fractured black (2015)
I think it must have been late 2014 or very early in 2015 that I had my first exchange with Ilter Ibrahimof concerning a festival he hoped to launch in Toronto modelled on Fall for Dance, a long-running and hugely successful, multi-genre dance festival in New York City. He was hoping to launch Fall for Dance North in September 2015 and asked if I would dance a solo for one of the programs. I explained to Ilter that I was no longer dancing, that I was now fully dedicated to creating and presenting works for small ensemble and that I could recommend several dances for him to consider. But he wanted a solo, performed by me. When I explained that I had nothing suitable for such an event he offered to commission something new. I’m not sure where Ilter got this bee in his bonnet about having me on stage, but finally my manager also insisted that I not pass up the opportunity. I knew that if I was going to go on stage again it would need to break new ground through a first collaboration with someone new to my creative and performance world. By chance I heard some music by violinist Sarah Neufeld on CBC’s The Signal with Laurie Brown, and it turned out that Ilter had someone on his board of directors who could offer an introduction.
Sarah and I worked together remotely, meeting briefly for two days of rehearsal a couple of weeks before the premiere, and not again until the tech rehearsal on the stage of the (then) Sony Centre the day of the premiere. She had chosen a track from her upcoming album The Ridge (titled From Our Animal), that took off with the velocity of a gun shot. I suggested that she compose a brief opening sequence to ease both myself and the audience into the work. Sarah chose to add lyrics at the top of the track that began with the phrase “who we are in the dark.”
Looking back at the notes I kept from the early conversations with Sarah, these words and names still strike a chord: number magic, system modeling, fractals, groove, serial, measurement patterns, Jackson Pollack, Helen Frankenthaler, Yoko Ono. When asked by Ilter for a program note I wrote: fractured black splinters a dark and empty stage space to reveal two women – a violinist and a dancer – each caught up in the manic urgency of maintaining their presence. The speed, persistence, and drive of the cycling patterns of sound and movement insinuates that if either of them pauses, even for a moment, the light that illuminates them will be extinguished.
Being on stage together was completely thrilling for both of us. Over a coffee the morning of our second show I broached the idea of a large-scale work for my company, and Sarah responded by saying she was already thinking the same thing. I suggested using the opening line of lyrics she had written for our duet as our starting point, and so the journey that led to the premiere, four years later, of who we are in the dark began.
I remain ever grateful to Ilter for the way his invitation to me opened a whole new chapter in my creative life. - PB
credits
choreographer, dancer:
Peggy Baker
composer, violinist:
Sarah Neufeld
costume:
Caroline O’Brien
lighting design:
Gabriel Cropley
premiere
Toronto
September 30 & October 1, 2015
Sony Centre
Fall for Dance North
media links
See 2015 in the media and awards archive
photography
All photos of Sarah Neufeld and Peggy Baker by Makoto Hirata.
