Beautiful Renegades presented by Peggy Baker Dance Projects

Peggy Baker Dance Projects, in its final stage production, presents Beautiful Renegades, a brand new play written by Michael Ross Albert and directed by Eda Holmes. Featuring a diverse cast of extraordinary talent: Sarah Fregeau, David Norsworthy, Erika Prevost, Jarrett Siddall, Shauna Thompson and Anne van Leeuwen, Beautiful Renegades is an ode to the young dance artists who helped pave the way for change in 1970s Toronto, through innovation and acts of artistic rebellion. The show will run September 20 – October 2, 2022 at The Theatre Centre.
Beautiful Renegades will run parallel to Presence: a set of 4 site-specific works commissioned from new generation dance artists, presented free in Lisgar Park half an hour before each performance. These artists are innovators whose work moves into new territory as a direct challenge to the status quo. Premieres by Keira Breaugh & Renee Smith are featured September 20 – September 25, with premieres by Pulga Muchochoma & Eilish Shin-Culhane from September 27 – October 2.
In its final year of performance, Peggy Baker Dance Projects bids audiences farewell by honouring the generations who came before. Beautiful Renegades looks back to the 1970s: a time of turbulent political unrest, underpinned by groups of citizens rising up together in an urgent and forceful struggle for massive, fundamental societal change. Within that social structure, young dance artists in Toronto worked to disrupt the status quo – questioning the relevance of established companies and the privilege assumed by particular forms of training, methods of creating, and styles of performing. Recognizing disruption as a precursor to meaningful change, Beautiful Renegades is deeply resonant with the present moment.