Remembering Peter Bingham

PETER Bingham

(1951 – 2026)

DCD has just learned of the death of EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music) co-founder and former artistic director Peter Bingham on Monday, February 9.
Peter was truly the father of contact improvisation in Canada as one of the earliest exponents of the form here through his studies with its American creators Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith. Peter came to dance late – age 24 – but his initial studies with dance artist Linda Rubin in Vancouver propelled him into a life-long exploration of movement and improvisation. In 1977, he formed Fulcrum, a contact improvisation–based company, with Andrew Harwood and Helen Clarke. They introduced the dance form to more of Canada’s dance community in a cross-country tour that included performances and workshops. He became one of EDAM’s co-founders in 1982 alongside Lola MacLaughlin, Ahmed Hassan, Jay Hirabayashi, Barbara Bourget, Jennifer Mascall, and Lola (formerly Peter) Ryan. He became the sole artistic director of EDAM in 1989 and only recently passed along the artistic directorship to Olivia Shaffer. Peter was also renowned as a teacher, giving classes at EDAM for decades but also teaching as a guest in universities and conservatories across Canada, the United States, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Peter in person but I did see him perform a duet in the late 1990s in Toronto. I was familiar with contact improvisation at the time but what I saw that night was danced at a level I couldn’t have imagined. There was a fluidity, an emotional quality, and an element of power that captivated me from start to finish. In 2006/07, DCD worked with author Kaija Pepper on a biography of Peter Bingham. The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham is definitely one of my favourite DCD books. Peter’s life and entry into dance are fascinating with his varied interests from carpentry to dance, tales of growing up with his brothers, an incredible story of love and devotion in building his mother’s casket with his brother Bruce, and all the hows and whys of his creative process and output told with depth and skill by Kaija. I asked Kaija to reflect on that period of interviewing Peter and working on telling his story:

When I wrote my biography on Peter, The Man Next Door Dances, he really did live almost next door, a couple of blocks from me in a two-story wood-frame house he’d renovated decades earlier with his brother John. It was so handy to walk over for our many interviews, setting up my mini-cassette tape recorder on the couch between us. At first, Peter didn’t really believe he had anything to say, and it’s true he communicated most eloquently in movement; his performances during his heyday are the stuff memories are made of. But he gamely had a go, happy to chat for the book’s sake, and I was happy to listen, drawing out stories about the life and art of one of Canada’s dance royalty. 

It was an honour to tell that history, but the real thrill – over and over again in the little studio theatre at the Western Front where his long career was based – was to witness Peter’s dancing. In elegant, athletic and sometimes physically risky contact improvisation solos, duets and ensembles, he pursued ideas or situations in real time, taking the audience along for the ride.

Tangibly, all that dancing is gone, but the memories still spark and fire.

In the 2025 issue of DCD Magazine, Kaija Pepper wrote about the transition of EDAM from one generation to another. I encourage you to take a moment to read Kaija’s article and learn more about Peter Bingham’s contribution to dance and contact improvisation. DCD’s staff and board extend our condolences to Peter’s family, friends, and our dance colleagues on the west coast.

~ Amy Bowring, Executive & Curatorial Director