BYGONES

Buckle up for the dazzling dance theatre of Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, an exciting contemporary dance company from Vancouver. You are sucked into a fantasy world of illusions of the "how-can-this-be?" variety. Lighting and video projections create walls of light, or shadows to be engulfed by or to escape from.

Five dancers are trapped in a dark time-space vacuum, stripped of all laws and logic. They are propelled by visible and invisible forces. Again and again, their world comes apart at the seams. And when it seems to be under control, the whole thing comes crashing down again. No ground is solid, literally – sometimes the dancers freeze horizontally in a vacuum, while the sky begins to growl and even the cosy tea corner rattles dangerously.

Bygones means something like "what's done" and we know that such things cannot be undone. We take all the wrong turns, unconquered fears and unfulfilled dreams from our past with us into the future. They continue to pursue us, as choreographers David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen show in a stream of obsessed images.
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Yet there is also room for hopeful expectations. After all, as human beings we are surely powerful enough to colour our own future?

‘Our lives are driven by change, and yet we like to hold on to the old, the familiar,' the makers say. ‘Sometimes, it can feel as though the change creates an overwhelming momentum while also holding us captive or stuck in a pattern. In these ways, change might confuse our compass. This disorientation takes form in the work’s movement ideas as well as the production design. We are inspired by the power of the efforts and hope and for better times.’

As dancers, Raymond and Tregarthen are affiliated with Kidd Pivot, the famous Canadian dance company of choreographer Crystal Pite. In Bygones you can see influences from her Revisor (ITA, 2020 and 2022) and Betroffenheit (Julidans, 2017). In terms of robust visual language and ultra-virtuoso dance, Bygones matches these works. Their talents as makers have not gone unnoticed in the Netherlands: the choreographer duo made their debut at NDT II last April.

Created & Performed by David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen in collaboration with Elya Grant, David Harvey and Renée Sigouin 
Lighting Design James Proudfoot
Video Light Design Eric Chad
Sound Design Kate De Lorme
Costume Design Kate Burrows, vest by Hajnalka Mandula
Mixed Media Mask & Hands Design: Lyle Reimer (LyleXOX)
Stage Manager: Jessica (Ying-Jye) Han 
Swing: Aiden CassInternational Agent Belsher Arts Management
OIS Board of Directors Dylan Connelly, Marc-Andre Boyes-Manseau, Darcy McKitrick, Michael Musacchio, Tara Fanara Palko, Manoj Shankar
Music Adam Asnan, Sanford Clark, Rural Colours, Lucrecia Dalt, JK FLESH, Leonor González, Blessed Initiative, Kaboom Karavan, Kid Koala, Kali Malone, Jake Meginsky, Andrew Pekkler, Thomas Stone, Warm Stranger, Eric Thielemans

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Out Innerspace gratefully acknowledges the generous support for the creation of Bygones Presenting/Producing partners Agora de la danse (Montreal, QC), La Rotonde (Quebec City, QC) and The Dance Victoria Chrystal Dance Prize.
Creation and production residencies with The Dance Centre, Arts Umbrella, ArtSpring, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre, Yukon Arts Centre and Centennial Theatre.
The generous support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The BC Arts Council and the City of Vancouver.

World Premiere October 2019 at One Dance Week Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria