Yang (1998/2003)

Jan 10

I am occasionally commissioned by other artists to make works for them - including Sarah Chase (Garland, 1996), Dancemakers (for Carolyn Woods, Rocket Girl, 1999), and Nova Bhattacharya (Map of the Known World, 2000). The only one of these commissioned works that I brought into my company’s repertoire is Yang, made for Sylvain Brochu in 1998.

From Sylvain: In 1997 I was awarded a Canada Council grant to commission solos from 5 selected Canadian choreographers. I had studied with Peggy, seen her perform, and was very inspired by her commitment and artistic integrity. Even though I had never been through a creative process with her I had a strong feeling that our connection would produce a powerful piece. Peggy knew me as a dancer and set up to create a dance that would greatly challenge me technically. I distinctly remember the main creation period: I had flown to Toronto for two weeks. The process was very demanding physically, but I applied myself wholeheartedly, and with a level of trust that I had not often experienced before. Yang turned out to be one of the strongest pieces of my solo repertoire, and was the ideal finale for my solo concert. I’m grateful for the gift of this dance, which lives on through successive generations of dancers.

Like Sylvain, I still remember the intensity of the creative process for this dance. I went in from day one with the intention of developing an action language that would provide us with a challenging and exciting encounter, as Sylvain and I are dancers with extremely different movement sensibilities. That encounter was quickly informed by the androgyny we each embody. The forceful, strident movement vocabulary we were working with shifted me more into androgyny, and took Sylvain – a dancer whose movement signature is cushy and lush – further away from androgyny. In order to clarify our intentions, we focused on the qualities associated with the Taoist principle of yang, described as bright, hard, masculine, round, odd-numbered and upward moving. In the first phase of our work we developed the movement language, and in the second we arranged that material in relation to a riveting work called Frisking Prolationum for 11 Percussionists by the Belgian composer and filmmaker, Thierry de Mey.

Sylvain premiered Yang at the 1998 Dance in Canada Festival in Ottawa. Five years later, for The Choreographer’s Trust, I developed a duet version for Sylvain with the magnificent Shannon Cooney. This remains one of my favourite dances, and both the solo and duet versions have been staged many times by my company and by The School of Toronto Dance Theatre (now Dance Arts Institute). - PB

“…rigorous, sweeping motions…technically complex, rhythmic…crisp lines and assured elegant steps.” Gail Johnson, Georgia Straight / Vancouver

“…non-stop diagonal, angular physicality, sudden on-the-floor gymnastics, dramatic pauses and sharp gestural patterns.” Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail

related links

Peggy gifted Yang to Shannon Cooney as part of her Choreographer’s Trust project in 2003. Read more about The Choreographer’s Trust here. Year Two DVDs and booklets that feature Yang are available for loan from Dance Collection Danse.

credits

choreography:
Peggy Baker

music:
Thierry de Mey
(Frisking Prolationum for 11 Percussionists)

lighting design:
Marc Parent

costume design:
Caroline O’Brien

original dancer:
Sylvain Brochu

subsequent dancers:
Shannon Cooney
David Norsworthy
Ric Brown

premiere

Ottawa
June 12, 1998
National Arts Centre Studio
Canada Dance Festival

subsequent presentations

Toronto
April 13 - 15, 2000
Betty Oliphant Theatre
Words Fail

Toronto
August 23, 2003
Betty Oliphant Theatre
Inside the Choreographer’s Trust Year Two