Bygones conjures eerie imagery out of the dark

DANCE BYGONES

An Out Innerspace Dance Theatre production. At the Scotiabank Dance Theatre on Wednesday, December 11. No remaining performances

➧ OUT INNERSPACE DANCE Theatre conjures such a surreal world in

you sometimes wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you. In the opening moments, the light catches bodies that seem to falling through space. Props and sets—a table, a book, an elbow lamp, and the world’s creepiest plant—move of their own accord. It’s cinematic, eerie, and beyond cool.

Of course, it’s the ever-innovative contemporary-dance team that is playing tricks on you—elaborate trompe l’oeils that toy with notions of time, space, and the larger themes of resisting change, getting stuck, and letting go. Choreographic team Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond (who perform with Elya Grant, David Harvey, and Renée Sigouin) are careful not to get too swept away with gimmicks. Working with lighting designer James Proudfoot and video designer Eric Chad, they’ve come up with fresh ways to carve space out of the dark.

The main effect depends on pale bodies, faces, and hands emerging from a misty void. Sometimes the light creates the corner of a room; at other moments, it erects a wall, and all the audience can see are hands maniacally reaching, pushing, and flailing through it. Most logic-defying, a black spotlight outright swallows people up. Tregarthen and Raymond are fans of old movies, and it shows not only in the dramatic use of light and dark here, but in the way moments are “edited” by going to black—like flashes of thoughts or memories.

What helps make this dream-logic universe work is that it’s driven by strong contemporary-dance chops. Tregarthen and Raymond, who also perform for Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot, constantly find unexpected ways for bodies to contort, bend, and crawl. Watch one figure creep backward, limbs bending unnaturally, or Raymond convulsing in a spotlight. Kate De Lorme’s eclectic soundscape of metallic beats and clips from the likes of Blessed Initiative and Kaboom Karavan adds to the otherworldly feel.

Here, Out Innerspace is exploring some of its most abstract territory yet. The technologically pumped Major Motion Picture, from 2016, was much clearer in its commentary about privacy and surveillance. But with in the murkier territory of psychology and instinct, its movement finds its greatest potential—as bodies twist and jerk with the shifting forces of instinct, or are caught in limbo, flailing as they fall. The work is accessible, relatable, and fun, but it’s also intelligent and complex.

The midsection spins its wheels a bit. And there are aspects of that are cryptic. Artist LyleXOX’s mask work makes a dramatic appearance, summoning a strange creature whose role is puzzling.

But sinister forces and mystical beasts seem to fit easily into the dark delirium this company creates here. Out Innerspace is doing some of the city’s most exciting, ambitious dancetheatre work right now, and the trip they’re offering is a rush—even if you don’t trust your eyes.