Ray Young’s award-winning duet OUT comes to the Lilian Baylis Studio from Thursday 25 – Friday 26 April 2024. OUT defiantly challenges homophobia and transphobia while reclaiming dancehall and celebrating social dance culture.
Embracing personal, political, and cultural dissonance; this act of interdisciplinary self-expression smashes through normativity, summoning voices and re-enacting movements in an exhilarating mash-up of remembrance and re-invention. OUT carves out a new kind of space from which to reimagine, reclaim and celebrate aspects of Caribbean culture from a queer perspective.
Created by performance maker Ray Young, OUT won the 2017 South East Dance A Space to Dance Brighton Fringe Award and was nominated for the 2017 Total Theatre & The Place Award for Dance.
The 2024 restaging of OUT is performed by Azara Meghie and Bambi Jordan Phillips and features lighting design by Nao Nagai, set design by Naomi Kuyck-Cohen, sound design by Naomi Jackson and costume design by Mia Maxwell. Esma Allman is Assistant Director, Nandi Bhebhe Movement Director and Nussatari Movement Consultant.
Ahead of OUT coming to the Lilian Baylis Studio, Ray Young said:
“I am extremely excited to be bringing OUT back in 2024, the themes in the work resonate more now than ever before. As queer people we are still living in a world in which it is contentious for us to dare to thrive in our bodies, this is doubly so for our trans siblings whose lives are often under threat from the simple act of living authentically. Surely being able to do this is nonnegotiable. I’m over the moon and hugely privileged to be working with Bambi Jordan Philips and Azara Meghie. Two phenomenal queer performances artists who will step into the work as performers for this iteration of OUT. It is amazing to be kicking off the year with this project!”
