Peter Carpenter is an independent choreographer whose physical theater performances have often intersected with political activism and critical theory. Often recognized for his choreographic staging of queer theatricality, Carpenter has dedicated the majority of his career to tracking the complex ways in which identity has been shaped in subaltern communities by HIV/AIDS. Numerous festivals, museums, educational institutions and dance companies throughout the U.S. have presented and commissioned his work.
Carpenter has also received funding to create new work from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council and has received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Outstanding Theater Choreography.? Carpenter's independent work has been supplemented by affiliations as an Artistic Associate for Chicago's XSIGHT! Performance Group-which was awarded a Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Choreography and Performance for the 1995 collaboration titled Cycles of Unveiling-and as the resident choreographer for the StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance in Chicago and Chapel Hill, N.C. Carpenter received his M.F.A. in Dance from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures in 2003 and is currently Assistant Professor at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.
