Unfold: A Portrait of Peggy Baker.

With her wealth of professional practice as a dancer, choreographer, and director, as well as her experience working with the book’s subject, author Carol Anderson is able to provide a unique insight into Peggy Baker’s artistry. Peggy’s career, though not yet at an end, has been a long and successful one. Her influence has been broad, both in terms of geography through her years of performing across North America, Asia, and Europe, and in genre with her instruction of both ballet and contemporary dancers.

The book documents her evolution from student to company dancer in such groups as Dancemakers, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and the White Oaks Dance Project, then on to solo artist, citing her various artistic collaborations along the way and her experimentation and experience with teaching and pedagogical styles. The text, wonderfully supplemented with pictures on almost every page, is preceded by a scrapbook of photographs of her family and early years, and is followed by a bibliography and lists of choreographic works, commissions, and acquisitions. The inclusion of an index would have been beneficial.

In addition to mention of her influence upon others, it is interesting to learn the sources of inspiration that caused transitions in Peggy’s approach to dance. Many prominent dancers, choreographers, and musicians are mentioned. However, there is very little reference to her personal life; details were even sparse in the section supposedly devoted to the impact of personal circumstances on her dance.

The book does not follow a strictly chronological approach, but moves sequentially through the various aspects of Peggy’s life. While this less pedantic method is appreciated, it sometimes results in repetition of certain details. The writing style seems rather pretentious at times, and certain transitions could have been smoother.

People interpret dance very differently, whether as the dancer creating the movement or the observer viewing it. This was not an overly critical review of Peggy’s career, offering only glowing reports at every stage. Baker’s mastery is never in doubt, especially with Baryshnikov’s endorsement in the book’s foreword, but not every moment in a dancer’s life can be a masterpiece.