Acclaimed dance artist Peggy Baker commissioned Toronto-based playwright Michael Ross Albert to write Beautiful Renegades, a play inspired by the anti-establishment politics that helped shape contemporary dance in 1970s Toronto. In development since 2018, the work includes new choreographic distillations from 6 ground-breaking choreographers of the era: Elizabeth Chitty, Margaret Dragu, Lily Eng, Louise Garfield, Johanna Householder, and Jennifer Mascall. Directed by Eda Holmes and designed by Gillian Gallow (sets and costumes), Jeff Pybus (lighting and video) and Debashis Sinha (sound), Beautiful Renegades features a company of outstanding 6 actor/dancers: Sarah Fregeau, David Norsworthy, Erika Prevost, Jarrett Siddall, Shauna Thompson and Anne van Leeuwen.

“This play is inspired by an artist-run dance centre called 15 Dance Lab that operated in Toronto between 1974 - 1980. When it first opened just two dance companies dominated the Toronto scene: The National Ballet of Canada and Toronto Dance Theatre. At 15 Dance Lab, the dancers rejected popular expectations for dance and aligned themselves with leftist politics and the avant-garde in visual and media arts. It was THE social scene for Toronto’s burgeoning independent dance milieu.” Peggy Baker