epilogue (2013)
As a companion piece to Split Screen Stereophonic, which portrays couples in the throes of emotionally and erotically charged relationships, I wanted to make a solo centered on a woman in the aftermath of the loss of her beloved. In 2013, it had been two years since the death of my husband, and I was still consumed by sorrow. The world around me felt vastly diminished by his absence, and my interior world felt empty. Though I could work well with collaborating dancers, I struggled mightily to do any dancing myself. The movements that would NOT let go of me had all originated in Are You Okay, created while Ahmed was in palliative care, and performed (with great difficulty) in the weeks immediately after his death. In an attempt to disrupt the insistence of the movements that were haunting me, I brought a couple of chairs into the middle of the studio, thinking I could avoid my own dancing by moving the chairs to tell the story. As soon as I touched the empty chairs they began to speak both to me and for me.
I had already made significant progress when I started to think about choosing music, and as I had done for Split Screen Stereophonic, I thought first of listening to recordings that had been given to me by musician friends. On a CD by Philadelphia guitarist Tim Motzer I found a track that I could not turn away from and was stunned to read the title: we were. Tim graciously allowed me to use this single track played twice in row.
I had been referencing Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces for Split Screen Stereophonic and discovered in the front of that book a dedication to his late translator that perfectly expressed my own feelings:
A part of me died with him.
A part of him lives with me.
- PB
“…an eloquent yet open-ended commentary on a relationship lost, remembered and treasured… haunting...” Michael Crabb, The Toronto Star
credits
For Ahmed Hassan (1955 – 2011)
choreography:
Peggy Baker
music:
Tim Motzer (we were, 2010)
lighting design:
Marc Parent
dancer:
Peggy Baker
premiere
February 27, 2013
Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto
concert title: Stereophonic
subsequent presentations
media links
See 2013 in the media and awards archive
Filmed in 2020, Peggy talks about the influence of award-winning Toronto director, the late Daniel Brooks on the two works, Are you Okay and epilogue.
photography
Please refer to the individuals photo credits.
