Beautiful Day (1992)

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The final work from 1992 is Beautiful Day, a duet by Mark Morris, created in part on members of his company, and in part on Peggy and her duet partner for this piece, Christopher House.

“It was with no small measure of regret that I left The White Oak Dance Project and the company’s repertoire of magnificent dances by Mark Morris. So once I was settled in Toronto I contacted Mark to ask if he might make a duet for Christopher House and me. I hadn’t yet had the chance to dance with Christopher, and I thought a duet by Mark would be a spectacular way of thanking him for The Windows, the solo he made for me in 1989. I also thought it would be a way of sharing some part of the incredible world that had opened up for me during my time in New York.

Mark had just begun a new duet with some of his company dancers – work he would have to interrupt to fulfill a commission for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens – and he suggested that Christopher and I work with him in Montreal, learning the first half of the duet from video of his dancers and then finishing the work with us to take back to his company. The time together was absolutely magical, and the duet a jewel!” PB

“I was working on Beautiful Day with three couples from my company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, at the same time as I was working in Montreal with Les Grands. Peggy, Christopher House, Teri Weksler (as my assistant) and I worked together to finish the piece. It was premiered by my dancers (originally Clarice Marshall and Keith Sabado) at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom in 1992. The dance gets its title, and is set to, the aria “Schlage doch, gewünste stunde” from a rarely performed cantata (attributed to J.S. Bach, but unlikely) for alto voice, strings, and handbells. It is built on a study in combining angular momentum with spiral force, whatever that means. I must say, it was an enormous pleasure to work with Peggy and Christopher, both fabulous dancers, Canadian National Living Treasures, and my friends. And it’s a beautiful dance.” MM

Listen to a 1992 CBC radio interview with Peggy and host Vicki Gabereau here.
Read more about Melchior Hoffman, the more likely composer of the music than J. S. Bach here on Wikipedia
Read about the history of the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom in The New Yorker here.

The Windows (1988)

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Acclaimed dancer and choreographer Christopher House created The Windows on Peggy back in 1988. He is our guest writer for this Creation Catalogue blog entry:

The Windows is an eight-minute solo I made for Peggy Baker, set to Philip Glass’s gorgeous String Quartet #2. I can’t remember where the title came from, but I think it was Peggy’s idea. Watching a VHS recording of the piece, the first time I’d seen it in thirty years, I was blown away by her performance.

Making a solo for another dancer is an intimate act. In sharing your kinetic impulses with just one other artist, you often make them a surrogate for the dancer you imagine in your dreams. You always learn from this experience and when you work with a singular artist like Peggy, your habits and assumptions can be transformed.

Rediscovering The Windows, I was reminded that watching Peggy dance is a master class in space and phrasing. She carves, sculpts and extends the space around her with uncanny skill, using her hands, feet, limbs, torso and head with legato mastery. Every surface of her body participates in every gesture. The clarity of her trajectories leaves afterimages and her innate sense of time makes her body sing. When confronted with more challenging passages of fast footwork and percussive changes of direction, she unleashes her inner warrior, holding nothing back. Her presence resonates with her ardent commitment to each passing moment.

My favourite moment in this solo comes at the end of the third movement as she turns slowly to the floor and melts into a series of knee crawls on an upstage diagonal. Facing away from us, her expressive back compels us to join her on her mysterious, touching journey.

I love Peggy as a friend and as an artist. Working with her on this solo was a rare privilege. - C. H.

“Mr. House is superbly served by a dancer who more than completes every sharp, slicing gesture. A fast dance of enigmatic tension involving kicks, pounces and clenched fists, it plays up to Ms. Baker’s grace and power and goes beyond the traditional psychological study.” Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times, 1989.
Full review here.

For more about Christopher House visit CBC Gem here.