Baryshnikov Arts Center To Present Peggy Baker's HER BODY AS WORDS, February 28-March 14

The Baryshnikov Arts Center will present her body as words by acclaimed Toronto-based dance artist Peggy Baker. The online performance is free and available to watch on demand from Monday, February 28, at 5pm ET, until Monday, March 14, at 5pm, at bacnyc.org.

Peggy Baker's new work, her body as words (2021), is a sound and film installation that fragments and explodes notions of female identity as expressed by nine Canadian dance artists. Inspired by a 2009 translation of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, Baker entered into a deeply collaborative process involving personal conversations with the performers. Dancing the complexities of their lived identities in a series of movement portraits, the artists offer gestural renderings touching on themes of race, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, miscarriage, motherhood, disability, physical labor, and aging.

Concept, choreographic composition, and direction by Peggy Baker. Performances by Sze-Yang Ade-Lam, Nicole Rose Bond, Aria Evans, Syreeta Hector, Kate Holden, Tia Ashley Kushniruk, Alison Neuman, Anisa Tejpar, and Peggy Baker. her body as words was filmed by Jeremy Mimnagh. Sound design is by Debashis Sinha. Run time: 51 minutes.

Peggy Baker is one of Canada's most celebrated and influential dance artists. A vivid presence in contemporary dance since 1973, she has performed internationally with Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris and Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, Doug Varone, Tere O'Connor, Molissa Fenley, and Charles Moulton (NYC); Fortier Danse-Creation (Montreal); and James Kudelka, Dancemakers, and Toronto Dance Theatre (Toronto). She established Peggy Baker Dance Projects in Toronto in 1990, and for the first 20 years she dedicated herself to solo performance. Since 2010 her choreography has focused on works for small ensemble. Over its 31-year history, Peggy Baker Dance Projects' work has been presented across Canada and the US, and in Asia and Europe. Beyond the concert stage, Baker has premiered five all-night choreographic events for Toronto's Nuit Blanche, and situated three choreographic installations-move, interior with moving figures, and land | body | breath-in public spaces and galleries. Under the banner The Choreographer's Trust she published a series of booklet/DVD sets that document six of her landmark solos, and she is the subject of a book by Carol Anderson, Unfold - a Portrait of Peggy Baker, published by Dance Collection Danse. Baker's many honors include the Order of Canada, the Walter Carsen Prize, the Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Governor General's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts, honorary doctorates from York University and the University of Calgary, and six Dora Mavor Moore awards. She has been Artist-in-Residence at Canada's National Ballet School since 1992.