The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham.

Dancer, improviser, choreographer, teacher, administrator, and artistic director Peter Bingham discovered dance at the age of 24. In this biography, Kaija Pepper traces Bingham’s evolution as an artist from his first-ever dance class with Linda Rubin, his experiences through his next 30 years on the Canadian dance scene, and, more generally, the history of contact improvisation (and, to a certain extent, modern dance) in Vancouver. The book includes colour photographs, a list of works Bingham created between 1977 and 2007, source notes, and an index.

Pepper has been thorough in her research, conducting interviews over many years, viewing recordings, looking through archival material, and examining a great many newspaper reviews. As admirable as this is, however, it has sometimes led to a level of detail in the text that becomes tedious (such as the administration of EDAM). At other times, it feels like a chronological recounting of every performance ever given by Bingham, with just a brief statement about title, date, and location; it is the descriptions of the dances themselves and discussion of Bingham’s creative process that are most interesting and where more elaboration would have been welcome. Descriptions can never really do a dance justice, so here the reader benefits from the wealth of photographs and poster images that accompany the text.

Some transitions between sections could have been more polished and the lengthy descriptions shortened to give the book a better flow. More discussion about Bingham’s life outside of dance as well as his role as a teacher (he was nationally recognized with an Isadora Award for excellence in that area) would have been appreciated. Finally, anyone with an interest in Canadian modern dance or contact improvisation would enjoy learning of the many well-known artists with whom Bingham collaborated.