The film

DANCING DARKNESS explores artistic creativity through the making of Peggy Baker’s most ambitious work, ‘who we are in the dark’.
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Baker burst into modern dance in 1971, working with dance greats Mark Morris, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Lar Lubovitch, James Kudelka and others, before turning full-time to choreography. Baker’s accomplices for ‘who we are in the dark’ match this ambition.
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In three acts, DANCING DARKNESS examines Baker’s creative odyssey (including a brief bio on her career), our intimate fears and loves in the dark, and the mystery and necessity of art itself. A single outsider, acclaimed actor/playwright Daniel MacIvor, asks: Why make art? What does it mean? Others also engage these queries, reflecting on this luminous dance and the mystery and motive of all art.
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DANCING DARKNESS witnesses ‘who we are in the dark’ as it emerges, conjuring something of the alchemy behind the creative process.

The Artists

Peggy Baker

choreographer / artistic director

“Peggy is a true bohemian: she knows how to play against contemporary orthodoxy and turn it on its head,” says dance maestro Mikhail Baryshnikov. Baker, an acclaimed dancer 1974 through 2010, founded Peggy Baker Dance Projects in 1990, collaborating with artists in many disciplines, supporting a growing body of work and teaching.