(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)March 9, 2004

(Mahwah) – Hockey pucks fly, footballs and basketballs bounce and dance – all while referees’ whistles and coaches’ grunts add rhythm to a musical score that includes the national anthem and a seventh-inning stretch. Pucci: Sport, a 10-member dance company led by Peter Pucci will perform their eclectic fusion of sports and dance Sunday, March 28 at 3 p.m. in the Sharp Theater at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Pucci:Sport embodies the exhilaration of speed and flight in sports and dance,” says Valerie Gladstone of the New York Times. The star athletes in the company include a high-scoring hockey player/dancer, a surfer, a few gymnasts and a dancing female basketball athlete.

Athlete/dancer Pucci looks at sports through the lens of a choreographer. He founded Peter Pucci Plus Dancers in 1986, serving as artistic director and freelance choreographer. The company performs annually in New York City, for five seasons at the Joyce Theater, as well as across the nation and in Europe. They have been featured in several PBS broadcasts and Pucci’s acclaimed Basketball Jones was produced for Broadway at the New Victory Theater. The group is very committed to providing easy access to the art of dance through their extensive community outreach projects.

As a child, while playing basketball on the courts of housing projects in Baltimore, Pucci took a strong interest in sports. He played football at eight years of age. Then came baseball, basketball and track in high school, where became a Hall of Fame player.

At age 19, while on an athletic scholarship at Essex Community College, working toward his degree in physical education, Pucci was required to take a course in movement improvisation, an event that transformed his life. He preferred the creative freedom associated with the dance class to the strict athletic routine. Three weeks before getting his degree, Pucci quit physical education and became a dance major. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts.

For years, Pucci toured worldwide as a principal dancer and served as rehearsal director and co-choreographer with the Pilobolus Dance Theater, before founding Peter Pucci Plus Dancers.

Tickets for Pucci: Sport are $21 for adults, $18 for seniors and $10 for youth. The Sharp Theater is located in the Angelica and Russ Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts on the Ramapo College campus. For more information call 201.684.7844.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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