A Portal to Peggy Baker: An Interview

One year ago, dance great Peggy Baker was supposed to grace the Montreal stage, but unfortunately an injury prevented her from doing so. This year, she comes back as a guest of the High Lights Festival to make up for lost time. I had the chance to talk to her as she prepared to come to the city.

Peggy Baker, photo by John Lauener

Indyish The first thing that strikes me about the show you’ll be presenting this week is the confusion of roles from one piece to another… You’re choreographer and dancer for a solo; choreographer for another solo performed by Andrea Nann; and, finally, you’re dancing a duo choreographed by James Kudelka. Is there a reason behind this eclectic mix of roles?

Peggy Baker Oh, my goodness… what an inspired question! That actually reflects my interests very well. These are roles I take on very easily, going from one to another. It didn’t strike me as unusual, but you’re correct.

Indy Why did you decide to have someone else perform your solo Unfold?

PB I am 55 years old, as you may know, and I made that dance 8 years ago. I’m at a very different place in my physical life right now. I didn’t want to dance an entire program because I hurt my foot last year while preparing for my show in Montreal. It’s not something that happened as an accident; it just happened very slowly. I guess that dancing is too hard at my age. I think Andrea Nann [who will be dancing the piece] is a wonderful dancer.

Indy What was it that drew you to Andrea specifically?

PB First of all, she’s quite different than me, so this interests me. A different kind of physique, technique… It means right away that the person will be free to bring their own individuality to the piece. I don’t want somebody to copy me. Let’s say I do a cover of a Neil Young song… it would be ridiculous for me to sing like Neil Young.

Indy For the duo, there will be live musicians onstage with you. What are the main differences for a dancer between dancing to a recording and dancing to live music?

PB When you dance to a recording, you very quickly memorize many details about that recording and you know you can anticipate everything about that music. When you dance to live music, you have a good idea of what’s going to happen, but you don’t know any of the details about that performance, about some kind of emphasis or tempo or rhythm. You have to listen in a very different way and you can’t make any assumption about what’s going to happen. And the dancer becomes a listener. When it’s recorded, it’s absolutely stable, like the floor we’re dancing on. So imagine a floor that’s always moving… that’s what it’s like to dance to live music. You hear a lot of things you’ve never heard before. Unless the musicians are playing absolutely by rote, mechanically in a way, which is something great musicians would never do.

Indy On the other hand, for your new solo Portal, you’re dancing to silence. What triggered that decision?

PB Well, it’s the opposite of live music! (She laughs.) It’s the vivid, vivid silence that we all share together. There’s no music playing and people become much more aware of their own body. Everyone’s concentration becomes very tuned in. It allows the audience to take notice of many details. I consider this dance a duet for myself and my light designer. The lighting design comes to take the place that music usually occupies. After each episode there’s a black out and the figure reappears somewhere else on the stage in a different light. Also, the two pieces of music in the program are very rich, so I wanted to add something to the program that contrasted. Sometimes, if you have a piece of music still present, it’s jarring to hear something else. Maybe it’s like planning a meal. You don’t want to eat one rich thing after another. You might need something simpler in between to enjoy the richer things.

The world premiere of Peggy Baker’s Portal is Wednesday, February 20 at 8pm, and goes on until Saturday, February 23 at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts. For more information, call 514.842.2112.