Peter DiMuro has woven a career as a dancer, actor, choreographer, director, teacher, arts engager and facilitator of creativity for over 30 years.
His current creative umbrella is Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion, a company that develops and performs artistic works in dance and dance/theatre. Additional goals for the company include cultivating dance/arts literacy, advocacy and engagement. The company was recently awarded a multi-year Boston Center for the Arts residency, as well as the Boston Dance Alliance's 2014/15 Rehearsal and Retreat Fellowship, held at the Vermont Performance Lab. Peter is the inaugural Choreographer in Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for 2018, and recipient of a recent Next Steps grant from the Boston Foundation and Aliad Fund.
As Executive Artistic Director of The Dance Complex, he continues to invest in advancing the craft of choreography and the field of dance, creating an arc of programs for young-to-established dance-makers including developmental residencies and curating performance.
He was Artistic Director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange 2003-2008, capping a 15-year relationship as a collaborator, performer and lead-artist with the company founded by MacArthur "Genius" Lerman. His career has taken Peter and his work to over 40 of the US states, Hong Kong, Japan and throughout Europe.
Recent commissions have appeared at the Hatch Shell on Boston’s Esplanade, including Pioneers, set to the Copland score “Rodeo”, per permission of the Copland Estate, and the upcoming Growing Our Gardens. Both are commissions from Boston Landmarks Orchestra. Peter’s dances for “Boys From Syracuse” and “Romeo and Juliet” appeared in recent Commonwealth Shakespeare Company productions. His Near/Far/In/Out and the alternative family inspired un-Nutrcacker, Gumdrops and the Funny Uncle, appeared in the Dance Exchange repertory and engaged inter-generational casts including LGTBQ community members and allies, alongside the professional dancers of Dance Exchange, and the current PDM company’s production performed annually.
Other recent works include: Dos Hombres, a duet for Columbian born Elver Ariza-Silva, an adult survivor of polio, and Nino de los Reyes, an internationally renowned flamenco star from Madrid; a commission from The Boston Conservatory allowed the creation of Archive & Etchings, made with support from the Alzheimer's Association of Massachusetts & New Hampshire.
His work has appeared internationally, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Place and Church Street in DC, and commissioned by the Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, The Florida Dance Festival, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, The Bates Dance Festival, Auras Dance Theatre (Lithuania), Boston Dance Umbrella. His choreography appears in a nationally aired television commercial for the National Institute on Aging. He taught several summers at the Cornerstone Theatre Institute/LA, American Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival. Peter designed and facilitated the Massachusetts’ Cultural Council’s Elder Arts Initiative, a mutual mentoring program for artists and caregivers working with seniors.
As a speaker on arts and creative processes, Peter has spoken for National GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educators Network) Conference, the Washington region PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), state arts councils in Oklahoma and New Hampshire and as a guest of the National Dance Academy/Mexico City and Firkin Crane Institute/Cork Ireland. He has adjudicated for several American College Dance Festival Association regional gatherings and was named a White House Millennial Artist in 2000, and a 1995 Mayor of Boston/ProArts Public Service in the Arts Award recipient. He was awarded Salem State University’s Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award in 2017.
Peter was named a White House Millennial Artist, a Mayor of Boston/ProArts Arts Award recipient, and his work has received grants/support from the National Performance Network, the Mass Artists’ Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, MetLife Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2010, he represented the US as an emissary for the Department of State in Madrid, adjudicating an international competition for emerging artists. Peter was an Artist in Residence for the inaugural cohort of the Mayor of Boston's AIR program in 2015, and the recipient of an Arts Fuse Award in 2016. As director of The Dance Complex, he has garnered game-changing grants to benefit the organization and the local dance community, including an unprecedented $500,000 grant for dance from the Barr Foundation.
He has served on the boards of the Dance Umbrella/Boston, National Performance Network, Dance/USA, Capitol Region Educators in Dance Organization, and as panelist for New England Foundation for the Arts, Maryland State Arts Council, DC Commission for the Arts, and as faculty for NEFA’s Regional Dance Development Initiative in Illinois and New England. Peter’s work has received grants from the National Performance Network, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts.
He was host and creative consultant to VelocityDC, an annual DC based showcase, and continues to speak on dance for Celebrity Series/Boston and throughout the country. He engages non-artists with creative process workshops in the workplace by teaching/facilitating in corporate settings, including clients Whole Foods.
He received an MFA in Dance from Connecticut College under Martha Myers and Gerri Houlihan; a BFA in Theatre from Drake University, with early study in dance under Sally Garfield, and continued study in New York, Boston and at the American Dance Festival. Originally from Round Lake, IL (population, circa 1970: 250), he is the youngest of three children, the son of the Chief of Police (Dad) and a machinist /gal Friday (Mom). He has a niece named for the Crayola crayon, Sienna.