Words Fail (1999)
Peggy’s approach to creating works alongside live musicians, including pianist Andrew Burashko, the TSO, and the Amici ensemble had begun to earn her a reputation as a serious collaborator for accomplished musicians. In 1999, Peggy began a long-association with acclaimed cellist (and incredible fashionista!) Shauna Rolston.
“In the fall of 1999, ballerina turned producer-curator-filmmaker, Veronica Tennant, invited me to create and perform a short work with cellist Shauna Rolston for a concert marking the opening of the Timms Centre for the Arts in Edmonton. As the artistic director of the gala evening, Veronica had programmed Alberta-born or Alberta-based artists working in music, dance, theatre, poetry, and literature. Though we had never met, Shauna and I both grew up in Alberta, and it was Veronica who brought us together for what would become the first work in a longstanding collaboration.
Shauna suggested several works for me to consider and we quickly settled on a brief, deeply stirring composition by Chan Ka Nin, Soulmate. Having performed to his music for Sylvain Quartet just a year prior, I was extremely excited to dance to another of Ka Nin’s works. Shauna provided me with a cassette recording to work with while I choreographed, but though the music was all there and very well performed, it did nothing to prepare me for the impact of dancing with Shauna live. From our very first run-through together, Shauna played the music from memory, but more than that, she played as if she was creating the music then and there, as if this music was all and everything she needed to express. Her physical intensity was like an energy field, and it catalyzed my dancing. Her playing unleashed the underlying despairI was carrying in relation to my husband’s relentlessly accelerating multiple sclerosis and I titled our work Words Fail.
Just five minutes long, this work for Shauna and I was further enhanced through contributions by a stellar design team: costume designer Caroline O’Brien, visual artist Ina Levitsky, and lighting designer Bonnie Beecher. Shauna and I continued to perform Words Fail together on her recital programs and in my dance concerts, and it was also captured as a short film directed by Veronica Tennant in 2001.” PB
“… a haunting inner journey of mood and introspection.” Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail
If you’d like to explore the films of Veronica Tennant, and watch Words Fails, shot at the Banff Centre, in 1999, please visit Veronica’s site here.
