BRITTA JOY PETERSON
Bring Back Yesterday is a football offensive line sized push towards the unapologetic selfishness, or self-li-ness. The work is a complex mix of blown open value systems, over-saturated viewership, self-realization, hating dance and loving form - almost like a preteen angst over the life and death of dance creation and performance. Peterson is interested in distilling creative voice through rigor, experimentation, and self-examination. The work honors her gypsy-nomad life, and allows the space and time spent in hibernation from the rehearsal process to marinate and drive the project forward during a short-term residency at [nueBOX] with her collaborator, Juan Coel Rodriguez.
Artist Bio
Britta Joy Peterson is a Minnesota native, where she grew up in the thriving Minneapolis arts community. As a performer, dance maker, teaching artist + scholar, Peterson works primarily in postmodern contemporary and jazz forms with special interests in creative practices and somakinesis. She holds a BA with majors in Dance + Communications from Gustavus Adolphus College, and an MFA in Dance from Arizona State University. Peterson’s performance and choreographic work has been seen in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Arizona, New York, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado and New Zealand. Learn more about Peterson at bjpdance.com
Juan “Coel” Rodriguez began his journey in dance at a young age in Phoenix, Arizona where he later received his B.F.A. in Dance at Arizona State University. He has danced and worked with a variety of groups around the Arizona valley including EPIK Dance Company, Dulce Dance Company, Desert Dance Theatre, and humanafterall crew. Juan began his training in Urban based genres and styles of movement including both Breaking and Popping as well as later training in Locking, House, and Waacking. His love for movement eventually led him into other facets of dance but primarily, Postmodern dance and ideas caught his interest. Transitioning into a college setting in Dance for him meant experimenting and diving deeper into these two practices as a means of creating, improvising, and eventually teaching. Balance between both exploration and experimentation has been a major factor in his practice and he looks forward to sharing what he has learned thus far. “Creativity is thinking inside the box as well as outside.”