Professor Sparling is Artistic Director of the Ann Arbor-based Peter Sparling Dance Company. He danced with the Jose Limon Dance Company from 1971-73. From 1973-87, he was a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company; since then he has returned often to perform, coach and teach. As a regisseur of the Martha Graham Trust, he has staged Graham’s works on his own company and on companies all over the world. Mr. Sparling presented his own company and solo performance, Solo Flight, for five successive seasons at New York’s Riverside Dance Festival. He has held residencies at the American Dance Festival, at numerous American universities and in London, Australia, Portugal and Taiwan. He is a recipient of the 1998 Governor’s Michigan Artist Award and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and Arts Foundation of Michigan. Active in the Institute for the Humanities and in interdisciplinary studies at UM, he has worked extensively with composers, actors, visual artists and scientists to create collaborative performance works. He has written texts for performance and has been published in the Michigan Quarterly Review. He has written texts for performance and has been published in the Michigan Quarterly Review and Choreography and Dance. He recently choreographed and directed Gluck’s opera, Orfeo and Euridice, for University Musical Society’s 2001-2002 season. Bodytalk: A Vaudeville for Dancing Man at Middle Age, featuring original video and collaborations with numerous Michigan artists, premiered at the 2002 Ann Arbor Summer Festival. His company regularly appears at Ann Arbor’s Performance Network.