Peter Sparling is Thurnau Professor of Dance at the University of Michigan and an active independent dance artist. As former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, chair of the U-M Department of Dance from 1988-93, and Artistic Director of Peter Sparling Dance Company from 1993-2008, he has had extensive experience as a director, choreographer, performer, teacher, lecturer, video artist, writer, collaborator, administrator and dance/arts consultant.
A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School, Sparling danced with the companies of José Limon and Martha Graham while also forming his own company and one-man dance performance, Solo Flight, before leaving New York for Ann Arbor in 1985. As a regisseur of the Martha Graham Resources, he has since staged Graham’s works on his own company and on companies all over the world. He has held residencies at the American Dance Festival, at numerous American universities, and in Mexico, London, Australia, Portugal, and Taiwan. He is a recipient of the 1998 Governor’s Michigan Artist Award and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Arts Foundation of Michigan.
Sparling has collaborated extensively with composers, poets, actors, visual artists and scientists. He has written texts for performance and been published in Ballet Review, Michigan Quarterly Review and Choreography and Dance. He was commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Arts to create work for both the Detroit 300: Artists Take on Detroit: Projects for the Tricentennial and the exhibit Degas and the Dance. His solo show Bodytalk (2002) featured original text and video as well as a host of distinguished collaborators. His video/performance work, Peninsula, received its premiere at the 2004 Ann Arbor Summer Festival and celebrates the cultural and geographical landscapes of his home state of Michigan. A videographer and teacher of screendance at the University of Michigan, his videodance Babel was selected for the 2007 New York Dance on Camera Festival and the 2008 American Dance Festival Dance Film & Video Festival, and has toured the world. His most recent made-for-TV work, Climbing Sainte-Victoire, was broadcast on Michigan Television in April 2009. He is presently working with photographer Ernestine Rubin and architect Monica Ponce de Leon on a new installation.
