Skin (2012)
Maria Simpson and Paul Matteson,
Choreography by Peter Schmitz
Performance at Bard College Faculty Dance Concert
Recorded for Peter at the Mahaney Center for the Arts, Middlebury College
The fingers were spread.
Pamela Vail
Dance project begun with prompts/direction from Peter for solo work (showings TBD), sponsored by Franklin and Marshall College, PA, begun June 2022 for fall 2022, with contributions by Lisa Gonzales & Jennifer Kayle
how many times
Rosalyn Driscoll and Paul Matteson
Installation, performance, and improvisation with visual artist-sculptor Rosalyn Driscoll and dancer-choreographer, Paul Matteson.
Rehearsal direction by Peter Schmitz, Spring 2022
Performed June 13-19, 2022 at 33 Hawley, Northampton, MA
“Peter, thinking”
By Eleanor Adam
Graphite and pencil on toned paper
48 X 30
Quilt
By Katherine Ferrier
From clothing worn by The Architects in projects created with Peter
Dedicated to Nancy Stark Smith, Gordon Thorne, and Peter Schmitz,
Available Now!
Some Kind of Travel
Written and directed by Wendy Woodson
Created in collaboration with & performed by Peter Schmitz
Poems by Anne Love Woodhull:(click link)
Peter Tributes as of Oct. 8
Peter Schmitz was always thinking about or working on something he was creating. Even if he was chewing gum, whistling a tune, riding his bike in the cold to his job. He was creating while reading an obscure book or passing his hand along some beautiful fabric. He often wore a polka-dot scarf. He was intelligently hilarious. He was always gracious and full of grace, and always kind.
-Anne Woodhull (co-creator and friend, Executive Director of A.P.E.)
Peter is the embodiment of ars longa, vita brevis. Though his loss is devastating, his influence is far reaching and will endure. His unsparing insistence on meaning, and the rigor and wit with which he shaped performance is seen and felt in the work of so many other artists across the valley and beyond.
-Harriet Brickman/H.B. Kronen (Northampton visual artist and dance critic)
Throughout our fifty years of teaching and dancing together in the Valley and internationally, Peter both inspired and challenged. In word and movement, his performative range featured raucous humor and whispered intimacy. In conversation, you wouldn’t know why his tip of head or wave of hand communicated so viscerally: you often felt simultaneously seen, heard, challenged, and accepted. He was—in his bones and being—creative. A perseverant guide into the process of making, he lived an engaged life, both as an artist and while buying morning coffee.
Of his many eloquent dance works, one “Felt Presence of an Absence”, choreographed with the Dance Company of Middlebury in 2000 and performed at Thornes Market in Northampton, remains ever-present—it is now being lived, daily, in our lives.
-Andrea Olsen (longtime creative colleague, co-founder of Dance Gallery and professor emerita of Dance at Middlebury College)
After taking classes and dancing with Peter in the early days of Dance Gallery, he was admitted to the MFA degree program in Dance at Smith where I became his Professor! He was a joy as a grad student and Teaching Fellow; respectful, smart, and thoughtful, and clearly, energetically, on his own creative pathway. It was a great pleasure to dance in his choreographies and to have him dance in mine during his degree program and after—and to continue to look forward to his next inventive explorations for many years.
-Susan Waltner (Professor Emerita of Dance, Smith College)
There were many projects that we collaborated on. In every instance, Peter listened deeply to how we might best be charting our course. And then, he came up with vivacious, incisive, highly nuanced, mercurial performances. He could be, by turns, assured, anguished, sly, boundary breaking, menacing, seductive, or knowingly elusive. The quality of his attention to direction was unique and inspiring.
-John Hellweg (Director, Professor Emeritus of Theater, Smith College)
I knew Peter as a fellow artist and friend. I first saw him perform 25 years ago with Ann Carlson and remember being struck by his incredible presence on stage. Many years later, when I moved to Northampton I was delighted to get to know him and to see him perform again later in life. Peter was an artist with absolute integrity, courage, and compassion for others. His integration of movement and spoken word was of the highest level. He was one of the funniest people I know and just a dear person. I miss his wise and irreverent presence in my life and in our community.
--Chris Aiken, Professor, Smith College Department of Dance
Former students:
Peter helped me survive the journey of my life as a doctor and research scientist through keeping connection to dance and performance. . . From working together, I learned to build a movement vocabulary - one that is unique to the dance, the dancers, the message, and the moment. This skill has helped me define foundational vocabularies in my medical practice when communicating with patients and colleagues.
--Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah (Assistant Professor of environmental, reproductive, and women’s health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public health)
Peter’s curiosity drove his artistry and shaped who he was, how he connected to others.
His mysterious and exquisite brilliance drew others to him. He stood calmly and fiercely in his own identity, inspiring his students to do the same—to cultivate their individual voices. His humor was unmatched and his art evoked deep reflection. He profoundly influenced how I dance, how I make dances, how I look at dances, how I teach dance, and simply, how I am.
--Pamela Vail (performer in Moving Through, choreographer, and improviser, founding member of The Architects, and associate professor of dance at Franklin & Marshall College)
He changed my life when he deigned to include me in his work. I am certain I wouldn’t be where/who I am without that. I admire him fiercely.
--Jennifer Kayle (choreographer, and improviser, founding member of The Architects, professor and co-director of the MFA Program, University of Iowa)
Peter has been always present in my making, past and current. That which is unexpected and unconsidered are the things that he encouraged me to invite in, and I am fuller for it. The lines of connection that I'm reminded of in moments like this are hope and heat in the times that feel cold or dark.
--Simon Thomas-Train (professional dance artist, former student)
Peter’s class was the first time I realized that dance and text could coexist in an experimental, impromptu, and authentic way, and suddenly a thousand doors of possibility were flung open. Suddenly here was this class and teacher showing me there was a way to express myself as an artist that made more sense, that was closer to my own curious sense of truth and humor.
--David Barlow, Professional actor, former student
Colleagues:
A quintessential artist, an inspired and inspiring teacher, a kind, hilarious man, Peter Schmitz will forever be a powerful force in the lives of those students and colleagues at Middlebury fortunate enough to have encountered him, in or outside of class. His brilliance washed into the general student population through performance, support of LGBTQ+ people, and his general engagement in community life. He was a force until the end of his life and continues to inspire now.
--Penny Campbell (Professor Emerita, Dance at Middlebury College)
I really loved the all-in experience of Peter in motion. Nothing quite like him. My all-time favorite happened long ago, and I have this water-color impression forever in my mind. He was doing this dance with a chair. He wore a wild black/white/grey leotard to go with his searching gaze. The whole thing was screaming “I’m out of control” while Peter so calmly steered the vehicle as it was meant to operate. It was elegant and desperate and stoic and beautiful.
I feel lucky that I get to keep that moment of his making in my pile of creative treasures.
--Tony Vacca (Musician with Dance Gallery classes and performances at Thornes, American percussionist specializing in jazz and an early innovator in world music.)
His spirit is like no other.
-- Lisa Nelson (Movement artist, editor of Contact Quarterly
Brave authenticity, seasoned with humor, felt like Peter’s special gift. What a remarkable and living soul!
--John Elder (author and Professor Emeritus at Middlebury College)
Peter was a smart, eccentric chameleon who created powerful connections with his colleagues on stage. As a collaborator he made my work immensely better. He was a dancer, a choreographer, an actor, a thinker. Peter changed the world around him.
--Cheryl Faraone (Co-founder of Potomac Theater Project, Professor Emerita, Theatre at Middlebury College)
Staff Writer Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
Published: 10/13/2022 4:42:58 PM
One friend and colleague described him this way: “Every bone and fiber in him was creative.” Another called him a “quintessential artist, an inspired and inspiring teacher, (and) a kind, hilarious man.”
Peter B. Schmitz, a longtime modern/contemporary dancer, choreographer and teacher who died in August at age 71, was a well-known figure in the Valley’s artistic circles, dating back to the 1970s when he was part of a dance company that had residences at Mount Holyoke College and Thornes Market.
In a career that also took him to New York City and to teaching positions at Amherst and Middlebury colleges, Schmitz had an active career in theater as well, performing with a number of ensembles and wedding his love of movement and spoken word. But for all his serious approach to art, Schmitz was also, as fellow dancer Andrea Olsen recalls, “wonderfully irreverent.”
Now Olsen and other colleagues and friends of Schmitz, who lived in Amherst, have scheduled a remembrance of his life this weekend at 33 Hawley, the Community Arts Trust building in Northampton, where several dancers will perform work either choreographed by Schmitz or inspired by him.
Poetry and theatrical readings are also part of what’s called “Moving Through: Celebrating Peter B. Schmitz.”
In addition, the event, which takes place Oct. 14 and 15, includes a free “installation gathering space” on Oct. 14 in the Workroom Theater at 33 Hawley and will include artwork, photos and other memorabilia of Schmitz. From noon to 7 p.m., and from 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 15, visitors can gather to share stories of Schmitz or to read, sit, dance, or whatever feels right, Olsen said.
“Peter was a great reader, and he loved to talk about film, about theater, art, about so many things,” she said. “He was always a fun person to be with … so many people have great memories of spending time with him.”