On Taking Steps to Climbing Mountains demonstrates Clancy’s passion for inventive partnering and her capacity to work creatively with unusual sets. This work has multiple performance versions tailored to suit the touring needs of a presenter. It may be performed as a duet (one dancer with a ladder), a trio (two dancers with one ladder), as a quintet (two dancers and three ladders) or in its most recent version for 5 dancers working with 5 ladders of graduated sizes. On Taking Steps to Climbing Mountains is a recent work that demonstrates what the Albuquerque Journal hailed as a “top-notch technical and dramatic performance.” This piece metaphorically comments on the process and abilities of individuals to shift the center of their own challenges, be they personal relationships, institutional partnerships or ideological obstacles. Placed skyward or repositioned on their sides, ladders create windows, doors, and pathways through which the dancers navigate alternative ways of seeing, relating to, knowing and creating a world in which we would want to participate.
