Portal (2008)
Portal is a solo of about 16 minutes that emerged as I poured over a book that was a gift from my husband – Untitled, a collection of the final photographs of Diane Arbus taken between 1969 and 1971 documenting residents of an American institution for neurologically atypical adults. I had always appreciated Arbus’s work, and this book brought together some elements and images that hit an unexpected chord. Mortality was very much front of mind for me at that moment, and I recognized in these photographs intimations of the profound paradoxes of grandeur and fragility, kinship and abandonment, joy and grief that underlie each life.
As the choreography developed it seemed to deliver me to a vantage point from which one could look beyond the known world, and from which there was no turning back. I described myself to lighting designer Marc Parent as being “stranded in an ocean of darkness” and asked him to break the dance into a series of discrete events, each isolated in a different place on the stage. His design for Portal is masterful, as rich and engaging to dance with as music. Performances of Portal over the next five years were deeply satisfying for me, but eventually, it was beyond my grasp. For our 2018 concert program Map by Years I passed the work along to two outstanding dancers, Kate Holden and Mairi Greig, and they performed this solo on alternate dates.
In the summer of 2021, the Corkin Gallery in Toronto presented an exhibition of work by Diane Arbus and presented a performance of Portal, dance by Kate. Her superb rendering of this dance in the presence of Arbus’s photographs was a hugely significant experience for me, and I hold fast to the indelible memory. - PB
There is no continuous narrative. There are lit up moments, and the rest is dark. - Jeanette Winterson.
“Beginning from clear and simple premises, Baker generates a rich and abundant expression that suggests a thousand and one questions of identity. A great success.” Stephanie Brody, La Presse
“the economy and expressiveness of a fine etching…heroic, mysterious, sublime.”— Michael Crabb, The Toronto Star
related links
Read more about Diane Arbus’ collection Untitled here on nytimes.com
Watch Peggy’s 2020 short film below about Diane Arbus and the creation of Portal.
credits
for Carla Smith
choreography and performance:
Peggy Baker
lighting design:
Marc Parent
awards
2008 Dora Mavor Moore award for Outstanding New Choreography and for Outstanding Performance, Dance Division:
Peggy Baker
2018 Dora Mavor Moore award nomintaion for Outstanding Performance, Dance Division:
Kate Holden
premiere
Calgary
January 23 & 24, 2008
University Theatre
University of Calgary
Portal
subsequent presentations
media links
See 2018 and 2008 in the media and awards archive
photography
As credited
