Excerpts from:
A journey through life in dance
PAULA CITRON
From The Globe and Mail
June 10, 2008
CANADA DANCE FESTIVAL OPENING WEEKEND

By a happy coincidence, the opening weekend of the biennial Canada Dance Festival presented three of the country's top female choreographers and two of its foremost female dancers. When works by New York-based Aszure Barton, Vancouver's Crystal Pite and Calgary's Denise Clarke are performed by the likes of Montreal's Louise Lecavalier and Toronto's Peggy Baker, that is an embarrassment of riches.
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Clarke has given Baker and New York dancer Larry Hahn a duet to remember in Radio Play. It is a Baker we have never seen before, clad in long black boots and a working woman's corporate suit. The crux of the matter, as she tells us, is that she is 50, her dance career is coming to an end, and she needs to find a real job. Hahn is the interviewer.

The dialogue voice-overs and live conversation between the two are interpolated by Baker's wry asides on the developing situation. While the work is hilarious, it is, as always in Clarke's case, serious as well.

The movement does not mirror exactly what is being said. Clarke uses movement for subtext, or emotional pulse, or foreshadowing. She has also included a slide-splitting solo for Baker as she demonstrates to Hahn exactly what modern dance is, this being her only skill.

It is always amazing just how the clever Clarke seamlessly links physicality with thought. The movement never jars, but is in a constant flux. A hand gesture here, a turn there, just simple, pedestrian physical things we do every day, yet, taken together, they speak volumes about ourselves and our relationships.
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For the full review, please click here to go the The Globe and Mail site.