Peter Sparling Dance Company

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Sparling has built upon Graham's supremely physical technique and psychologically charged narratives to create a movement sensibility noted for its fluid energy, expressive conviction, and muscular carving of space. Sometimes spoken narrative or poetry amplifies his work. Lately Sparling's projects have fused technology and dance, with fascinating and rewarding results.

This is an auspicious time for Sparling and his company, which is one of the few survivors of this area's dance boom in the 1990s. The search is on for a permanent home within what is hoped to be a new Ann Arbor performing arts center. And the engaging miniseason at Performance Network represents the seven-member company at its peak. Choreographed in the last year, all three pieces on the program manifest an implicit awareness of life's transitions and a healthy need for self-reflection. Stylistically, they illustrate the arc of Sparling's artistic concerns.