There are more interesting things to talk about.
Part of the problem with the side bar to the article on Peggy Baker that people are talking about, is that it deflects from some of the very important and difficult things about gender and dance production that Baker raises.
Baker made a point in her speech about embracing androgyny and deploring gender stereotypes.
…
“I think that’s why I’m not a ballet dancer,” she explains. “Ballet is about dividing men and women. Women dance on pointe shoes, boys and girls don’t take class together. You also see it in folk dancing, where women do one step, men do another.”
And about producing on a “minor” scale (minor is my word and will continue to be developed here – hence the title):
When I mention a dream gig – say, choreographing a piece for the National Ballet of Canada – she smiles and shakes her head.
“I’d rather show things in more intimate settings – the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre rather than the mainstage. I’m talking with the AGO about creating dances for different galleries. And I loved my recent Nuit Blanche experience.”
Small-scaled, then, but never small-minded.” RTWT
Both of these quotes are worth spending a lot of time with. They’re thoughts of an artist who has deeply considered her craft and the world it exists in. They’re deeply challenging to the status quo of dance discussion in this city and country. Way more interesting then a writer under a deadline spicing up a story with false comparisons. And yet, they’ll go under-discussed (except maybe in study group or late night in a bar) — again — unless we decide to talk about them.
We get to choose what to talk about.
Small-scale, intimate settings. It’s not what the media would like to hear maybe. Perharps, Peggy is questioning with her work (and these quotes) the notion of stardom that can accompany the world of performing. It seems like the journalist of NOW is not satisfied with Peggy’s answer about the “dream” commission for the NBC, he has to insert a but after small-scaled, as if to justify the choice of not going for big crowds and fans and the whole “I am so famous and popular” thing.And maybe, the journalist is unsatisfied because Peggy’s answer breaks in a way the idea that the public has of what a performer’s life is like. It breaks the idealized image, the bubble that the media has created and that it wants to perpetuate in the eyes of the public, because if we think of dance as a form of entertainment, well usually people go see this form of entertainent to escape their everyday reality and be transported into a world of fantasy and magic, almost like a dream world… i’m thinking about pop stars shows for example or even the ballet, they both provide their audience with a very entertaining experience. It seems to me that Peggy Baker, as a contemporary dance artist, is trying to explore other things and raise other questions that seem more important to her, like the gender issue.