this identity: woven (2023)
this identity: woven, is one of two works created through Peggy Baker Dance Projects’ RBC Emerging Artists Program in the fall of 2022. My intention with this final iteration of the program was to co-create solo dance pieces through collaborations that bridged generations, cultural frameworks, and artistic practice; and that employed text as foundational source. Derek Souvannavong’s application to the program was extremely exciting. He described his ambition of “re-finding and sharing my voice as a Lao-Canadian dance artist within a western form”; of wanting to “explore the beauty of Lao language, its fonts and meanings, its beautiful curves, lines, definition and content, the shape of each letter and the placement of the vowels, accent and tone markers that envelop each consonant to create a complex variety of sounds.” I had proposed an interest in using text as a foundational source for movement invention as a premise for this co-creation project, so our interests were deeply aligned.
We began our first day together in conversation and I took notes throughout. Toward the end of our session, I read back to Derek the thoughts I had captured and asked if there was something that struck a particularly deep chord with him. He chose the statement “I don’t know what I want to reach or how I want to reach it, but I want to bring it into a space with others”. I used this quote as the spine, the vertical axis, for a word score I built using the notes I had taken during our conversation, and this served as the framework for our creative process.
As has been my practice for past many years, we worked in silence and began to source music once we had a full first draft. Derek and I quickly and easily agreed on three of short pieces by Richard Reed Parry, John Cage, and my late husband Ahmed Hassan, suspended within brackets of silence.
Derek moves with elegance and simplicity. He is mindful and precise. Every action he makes is etched clearly in space and exactly placed within a rhythmic structure. He is grounded in a kind of dignity that touches me profoundly. - PB
Dance: made in Canada/ fait au Canada 2023
excerpted from Robert Binet’s program note for the Binet Series:
I was incredibly moved when I first witnessed Peggy Baker’s collaborations with Derek Souvannavong and Vania Dodoo-Beals. To me these works embody the very best of what intergenerational mentorship and collaboration can be: a sharing of process and practice that facilitates expansion for all involved and puts the younger artist more deeply in touch with their own voice. Derek and Vania are glorious dancers and creators, and the way Peggy has put wind in their sails as they bring their ideas out into the world makes me deeply excited about the future of dance in Canada. - Robert Binet
credits
performance and movement invention:
Derek Souvannavong
creative process, choreographic composition, direction:
Peggy Baker
music:
Duet for Heart and Breath / Richard Reed Parry / Nadia Sirota (viola), Richard Reed Parry (piano)
Pour Anne-Marie Lemay (Fourteen Remembered) / composed and performed by Ahmed Hassan (angklung) and Louis Simao (double bass) / used with permission
Music for Marcel Duchamp / John Cage / Stephen Drury (piano)
preview:
Toronto
November 10, 2022
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
COC Free Lunchtime Concert Series
concert title: orchestrated action
premiere
Toronto
August 16, 18 & 19, 2023
Betty Oliphant Theatre
dance: made in Canada, Binet Series