Peter Kyle

Peter Kyle is a choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, teacher and Artistic Director, of Peter Kyle Dance (PKD), founded in New York City in 2006, and relocated to the Hartford, CT area in 2018. PKD was established to further the art of dance and all the arts through collaboration. Creating innovative performances, education and outreach programs the company celebrates a fundamental belief in the power of the imagination and the beauty of humans in motion. The projecte-based company showcases work that has been called “exquisitely choreographed” (Time Out New York), “vibrantly rich” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), “an enjoyable evening” (The New York Times), and “transfixing” (The Dance Enthusiast). 

Since its launch at the historic Abrons Arts Center / Henry Street Settlement, Peter Kyle Dance has performed to critical acclaim at venues throughout New York City including Joyce SoHo, Symphony Space, Dance New Amsterdam, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, One Arm Red, Triskelion Arts, Judson Memorial Church, and 3LD Art & Technology Center. In addition, the company has performed and conducted projects across the United States in Seattle, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Maine, Arizona, Texas, in its new home state of Connecticut and overseas in The Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, Germany, China, Mexico, and Ukraine. In addition, the company develops and installs the popular Tiny Dance Film Series, which Kyle created in 2006 with composer James Bigbee Garver. The series has been installed in theaters, galleries, art and dance film festivals throughout New York City, in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Norway, and twice in the Pearl Delta region in China. Kyle’s short film, crowd SEEN, was an official selection in the 2017 Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. PKD has created new work with collaborators as diverse as sculptors working in hand carved, wearable marble (Venske & Spänle), aperiodic mirrored mosaic tiling and folded paper (Caleb Nussear), to musicians blurring lines between live percussion and electronica (Brad Wentworth), to experimental cellists (Lori Goldston), to ecstactic groove jazz pianists/composers (Michael Bellar), to classically trained clarinetists (Diego Vásquez), to couture fashion designers (Garo Sparo), among many others.

Peter Kyle Dance has received funding and other support from American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, Mertz Gilmore Foundation through Triskelion Arts, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, One Arm Red, The Field/Artward Bound, Mark Morris Dance Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Gibney Dance Center, and the U.S. Consulate in China, among others. Kyle has also received awards from Concours Internationale de Danse de Paris, the Pittsburgh Dance Council, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Washington State Arts Commission, a 2016 Fulbright Specialist grant to Ukraine, and in 2017-2018 he was a co-recipient of a Public Diplomacy Small Grant from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, in support of Dancing Through Translation, a research-performance project with choreographer Anton Ovchinnikov and a team of ten Ukrainian dancers, musicians and designers.

The company combines its performance work with innovative workshops and outreach programs that bring new dance experiences to diverse communities. A highly regarded teacher of dance, improvisation, performance, composition, movement for actors, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, Peter Kyle has extensive experience conducting master classes, workshops and residencies internationally. He is among the first individuals in the United States to teach the Slow Tempo movement training of Japanese theater director, Shogo Ohta. In addition, he has served on the faculties of University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance, Bard College, Marymount Manhattan College, Bearnstow, Sansori Young Creatives, and currently serves on the faculty of the Department of Theater and Dance at Trinity College, in Hartford, CT.

A highly versatile performer, Kyle toured the world as a principal dancer with Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance, and is a leading proponent of that legacy. He has worked with numerous other companies including Mark Morris Dance Group, Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Pittsburgh Dance Alloy, Gina Gibney Dance, and Works/Laura Glenn Dance. In addition, from 2001-2008 he worked in sustained collaboration with the theater company P3/east, conducting numerous projects in Seattle, South Carolina, New York, and Kyoto. From 2018-2020 Kyle was Associate Director of Bearnstow, an historic arts retreat in rural Maine, dedicated to fostering appreciation and experience of the arts thru the lens of our natural environment. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Dance Alliance, dedicated to increasing public awareness of dance in all its forms and serving the needs of the state-wide dance community.

Kyle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance and German Area Studies from Kenyon College, and Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance from University of Washington.

For more information visit www.peterkyledance.org.