As a student at then-Essex Community College, east Baltimore county resident Peter Pucci aspired to be a Physical Education teacher. He ran track as a student athlete, and was required to take a class on rhythmic analysis from Dance faculty member Carol (Drake) Cascio. It literally changed his life.
“Dance chose me,” Pucci says. “I feel I owe my 30+ year career to that moment at CCBC.”
Since that moment in the Wellness Building on the Essex campus, Pucci has built an international career in dance, as a performer, choreographer, and recently, filmmaker. As he has traveled the world, won major awards, and choreographed from Broadway to the Big Apple Circus, he has maintained his roots in the Baltimore area.
He’s come back to CCBC many times. Most recently, he offered a week-long intensive with the student dance company, and set a new piece on them for our Spring Dance Concert in 2012. During his visit, we took a chance to talk with him about his experiences.
Now Peter returns again, to undertake one of his most ambitious projects ever in a distinguished career. Inspired by the emerging knowledge in genetics of how our ancestors spread across the continents through migration, Pucci is bringing together up to 60 dancers for a boundary-breaking work too large to fit on a traditional stage. Throughout this fall, he will work with CCBC Dance Company, local dancers from our community, and students in Baltimore County Public Schools to create a large-scale, original dance experience currently titled Migration.
Supported by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Performing Arts at CCBC will present the world premiere of this challenging new work on the main floor of the CCBC Essex field house — the very place where Pucci’s journey toward professional dance began four decades ago.
Save the date for January 28, 2018 to be part of this artistic event. The performance will be free to the public as a gift to our community, but tickets will be required. You can get your tickets by calling our Box Office at 443-840-ARTS.
Check back with us here for updates and progress as this completely new artwork is brought to life over the next several months.