Mt. Kisco Choreographer Ready For Big Apple Circus

Mount Kisco resident Peter Pucci has a reputation for being a rigorous, creative and caring choreographer. His expertise ranges from ballet and modern dance to theater and instruction as the Artist in Residence at Manhattanville College--- and everything in between. When it seems as though Pucci has done it all, he goes out and joins the circus. 

In three weeks' time, Pucci - who runs Peter Pucci Plus Dancers - will tackle unchartered territory in his career as he steps in to choreograph for the Big Apple Circus. 

"I've been working individually with my assistant. We talk a lot about it and put ideas on paper," Pucci said. "There are a lot of unknowns in the circus."

Pucci describes the Big Apple Circus as a worldly affair featuring people of different cultural backgrounds. He goes down a list of the international performers, including a contortionist from Mongolia, an act from China and another from Ethiopia. The differences in culture are what Pucci feels brings the show together.

"The show itself is about the universality of the language of movement," he said. "It's not a dance show, but it is inspired by dance."

Pucci's work for the circus will include opening and closing numbers, as well as working with individual characters throughout the duration of the show. 

"It's going to be interesting when you walk into the room and you see people from all over the world," he said. "The circus is very different, that they all have acts that they do and we are going to ask them to do things that they normally don't do."

For the man who has been commissioned to choreograph for the Vassar Repertory Dance and the Dance Theater of Harlem - just to name a very few - tacking the circus may seem like a whole other realm. To Pucci, it is opportunities like these that make his career exciting.

"The variety is what's interesting to me and what keeps me sane," he said. "Doing different jobs, working with different people. I think that's the best thing."

Ara Fitzgerald, the Associate Director of the Dance and Theater  Department and Chair of the Dance Program at Manhattanville College, hired Pucci as the Artist in Residence four years ago based on his work and his caring attitude towards students. 

"He has in his work an understanding of the interconnection between dance and theater, and strength as an artist and as a teacher," she said. "We're very fortunate to have him. He's a really brilliant artist."

Keith Saunders, director of the Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble, first met Pucci when they worked together in 2003 at the Snowy Range Dance Festival in Wyoming. He agrees with Fitzgerald that Pucci is skilled at his craft and adept in both dance and theater. 

"Personally I find Peter to be a very quietly intelligent man and artist," he said. "He works in theater, he works in dance and he is comfortable in all areas because of his intelligence, because of the fact that he probes and investigates and tries to get to the heart of the matter of whatever he's working on."

It is with this mentality that Pucci approaches the 33rd edition of the Big Apple Circus: curious, excited and backed with a whole spectrum of experience and credentials. 

"I have one foot in the dance world, and one foot in the theater world," he said. "I have a lot to offer in different ways."