Joshua Going
Peter Cheng is a Taiwanese-American dancer, art model, and movement director based in New York City whose interests lie in the realm of art-making with the physical body at the forefront.
After receiving his BFA from UC Santa Barbara, Peter went on to train with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, ODC/Dance, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Post:Ballet, Sidra Bell Dance NY | MODULE, Visceral Dance Chicago, Springboard Danse Montréal, YYDC/Yin Yue, NW Dance Project, NVA & Guests, and Henny Jurrïens Studio (NL).
Throughout his career Peter has learned works by Sharon Eyal / L-E-V, Caili Quan (BalletX), Flavien Esmieu (BalletBoyz), Charlotte Bydwell, Tilly Evans-Krueger, Hayden J. Frederick, Garrett Paker, and performed with Konverjdans, Project44 Dance, LaneCoArts, Tabula Rasa Dance Theater, CreArtBox, Lenora Lee Dance, and Black Box Music Ensemble.
In addition to freelancing in New York, he founded PETER & CO. From 2014-2023, the company has been presented at over 25 festivals across San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Amsterdam, and New York in notable venues including Judson Church, Martha Graham Studio Theater, 92nd Y and Center for Performance Research.
In 2020 Peter extended his movement practice to include live art modeling and is one of the few Asian American male art models actively working in New York today. He has posed at the National Arts Club through The Drawing Foundation/Drawing New York, SVA New York, NYU Tisch, Hauser + Wirth, The XX Venue, The Bat Haus, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art/SoHo Project Space, and regularly with queer art groups LGBTQ+ Art, Doable Guys, The Anatomy Lesson, and Gay Men’s Sketch. Throughout his time as a figurative model, he has worked with renown artists Mu Pan, Steve Brodner, Curtis Holder, Cacho Falcon, Josh Cochran, A.E. Kieren, John A. Parks, and has posed for artists of all levels (virtually and in-person) across San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, and Glasgow.
His passion for cultivating community and teaching has extended to Play Motion Lab, a platform offering affordable classes and workshops to professional dancers actively working in New York.
Artist Statement
As a dance maker the body to me is a vessel, a vehicle, and a catalyst for our histories, lineage, and a precursor to the future. The dancer’s ability to express beyond the planes of normalcy provides a peek into a state of constant conflict with the known and unknown. In a sense, uncovering the deepest subconsciousness of our thoughts manifested into physical being. I am most interested in divulging the creative confines of the human experience, coupled with unexpected ranges of a highly process-based improvisational score — movement-based or otherwise.
In my work, I meld contemporary forms with the classical structures of the ballet line while also diving into the intent of movement as a partnership with time, and our ability to work against it. I find fascination with singular or multiple bodies in space and how lighting can create a container to house the anatomical. I luxuriate in the sensibilities of musicality, rhythm, and pulse.
I am ultimately interested in investigating the body and dancer as a vehicle for translating and transposing the past, the present, and the future.
