From his background as a dancer in Martha Graham’s company, Peter Randazzo burst intoToronto as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Between 1968 and 1993, Peter Randazzo created more than forty works for TDT - in the company’s first years he was the most prolific of the three founding choreographers. His dances were by turns dark, comic, surreal and boldly provocative. Early works such as Visions for a Theatre of the Mind (1971) and Mythic Journey (1974), were serious and abstract, paying homage to his artistic foundations in the work of Martha Graham.

Randazzo’s deepening interest in evoking dramatic situations developed in A Flight of Spiral Stairs (1972) and The Letter (1974). Works of visual art inspired some of Randazzo’s most stunning choreography. L’Assassin Menacé (1975), based on paintings by René Magritte, was a surreal romp, and is considered a Canadian classic. The choreographer, mercurial and satyr-like onstage, originally cast himself in the work, and danced an unforgettable interpretation of the role of Fantômas. Randazzo’s Nighthawks (1976) set the melancholic midnight world of Edward Hopper’s paintings into motion. A Simple Melody (1977) was a caprice inspired by images of antic superheroes, and has been restaged by the Danny Grossman Dance Company, and for Ryerson Dances. Still later Randazzo became fascinated by musical minimalism. Moving to Drumming (1980) and Octet (1980) challenged the boundaries of dancers’ virtuosity and his dynamic, relentlessly kinetic movement style. In 1988, Randazzo, along with Beatty and Earle, received the prestigious Toronto Arts Award, for their contributions to Toronto’s artistic vitality, and for having changed the face of dance in Toronto.