loin, très loin (2000)

Feb 7

For several months at a time, during 1998 and 1999, I had the huge privilege and grand adventure of being included in a quartet project with Fortier Danse Créations in Montreal, La part des anges. The title, (which translates as “the angels’ share”), is a French idiom that refers to the small portion of alcohol lost through the wooden walls of barrels used for fermentation. Perhaps this title was a reference not only to what might be lost in translation, but also to what essence might be captured by bringing together four dancers whose foundation in the dance was dramatically different in each case. In his program note for this work, choreographer and cast member, Paul-André Fortier describes me as coming from the world of modern dance; Gioconda Barbuto as being a classical dancer; and Robert Meilleur as a proponent of contemporary dance. I certainly took my own portion during this exceedingly rich and deep experience, and it has continued to work on me over the intervening decades.

Paul-André entered into creation by having each of us learn a recent solo of his, Novembre, and once we all landed with him through this dance he set out through far ranging choreographic experimentation to allow the quartet to arise. His point of view on this was that the dance was waiting in our bodies and in the space and that it would reveal itself through the tasks, proposals, and provocations he set forward. We worked in silence and through a broad range of “atmospheres “ in the studio. Some days were charged with the rigour of copying or improvising, some rode on exuberant joy and hilarity, others were austere and saturated with the weight of significant gestures and choreographic interactions. We worked as a quartet, as re-coupling couples, as soloists. For scenes in which all of us did not dance, the others stood in an upstage centre antechamber as witnesses.

It was thrilling to be on stage with great dance artists in this superb work in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. A year later, Paul-André brought us back together, (with the stellar Lisa Kovacs rather than Gioconda, who was now a dancer with NDT3) and we remounted the dance during a 3-week residency in Angers, France followed by performances in Bordeaux. One night, returning to the hotel from the theatre, Paul-André and I improvised together as we crossed a bridge, and it suddenly hit me very hard how much I was going to miss being a part of his work and world. The next day I gathered up my courage and asked Paul-André if he would consider allowing me to perform a program made up of his short works – Non Coupable, Novembre (which had struck a deep chord in me), my duet from La parts des anges with Robert Meilleur, plus something new for me. When Paul-André’s eyes widened and he said quite simply “Non”, I felt the terrible thud of refusal, and the humiliation of having stupidly trespassed beyond the scope of our relationship. And then he immediately said, “I prefer to make you a full-evening solo”. Within a year, he had done just that.

I wrote a program note for this dance that has become more fully realized with each passing year:

I have become a very different dancer, even in some way a reinvented woman, by virtue of being set in motion by Paul-André Fortier. It is as if his dance asks, “What if this had been the case? Would you not now have become someone else?” So embodying a rewritten history, I navigate a new fate. - PB

Paul André adds: This piece was created extremely quickly. In fact Peggy struggled to remember all the material I was creating, so swiftly did the ideas come tumbling out. The choreography, costuming, lighting and the music all worked in tandem, feeding Peggy’s interpretation. It was the most demanding solo Peggy had ever performed. The multitude of performances at Montreal’s Agora de la danse seemed as daunting as climbing Mount Everest. And what a magnificent ascent!

“It would be impossible to overstate the gravitas of this work… The revolutionary ethos of Fortier’s own early years…are summoned forth here by the acid guitar solos of Gaetan Lebœuf’s original score.” Michael Scott, The Vancouver Sun

related links

Watch a short film made about Paul-André Fortier, released by the National Film Board here on the occasion of the 2012 Governor-General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.

credits

choreography:
Paul-André Fortier

original music:
Gaétan Lebœuf

lighting design:
Marc Parent

costume design:
Denis Lavoie

dancer:
Peggy Baker

awards

Dora Mavor Moore award 2000 for Outstanding Performance, Dance Division, for Peggy Baker

premiere

Montreal
May 17 - 20, 24 - 27, 2000
L’Agora de la danse

subsequent presentations

Full list available here.