Peter initially trained as a classical ballet dancer at The Royal Ballet School before dancing at Bayerisches Staatsballett, Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon and Dutch National Ballet. He has also studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy, and photography at Central Saint Martins, London, and the Fotoacademie NL.
He is the creative director of House of Makers, an interdisciplinary performance arts company, and has been affiliated with the Dutch National Ballet as a Young Creative Associate.
This autumn, he is creating All in Passing for NEBT, a work that explores relationships, using the dancers’ qualities of touch, weight exchange, physical tension and resistance. He says:
“We are constantly in relation to others, whether through family, work, or love. Being relational and aware that everyone affects one another fascinates me, and dance is a tangible way to explore this. This is my starting point. …
“All in Passing was created initially as a work-in-progress in 2019. I am now developing the piece with new dancers from NEBT and the composer, Nicholas Thayer.
“Together with this team I will extend the piece with a new beginning and ending, furthering the research into how we can explore our relational aspects and how through relationships our ever changing identity is formed.”
Peter’s recent choreographic works include:
L’Etranger – A solo for principal dancer Artur Shesterikov. The solo represents Artur choosing to be in the spotlight or outside of it. It shows him as a human who takes on being a performer, stepping into the spotlight and exposing his vulnerability to move an audience. Ultimately, he steps out of the spotlight.
(Pas de Deux) – A duet for dancers of the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company.
The duet is an exploration of partnering from the perspective of collaboration. The roles were created in a flexible manner that allowed any gender to take on any role and to adapt the choreography to fit their indivual qualities in relation to their partner.
TimeSpace – A performance stemming from research with long-term collaborators, visual artist Frouke ten Velden and composer Nicholas Thayer.
With this project we aim to explore how the disciplines in a performance can lead or follow the others. We created a work dubbed a “biotope”, as all of the elements lead or follow at different points. Blending the hierarchical roles through out the process to created the performance that we shared with the audience.
Dido & Aeneas – Direction and choreography of Purcell’s opera with a new prologue by Turkish composer Meriç Artaç.
I created a world where Dido’s ultimate end was a choice to return to a time when she was allowed to be who she wanted to be, when she was a child.