poems for body and breath

poems for body and breath is a staging project for up to 18 community dancers. A performance piece brimming with potent and evocative images that celebrates cultural diversity within the context of community, this work combines spoken word with choreography. It can be staged with secondary/post-secondary dance students, adult recreational dancers, or a mix of both, during a week-long residency. Each section of the dance is inspired by a single word – for example, flower / fire / feet / cloud / key – and the text is delivered in brief phrases and single words, spoken in the array languages known by the performers.

poems for body and breath explores movements, images, and sound that originated in The Perfect Word, a 12-hour dance installation by Peggy Baker that premiered in Toronto for Nuit blanche in October of 2014. It has been staged by Orchesis Dance Group at the University of Alberta (pictures); and with The Grand Theatre in Kingston, ON.

four poems for body and breath, Orchesis Dance Group, University of Alberta 2015. Photography by Marc J Chalifoux Photography.