The Choreographer's Trust

Year Two of The Choreographer’s Trust DVD series has arrived. Yang (1995) and Sanctum (1991) are now available for long term loan from Dance Collection Danse in Toronto. To arrange a loan, e-mail Amy Bowring at amy@dcd.ca.

To request a set of Choreographer's Trust DVD sets for your library's permanent dance collection, e-mail info@peggybakerdance.com

Generously funded by the Metcalf Foundation, The Choreographer's Trust commenced in 2002. At that time, approaching my fiftieth birthday, I became increasingly aware of the impermanence of my performing life.  I realized that unless I passed my dances on, the hard-won lessons that were embedded in them risked being lost when I retired.

In the first phase of The Choreographer’s Trust, I was able to pass on six dances to two dancers each over the course of four years and to document this process in a variety of ways. The archive materials for the first two dances have now been produced as a very limited run of 150 DVD / booklet sets . These materials are perhaps the most significant aspect of The Choreographer's Trust, since unlike students studying music or theatre, aspiring dancers have very few opportunities for self-directed study of repertoire.  Bringing a piece to life, honouring both the choreographer’s vision and one’s own artistry, is an exciting and meaningful exploration that contributes greatly to the development of dancers.

I offer the choreography on this series of DVDs as a chance for a young dancer to climb inside a solo and see where it takes them.