The kind of post-show feedback you want landing in your inbox

Thank you to Amelia Simmons (age 7) of Smithers, BC for this colourful interpretation of Out Innerspace. Amelia attended the OI show with her dad in April, and this later showed up in her pile of drawings. (Thanks Matt Simmons and Miriam Colvin for sharing!)

Happy International Dance Day!

We hope you have enjoyed celebrating National Dance Week. For International Dance Day, we got cell phone cameras activated across the province, in order to bring you these flashy dance-move results- enjoy!

OIS stop 4: Smithers

Our last stop of the tour was the railway town of Smithers, where we were welcomed by the warmest and friendliest of locals. 

After a long travel day from Saltspring, arriving slightly famished, we were lucky enough to enjoy some of the tastiest Mexican cuisine at the famous Trackside Cantinas restaurant. 

Because this was the last stop on our tour, we had become seasoned in finding exciting adventures for ourselves.  Smithers offered us a beautiful nature walk along the Buckley Valley river and through fairytale like birch forests. We spent about 20 minutes examining and admiring the brilliant array of colours among the river bed rocks.

The Della Herman Theatre where we performed is housed in the town's sole secondary school. I sensed that we all became slightly frightened as our traverse across the cafeteria transported us back to our teen years. Rehearsal, however, plopped us right back to real life as the tech team worked to fit the show into the space, while we continued to temper and polish a couple movement sections. Part way through the day a power outage ceased any productivity in the theatre, so an extra long dinner was warranted while we waited for the lights to come back on!

The Hudson Bay Mountain: the scenery on our walk home!

We ended up performing to a very full house, thanks to an eager community including a large group of exchange students from Quebec. Also thanks to Miriam, David and Tiffany for their work in outreach (Dave's radio interview and Tiffany's workshop). The show was followed by yet another very engaging talk-back, and dinner at the Aspen where we also celebrated Craig's birthday!

Miriam (Smithers' outreach coordinator) baked this scrumptious
chocolate cake for Craig's birthday. Secret ingredient: sour cream.

Community Engagement with Tiffany and David: Smithers

Out Innerspace has arrived in Smithers! We spent Thursday introducing the stories of touring artists to the stories of our community.

David and me at the CICK studio, a refurbished train car.

David and I began the day with a live radio interview hosted by community partner: CICK 93.9FM Smithers Community Radio. Thank you to Glen Ingram for handling tech so David and I could just talk about art, dance making and the evolution of Vessel. The interview was recorded and will have a life on Northwest at Noon programming over the next few months.

We ended the day with a workshop that wandered between the Smithers Art Gallery and a dance studio in the Central Park Building.

Tiffany and I welcomed 16 community members of all ages, interests and walks of life.  We introduced ourselves and why we are interested in movement. Answers ranged from "dance is my life" to "I'm at a point where I am signing up for anything that feels like a RISK."

Tiffany led us through aspects of the engaging process which Out Innerspace uses to source movement from visual imagery.

Playing with perspective, opening the imagination to fitting the body into landscape or visualizing landscape in the body.

Then, we traveled upstairs to the dance studio to play with movement from the elements: wood, fire, clay, water, air.

Making group sculptures, playing with a sculpting movement process the Vessel dancers use in the performance.

We ended the workshop back in the Art Gallery. Tiffany led us through some collaborative creation and decision making.  FUN!

We played with individual artistic choices effecting a group creation.

Overall, I feel these activities gave our community a glimpse into the creative minds of Out Innerspace. I am appreciative that David and Tiffany candidly shared their artistic processes. It is great to have the six dancers and tech crew here - meeting new people and welcoming back friendly faces (Josh Martin!).

I have the feeling that that the community members who heard the interview and/or attended the workshop will have insights into Vessel, seeing it through their own experiences of investigation and imagination. I know I will.

OIS stop 3: Saltspring

Saltspring you are beautiful!  An amazing audience, fresh mussels and seafood galore, baby lambs, Barb's Buns ginger twists, and sunshine!!  We loved performing in this intimate theatre space, and really enjoyed hearing all of the thoughtful responses and feedback post-show.  

Treating ourselves to lunch on our day off after the show at a waterfront restaurant, Aunty Pesto's. 

Lexi at lunch!

The gang hiking along the rocky shoreline

Yes, you may think this is a picture from a calendar, but no, this is the view from our hotel.  Such friendly people making us feel at home at the Harbour House Hotel (and organic farm).

-Lex, Née, La

OIS stop 2: Vernon

We arrived in Vernon on Dave's birthday.  We celebrated with dinner at an Indian restaurant and the unveiling of the surprise birthday dance flashmob in our hotel parking lot.  The next day was set-up in the theatre, while the dancers enjoyed a day off horseback riding.  On our way back we decided to take the scenic route home on the other side of the lake and spotted these beautiful creatures.

Renee with Mr. Dunbar, Josh Martin with Amigo, Lexi with Stardust, and Laura with Monkey. 

This delicious pre-show fruit basket was given to us in the
 green room by our hosts at the theatre!   

The premiere performance of Vessel went very well, and we had another great engaging post-show chat with the audience.  Thank you to Vernon for such a warm welcome and a fantastic residency at the beautiful theatre!

- Renee, Lexi & Laura

OIS stop 1: BANFF

After a busy last week of rehearsals, Out Innerspace hit the road with Vessel to our first stop: the beautiful Banff Centre.  We comprise a motley crew of nine, including artistic directors Tiffany and David, dancers Laura, Josh, Renee, and Lexi as well as the 'lighting wizard' James, 'projection king' Craig and 'manager extraordinaire' Heidi. 

Banff welcomed us warmly with this extraordinary view of the mountains.

The crew loaded in, Tiffany and David nestled into the theatre, and us dancers had some time to experience this charming town nestled amongst the spectacular Rocky Mountains. Naturally, we were drawn into the multiple confectionaries and candy shops, but also managed to find a pool table and a rooftop patio where we played and relaxed after our day of travel. Here we decided that our time off would be spent on something special: Project David's Birthday Dance.  

Renee and Laura. We are plotting master-plan: "David's Birthday Dance"

The week residency allowed Tiffany and David to continue working on the dance and projection components of Vessel; we rehearsed in the studios and the theatre, both of which were just steps from our residence hall. Also just a few skips away was the Sally Borden Centre, where we ate our delicious buffet meals and had access to the rec centre's pool, gym and steam room. 

While the technical team, Tiffany and David usually worked late into the evening, ending their day with some munchies at the Maclab Bistro, us dancers were holding secret rehearsals at the residence hall. Two nights allotted to composing the sound score (thanks to Josh's garageband and disc-jockey skills) and one fully devoted to choreography: 3.5 minutes of 80's inspired dance steps. Our plan was well underway. 

Looking for an adventure, this hike brought us to the icy shore of the Bow River. So refreshing!

The Banff Centre's theatre complex 

Show day arrived, along with a fresh blanket of snow, to cushion our performance jitters. Without spoiling the show for anyone hoping to see it in Burnaby, this run (coined a 'showing', not a 'show') went relatively well, however, was accompanied by a few technical glitches, all to be expected considering the projection component and it's complexity.  A group of spoken word artists and high-school music students from Saskatchewan, among many others in our full-house of an audience, all contributed to a constructive, insightful post show talk back.

-Lexi, Laura and Renee