Sand (1990)

Jun 10

Annabelle Gamson had choreographed a first solo for me in 1989 as a gift, and a grant from the Canada Council allowed me to go back to her within a year to commission a second work. The first solo, Accident, used a dark work for french horn and piano by Francis Poulenc and Annabelle once again chose Poulenc for me – this time a work for flute and piano that was clear and open. In Accident, time felt arrested, knashed within a cataclysmic moment. This second dance, Sand, dealt with a very different notion of time: time as movement and space, time as an endless expanse in which the contour is ceaselessly shifting. I performed Sand just twice – March 24, 1990 at the Jack Singer Hall in Calgary for a Dance in Canada Awards gala and again on March 29, 1990 for Dancemakers’ 15th Anniversary gala at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto.

There are no photographs of this dance, no footage of rehearsal or performance. I have only vague memories of the movement. But what I can call up, as vividly now as when this dance was just being made, is the intensity of Annabelle’s gaze taking in my dancing, her serious sense of purpose in creating together, her dexterity in translating images as action, and her love of doing the work.

"Peggy Baker proved to be a stunningly strong modern dancer whose earthy solo, SAND, easily took charge of the expansive stage." Kate Zimmerman, The Calgary Herald