Out Innerspace Dance Theatre will present Bygones at the Yukon Arts Centre on July 9 at 7 p.m. Created and performed by David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen (in collaboration with Elya Grant, David Harvey and Renée Sigouin), this 90-minute performance is a tribute to the effort required to reach resolution. Focusing on how everything is in limbo, the artists express the painful but necessary in-betweens. Bygones earns transformation and unleashes new spirit with the ability to rebuild.
Out Innerspace is a Vancouver-based contemporary dance organization founded in 2007 by directors Raymond and Tregarthen. The company has dedicated more than 10 years to creating extraordinary and integral dance experiences through uncompromising rigour and unreserved ingenuity. Out Innerspace has also developed a dance school, which offers pivotal post-secondary contemporary dance education to young aspiring professionals. It serves as a training ground for some of Canada’s most exciting new dance artists.
Recently though, Bygones has been a major focus.
“We worked in phases across two years” said Tregarthen. “We would come together in different groupings, sometimes just David and I, or with the whole dance team.” Bygones was created through a collaborative process, using improvisation, playfulness and an array of different techniques. All the dancers have similar technical backgrounds, however, the drawn-out creative process allowed for them to go away and continue to train and develop new skills and find new influences.
Tregarthen also described how posing questions was used as a method to inspire movement and to build chemistry and early ideas. This transformed into more specific questions that eventually helped compose and solidify the piece.
“For this particular work, the dancing is in a state of flux. It’s off-kilter, detached, breaking apart, but then putting oneself back together,” said Tregarthen.
Bygones reveals how we are shaped by what we overcome and how challenges can often lead to a beautiful outcome. “We are working on some more acting and behavior work,” said Tregarthen. This is emphasized in Bygones through object manipulation and puppeteering, which creates theatrical illusions within the work. Tregarthen noted that being a dance company in Canada has really been incredible and also expressed her gratitude to co-producers of Bygones, Agora de la Danse, La Rotonde and Dance Victoria, all of which have supported the project. Tregarthen also noted that this work could not have been possible without her amazing team, including James Proudfoot, creator of lighting design, Eric Chad, who is in charge of video design, Kate De Lorne, creator of the sound design, Kate Burrows, creator of costume design, Lyle Reimer (LyleXOX), creator of mixed media mask and hand design, and apprentices Aidan Cass and Zahra Shahab.
“It definitely hasn’t been simple or easy,” said Tregarthen. “I feel like there have been enormous obstacles, but these have been overshadowed by the amazing support offered by the dance community of Canada.”
This is the first preview of Bygones from beginning to end. For more information about Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, visit OutInnerspace.ca.
To purchase tickets for Bygones, visit YukonArtsCentre.com
