Arts & Entertainment

World-Renowned Choreographer Returns to CCBC Essex

Peter Pucci, a CCBC Essex alum, helped current students develop a dance as part of the school's annual spring concert.

World-renowned choreographer Peter Pucci never envisioned himself to be an artist.

The son of a bricklayer, Pucci grew up in East Baltimore and graduated from Northern High School in the 1970s before moving on to what was then Essex Community College, now CCBC Essex.

Pucci’s goal was to eventually become a physical education teacher. But, a dance class that was a required course for his major soon changed all of that.  That class— movement improvisation—was a “disguised dance class for jocks,” said Pucci, who was on the school’s track and cross country teams.

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The teacher of that class, Carol Drake Cascio, saw his potential as a dancer and encouraged him to pursue it as a career, Pucci said.

“I didn’t discover dance,” Pucci said. “Dance discovered me. Carol Drake Cascio and what is now CCBC Essex provided me the foundation and the motivation to accomplish all that I have over the last 30 years.”

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Pucci eventually made his way to New York, in the early 1980s where he soon joined the Pilobolus Dance Theatre. He spent nine years there as principal dancer and co-choreographer. 

The experience eventually led Pucci to branch out on his own to form his own company —Pucci Plus Dancers— and has since traveled around the world as his work has appeared on Broadway on film and on TV.

“I’ve always tried to reach a diverse audience with my work in hopes of attracting the next generation of dancers,” Pucci said.

Pucci is also an artist in residence at Manhattanville College in New York and teaches at The Juilliard School, but has never forgotten his roots. That is why he recently returned to CCBC Essex, where he worked with current students to create a new work as part of the t.

Pucci’s work is entitled Above Us Only Sky and is inspired by the book “After The Fall, New Yorkers Remember September 11, 2001.” He said the performance is a tribute to the events of that tragic day and the impact it has had on our lives.

“Most of the dancers were very young when the attacks occurred, so I had them read stories from the book to gain a greater understanding of what happened that day and the emotions that followed,” Pucci said. “It helped a great deal with their preparation.”

With all that Pucci has accomplished in his career, he said what he still enjoys most is working with dancers and teaching them how to maximize their potential.

“There is something special about taking something from the beginning and seeing it though to completion,” Pucci said. “It was amazing to come back after all these years and impart some of my knowledge to the next generation of dancers to keep the artform alive.”

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The CCBC Essex spring concert, which began Thursday, will also be open to the public at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday on the Mainstage of the B Building Theatre at CCBC Essex.

Tickets, which are $8 general admission and $5 for seniors, students, CCBC faculty, staff and alumni, are available from the CCBC Box Office at 443-840-2787 (ARTS) or two hours prior to each performance.

 


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