You Can Dance - Season 9,
Top 8 (Los Angeles, CA)
2013 | Orlando Ballet - Touching Drops (Orlando, FL)
2013 | The Ailey School for Certificate Program Dancer Walking Forward (New York, NY)
2013 | Houston Met Dance Company Hidden in Plain Sight (Houston, TX)
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Press Quotes:
[PERFORMANCE]:
“Peter Chu is that rare performer who can dance with one foot in the
commercial world and the other squarely in the artistic. No, wait: that’s
not exactly right. Chu is the even rarer performer for whom the two
worlds meld into one.”- The Georgia Straight
“A slender, lithe dancer with
feet as resilient as his spine,
locks and pops in and out
of position with ribbon
fluidity.”-The New York Times
regarding Peter Chu’s performance
in Kidd Pivot’s The You Show.
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Press Quotes:
[PERFORMANCE]:
“…he gives complete illusion that
he is a marionette danced by the
puppeteer. The duet is so spectacular,
his control of his body so masterful,
that audible gasps and ahhs escaped
from the audience.” - Portland Monthly Magazine
regarding Peter Chu’s performance in Kidd Pivot’s Dark Matters
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Performance
Highlights:
EDUCATION
2002 | The Juilliard School, BFA- Dance (New York, NY)
PERFORMANCE
2002-04 | Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Montréal, QC)
2003 | Aszure Barton - Mais Oui (New York, NY)
2005 | Redken Hair Show (Las Vegas, NV)
2005-2007 | Celine Dion: A New Day…Live in Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV)
2006 | Hurricane Katrina Benefit Concert (Las Vegas, NV)
2007-present | Kidd Pivot (Vancouver BC)
2007 | Danse Encore - You and the Universe (Trois-Rivières, QC)
2008 | New Works Dance Festival (Perry-Mansfield) - full evening
of work by chuthis. (Steamboat Springs, CO)
2008 | Usine C - Çaturn (Montréal, QC)
2010 | Danse Encore - Çaturn (Trois-Rivières, QC)
2010 | Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts (Official Music Video), Lead Male Character
2011 | chuthis. - Nothing Sticks (U.S. Tour )
2012 | The Dance Awards at the Beacon Theatre - excerpt from Nothing Sticks
(New York, NY)
2012 | chuthis. - Nothing Sticks (Vancouver, BC)
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Teaching
Highlights:
2001 | Summer Dance Intensive at The Juilliard School (New York, NY)
2002-04 | Le Domaine Forget (Sint-Irénée, QC)
2005 | Edge PAC - Dance with the Force Scholarship Students’ Show (Los Angeles, CA)
2007 | Southern University of Utah - Smell Memory with 9 (Cedar City, UT)
2008 | SUNY at Purchase - Graduation Solo (New York, NY)
2009 | Edge PAC - Scholarship Students Show (Los Angeles, CA)
2010 | SUNY at Purchase - The Applause is Fading (New York, NY)
2012-13 | 24 Seven Dance Convention (U.S. tour)
2013 | SUNY at Purchase - Lutte Intérieure (Purchase, NY)
2013 | Ailey Certificate Program - Walking Forward (New York, NY)
2013 | BODYTRAFFIC Summer Program (Los Angeles, CA)
2013 | Nederlands Dans Theatre Summer Intensive (The Hague, The Netherlands)
2013 | Western Michigan University Dance Residency (Kalamazoo, MI)
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
Photos by Graciela Federico
chuthis.net
Videos:
chuthis "NOTHING STICKS"
Choreography by Peter Chu
> VIEW
Orlando Ballet "TOUCHING DROPS"
Choreography by Peter Chu
> VIEW
Houston Metropolitan Dance
Company "HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT"
Choreography by Peter Chu
> VIEW
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Videos:
Excerpts from Naomi Stikeman's
ÇATURN
Choreography by Peter Chu
and Crystal Pite
> VIEW
Peter Chu CHOREOGRAPHY REEL
> VIEW
Christina Perri's "JAR OF HEARTS"
music video
> VIEW
Artist Management: lauramurraypr.com | 604.558.2400
chuthis.net
Bookings
& Enquiries:
Artist Management:
Laura Murray, Principal
303-1037 West Broadway
Vancouver BC V6H 1E3
Canada
T: 604.558.2400
[email protected]
www.lauramurraypr.com
All photos by Levi Walker unless otherwise specified
chuthis.net