photo of Brendan Wyatt & Andrea Nann by Elysha Poirier
A Dreamwalker Dance Company & Young Centre for the Performing Arts production
Creation/Performance Andrea Nann, Brendan Wyatt
Concept Andrea Nann
Dramaturge Guy Cools
Music/Poetry Gord Downie
Visual Designs Elysha Poirier
Lighting/Production Designs David Duclos
Stage Management/Performance Valerie Stevens
Here we are on the highway.
Here we are on the road.
Here we are in the parking lot’s
pink Coke machine glow.
Here we are in the bedroom.
Here we are in the bed.
Here we are beside each other
after everything we’ve said. - Coke Machine Glow by Gord Downie
Beside Each Other is a 60-minute dance work inspired by and featuring the music and poetry of Gord Downie (The Tragically Hip), as heard in his solo projects Coke Machine Glow and Battle of the Nudes.
Comprised of a series of short duets that explore the private landscape between a man and a woman as they tread through deep intimacy, heartache, restlessness, separation and transcendence into a harmonious love. Beautifully articulate and complex, paired on the same landscape, one near the other, their balance creates a wholeness. The production elements are very simplistic (an elegant light table created from a painter’s easel for overhead projection, small wooden frames for hand painted plexiglass gels, a transparent painted lampshade that revolves…). The performers inhabit the space with the audience for the duration of the work, changing costumes between dances and animating the production elements to create shifting visual environments.
Summer preview presentations of Beside Each Other coincide with the release of Gord Downie’s third solo album The Grand Bounce and are promoted to the artist’s fan base by the artist’s management via internet (website features, event listings etc.). Beside Each Other will be officially premiered at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, December 2010.
“I have watched Beside Each Other come together, I have seen Andrea and Brendan as they’ve worked through it and
it is…amazing.
I am humbled.
I can’t imagine a bigger honour than being a part of Beside Each Other “– Gord Downie – gorddownie.com
“It looks like a winner…Nann and Wyatt are gorgeous dancers, and (have) created stunning partnering. One stand-out moment includes Wyatt holding Nann aloft with just his feet, and then slowly lowering her until she gently rests on his body.” – Paula Citron – Globe and Mail
Special thank you to Andy Maize, Owen Maize, Jeffrey Day, Beverly Nann, Richard Nann, Albert Schultz, Noora Sagarwala, Claire Sakaki, Greg Poulin, Dana Gingras/Animals of Distinction, Dale Morningstar, Patrick Sambrook, Bernie Breen and Michael Tong.
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