fold Artistic Director: Anouk van Dijk Executive Producer: Catherine Jones Business & Program Manager: Hillary Coyne Production & Operations Manager: Michael Carr Marketing & Development Manager: Luke McKinnon
AORTA was commissioned by Chunky Move as part of Next Move – a program committed to nurturing the next generation of Australia’s leading dance makers. Next Move is designed to bridge the divide between young choreographers making small independent work and more established choreographers running their own organisations or engaged with larger commissions.
Chunky Move Staff
Next Move
Chunky Move
what is or what can be contemporary dance in an ever-evolving Australian culture. Our work is diverse in form and content encompassing media and installation work. Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives nurture and underpin a strong and vibrant dance culture in our home city of Melbourne and create critically acclaimed and popular productions of scale for presentations nationally and internationally. Chunky Move Board
Megan Williams Production & Operations Coordinator: Blair Hart Marketing & Development Coordinator: Pauline Robert Finance Administrator: Anne MacDonald Class Curator: Kristy Ayre Front of House Staff: Annabelle Balharry, Emily Lochowicz and Phoebe Robinson Publicity: Miranda Brown Publicity
Peter Biggs CNZM (Chair), Stephen Armstrong, Jeremy Blackshaw, Annie Dawson, Rhod EllisJones, Jeff Khan, Margaret Parker, Margaret Thompson, Anouk van Dijk.
Special Thanks Chunky Move would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support of AORTA: Marcus Pugh and Maytal Miller at Resolution X, Kelvin Gedye at System Sound, Malthouse Theatre Production Staff, Ivy Dwyer Hinkley and Lucy Guerin.
Major Partners
Media Partner
Wine Partner
Next Move Leaders Program Chunky Move would like to thank and acknowledge the foundation donors of our Next Move Leaders Program: Peter and Mary Biggs and Daniel and Danielle Besen. For more information about how you can support the next generation of Australian dance, please email luke@chunkymove.com.au or 9645 5188.
Productions Partners
Supporting Partners
Government Partners Choreographic Secondment Program
Chunky Move is supported by the Victorian Government, through Arts Victoria and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
fold Threading throughout the work is the notion that at any given time we are both alive and dying and that the inevitability of death joins us all. Much of AORTA is a choreographic investigation of our complex physical system – how does blood move? What does a neural pathway look like? But it is also the story of our mortality, our growth and decay. I wanted to explore both our tremulousness as well as the driving surge of our aliveness; the fragile, crumbling bones and the bombastic beat driven animal. It could easily be argued that we are our biology; that there is no separation between mind and body and that, in fact, our every action is predetermined by our genetics and physiology. Despite vast breakthroughs in science we still don’t know it all. What drives us is essentially a mystery. Inspired by the metronomic nature of the heart – our ticking clock – AORTA attempts to bring the interior workings of our bodies to the surface.
seed of the idea through to putting it on stage. I’m so grateful for the opportunity and hope you enjoy it. Next Move initiative is a fantastic, unique program that allows the choreographer to Enormous thanks to Chunky Move and their supporters for making this possible and to all the people who do so much behind the scenes – Michael, Blair, Hillary, Luke, Pauline, Megan and Anne and to Anouk and Catherine for the commission. I have many people to thank for bringing AORTA to life. Huge gratitude to Josh, Jimmy and James for their incredible dancing and for giving their all to this project. To Robin for yet another brilliantly inspiring soundtrack and all of the other million things. To Rhian for the beautiful video visualisation of the work and Shio for the striking costume design. Thanks also to my choreographic secondment, Timothy Walsh and to all of the other secondments who have been a part of this process. Special thanks to my dear family and daughters.
A note from Stephanie Lake
fold Artistic Director: Anouk van Dijk Executive Producer: Catherine Jones Business & Program Manager: Hillary Coyne Production & Operations Manager: Michael Carr Marketing & Development Manager: Luke McKinnon
AORTA was commissioned by Chunky Move as part of Next Move – a program committed to nurturing the next generation of Australia’s leading dance makers. Next Move is designed to bridge the divide between young choreographers making small independent work and more established choreographers running their own organisations or engaged with larger commissions.
Chunky Move Staff
Next Move
Chunky Move
what is or what can be contemporary dance in an ever-evolving Australian culture. Our work is diverse in form and content encompassing media and installation work. Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives nurture and underpin a strong and vibrant dance culture in our home city of Melbourne and create critically acclaimed and popular productions of scale for presentations nationally and internationally. Chunky Move Board
Megan Williams Production & Operations Coordinator: Blair Hart Marketing & Development Coordinator: Pauline Robert Finance Administrator: Anne MacDonald Class Curator: Kristy Ayre Front of House Staff: Annabelle Balharry, Emily Lochowicz and Phoebe Robinson Publicity: Miranda Brown Publicity
Peter Biggs CNZM (Chair), Stephen Armstrong, Jeremy Blackshaw, Annie Dawson, Rhod EllisJones, Jeff Khan, Margaret Parker, Margaret Thompson, Anouk van Dijk.
Special Thanks Chunky Move would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support of AORTA: Marcus Pugh and Maytal Miller at Resolution X, Kelvin Gedye at System Sound, Malthouse Theatre Production Staff, Ivy Dwyer Hinkley and Lucy Guerin.
Major Partners
Media Partner
Wine Partner
Next Move Leaders Program Chunky Move would like to thank and acknowledge the foundation donors of our Next Move Leaders Program: Peter and Mary Biggs and Daniel and Danielle Besen. For more information about how you can support the next generation of Australian dance, please email luke@chunkymove.com.au or 9645 5188.
Productions Partners
Supporting Partners
Government Partners Choreographic Secondment Program
Chunky Move is supported by the Victorian Government, through Arts Victoria and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
fold Threading throughout the work is the notion that at any given time we are both alive and dying and that the inevitability of death joins us all. Much of AORTA is a choreographic investigation of our complex physical system – how does blood move? What does a neural pathway look like? But it is also the story of our mortality, our growth and decay. I wanted to explore both our tremulousness as well as the driving surge of our aliveness; the fragile, crumbling bones and the bombastic beat driven animal. It could easily be argued that we are our biology; that there is no separation between mind and body and that, in fact, our every action is predetermined by our genetics and physiology. Despite vast breakthroughs in science we still don’t know it all. What drives us is essentially a mystery. Inspired by the metronomic nature of the heart – our ticking clock – AORTA attempts to bring the interior workings of our bodies to the surface.
seed of the idea through to putting it on stage. I’m so grateful for the opportunity and hope you enjoy it. Next Move initiative is a fantastic, unique program that allows the choreographer to Enormous thanks to Chunky Move and their supporters for making this possible and to all the people who do so much behind the scenes – Michael, Blair, Hillary, Luke, Pauline, Megan and Anne and to Anouk and Catherine for the commission. I have many people to thank for bringing AORTA to life. Huge gratitude to Josh, Jimmy and James for their incredible dancing and for giving their all to this project. To Robin for yet another brilliantly inspiring soundtrack and all of the other million things. To Rhian for the beautiful video visualisation of the work and Shio for the striking costume design. Thanks also to my choreographic secondment, Timothy Walsh and to all of the other secondments who have been a part of this process. Special thanks to my dear family and daughters.
A note from Stephanie Lake
Photo: Jeff Busby
Composition & Lighting:
Production Manager:
Performers:
Robin Fox
Michael Carr
Projection Design:
Stage Manager:
Rhian Hinkley
Blair Hart
James Batchelor Josh Mu James Pham
Costume Design:
System Operator:
Shio Otani
Nick Roux
AORTA — Direction & Choreography: Stephanie Lake 60 Minutes / No interval Chunky Move Studios 21 — 30 November 2013 Choreographic Secondment:
Timothy Walsh
James Batchelor
Josh Mu
James Pham
James Batchelor is a performer, choreographer AORTA is his debut production for Chunky Move. He has also worked with choreographers Antony Hamilton (Black Project 2) and Sue Healy (Inevitable Scenarios).
AORTA is Josh Mu’s second production for Chunky Move having previously performed in I Like This, commissioned as part of the Next Move program. Mu has performed nationally and toured internationally with a wide variety of choreographers, directors and companies including: Shaun Parker & Company, Antony Hamilton, Force Majeure, Meryl Tankard, Sydney Theatre Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Tracks Dance Theatre Company and Perth Theatre Company.
AORTA is James Pham’s third production with Chunky Move, having previously performed in 247 Days and An Act of Now. He has also worked with STEPS Youth Dance Company, Alice Lee Holland, Taane Mete, Taiaroa Royale, Ross McCormack and Maria Dabrowska.
His choreographic practice hybridises performance and the visual arts, working site
environments. In 2013 he developed a new performance installation, Ersatz, across residencies in France, United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia. Batchelor was the recipient of the Joy Nicholls Scholarship, Lionel Gell Scholarship, Dr Phillip Law Travel Scholarship and VCA Graduate Mentors Scholarship. Batchelor is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts.
Mu was the recipient of an Arts Northern Territory scholarship and an Ausdance Western Australia award winner for ‘Outstanding Performance’. He is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Direction & Choreography: Stephanie Lake
Composition & Lighting: Robin Fox
Stephanie Lake is an award winning choreographer and dancer based in Melbourne. She is the second artist to be commissioned twice through Chunky Move’s Next Move program.
Robin Fox is an audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art projects and dance. Robin has collaborated on several Chunky Move productions including Mortal Engine, Connected and Keep Everything.
Lake’s acclaimed work MIX TAPE, commissioned by Chunky Move, won two Green Room Awards including Best Choreography in 2011. In 2012 she was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company creating Dream Lucid for Contemporary Women, Spring Dance Festival and has created the choreography for Elektra, a co-commission from Sydney Symphony and Sydney Dance Company, which will premiere at the Sydney Opera House in 2014. In 2013 she premiered A Small Prometheus (co-directed by Robin Fox) at Melbourne Festival and DUAL for Dance Massive, which went on to have a season at Dublin Dance Festival and was nominated for a 2013 Helpmann Award for Best Choreography. Lake was also commissioned by Frontier Danceland, Singapore, creating, Axial for their 2013 season.
Pham trained in classical ballet at the Graduate College of Dance (Western Australia) and continued his dance studies at the New Zealand School of Dance.
His work Laser Show, which synchronises sound has been performed in over 50 cities worldwide to critical acclaim. In 2012, Fox received a high commendation in the National New Media Art Award and his work Interior Design:Music for the Bionic Ear International Rostrum of Composers forum.
Other recent projects include designing and building a giant Theremin for the City of Melbourne, the White Beam project commissioned by Dark Mofo, A Small Prometheus with Stephanie Lake, sound and light design for Lee Serle’s Synch at the Lyon Opera Ballet and Transducera, a new work for microphones and speakers composed with Eugene Ughetti.
As a performer Lake has danced with companies including Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and BalletLab for over twelve years touring extensively nationally and internationally. For Chunky Move she performed in Connected, I Like This, Two Faced Bastard, Tense Dave and Wanted and was Assistant Choreographer for the company’s production of Assembly.
Projection Design: Rhian Hinkley
artist based in Melbourne – AORTA is his debut production for Chunky Move. In 2009, Hinkley formed Encyclopedia of Animals with Christopher Brown and in 2010 they co-directed Urchin at Arts Centre, Melbourne. Hinkley has a longstanding relationship with Back to Back Theatre, creating the animated components for Ganesh Versus The Third Reich, Food Court and Soft Pornstar (2002), Buckstop (1997), Face of the West (2000) and Boz’n’Hok vs Theatre of Speed (2005). Dance Credits include work for Trevor Patrick (I could pretend the sky is water), BalletLab (Origami) and Sandra Parker Dance (Out of Light). He is currently the artistic director of Nebula – a portable studio/performance space designed produced by Arts Access Victoria.
Costume Design: Shio Otani
Shio Otani is a Melbourne-based costume designer. A self-confessed “crafter,” she is interested in all things handmade and works across diverse platforms including theatre, dance, jewellery design and textiles. She joined Chunky
Lake was the inaugural winner of the Dame Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship in 2012 and is currently Resident Director at Lucy Guerin Inc.
Dijk’s production 247 Days.
Otani has designed costumes for Back to Back Theatre (Super Discount, Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Food Court, Small Metal Object, Soft), Lucy Guerin Inc (Weather), Jo Lloyd (Public Unpublic, High Maintenance, Hospitals and Airports), Antony Hamilton (Forces x Antony Hamilton), David Rosetzky (Untouchable, Hothouse, Custom Made, Summer Blend) Rhian Hinkley (Boz’n’Hok vs. Theatre of Speed, Porn Star, Face of the West) and Encyclopedia of Animals (Urchin). Otani graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) and studied Fashion at Box Hill Institute of TAFE. She has also graduated from Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE with an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery Design.
Production Manager: Michael Carr
Stage Manager: Blair Hart
System Operator: Nick Roux
Michael Carr is the Production and Operations Manager at Chunky Move. Production credits with the company include 247 Days, An Act of Now, Connected, Assembly and Keep Everything, commissioned as part of the Next Move program. He has also toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally with Strange Fruit, BalletLab and Polyglot Puppet Theatre.
Blair Hart is the Production and Operations Coordinator at Chunky Move. For the company he has Stage Managed 247 Days, An Act of Now and Keep Everything, commissioned as part of the Next Move program.
Nick Roux has been involved with Chunky Move since 2006 (Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties, Tense Dave, Two Faced Bastard, Connected) and toured to an extensive list of venues throughout the world, operating and engineering sound and multi-media systems for numerous productions including the Kalypso motion tracking system for Glow and Mortal Engine. Creatively he works in sound and video: composing, editing, directing and designing, in performance, installation and screen based work.
Carr was artist-in-residence at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in 2004 and 2010, teaching circus, stage rigging, production and stage management.
fold
As a freelance production and stage manager, Hart has worked with Malthouse Theatre, BalletLab, All Tomorrows Parties and
on productions for KAGE Physical Theatre, Tim Darbyshire, Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Lucy Guerin Inc and Australian National Academy of Music. Hart studied production at the Victorian College of the Arts.
In 2013 Roux worked on the world premiere of King Kong – using the Kalypso system – for Global Creatures.
fold
Photo: Jeff Busby
Composition & Lighting:
Production Manager:
Performers:
Robin Fox
Michael Carr
Projection Design:
Stage Manager:
Rhian Hinkley
Blair Hart
James Batchelor Josh Mu James Pham
Costume Design:
System Operator:
Shio Otani
Nick Roux
AORTA — Direction & Choreography: Stephanie Lake 60 Minutes / No interval Chunky Move Studios 21 — 30 November 2013 Choreographic Secondment:
Timothy Walsh
James Batchelor
Josh Mu
James Pham
James Batchelor is a performer, choreographer AORTA is his debut production for Chunky Move. He has also worked with choreographers Antony Hamilton (Black Project 2) and Sue Healy (Inevitable Scenarios).
AORTA is Josh Mu’s second production for Chunky Move having previously performed in I Like This, commissioned as part of the Next Move program. Mu has performed nationally and toured internationally with a wide variety of choreographers, directors and companies including: Shaun Parker & Company, Antony Hamilton, Force Majeure, Meryl Tankard, Sydney Theatre Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Tracks Dance Theatre Company and Perth Theatre Company.
AORTA is James Pham’s third production with Chunky Move, having previously performed in 247 Days and An Act of Now. He has also worked with STEPS Youth Dance Company, Alice Lee Holland, Taane Mete, Taiaroa Royale, Ross McCormack and Maria Dabrowska.
His choreographic practice hybridises performance and the visual arts, working site
environments. In 2013 he developed a new performance installation, Ersatz, across residencies in France, United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia. Batchelor was the recipient of the Joy Nicholls Scholarship, Lionel Gell Scholarship, Dr Phillip Law Travel Scholarship and VCA Graduate Mentors Scholarship. Batchelor is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts.
Mu was the recipient of an Arts Northern Territory scholarship and an Ausdance Western Australia award winner for ‘Outstanding Performance’. He is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Direction & Choreography: Stephanie Lake
Composition & Lighting: Robin Fox
Stephanie Lake is an award winning choreographer and dancer based in Melbourne. She is the second artist to be commissioned twice through Chunky Move’s Next Move program.
Robin Fox is an audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art projects and dance. Robin has collaborated on several Chunky Move productions including Mortal Engine, Connected and Keep Everything.
Lake’s acclaimed work MIX TAPE, commissioned by Chunky Move, won two Green Room Awards including Best Choreography in 2011. In 2012 she was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company creating Dream Lucid for Contemporary Women, Spring Dance Festival and has created the choreography for Elektra, a co-commission from Sydney Symphony and Sydney Dance Company, which will premiere at the Sydney Opera House in 2014. In 2013 she premiered A Small Prometheus (co-directed by Robin Fox) at Melbourne Festival and DUAL for Dance Massive, which went on to have a season at Dublin Dance Festival and was nominated for a 2013 Helpmann Award for Best Choreography. Lake was also commissioned by Frontier Danceland, Singapore, creating, Axial for their 2013 season.
Pham trained in classical ballet at the Graduate College of Dance (Western Australia) and continued his dance studies at the New Zealand School of Dance.
His work Laser Show, which synchronises sound has been performed in over 50 cities worldwide to critical acclaim. In 2012, Fox received a high commendation in the National New Media Art Award and his work Interior Design:Music for the Bionic Ear International Rostrum of Composers forum.
Other recent projects include designing and building a giant Theremin for the City of Melbourne, the White Beam project commissioned by Dark Mofo, A Small Prometheus with Stephanie Lake, sound and light design for Lee Serle’s Synch at the Lyon Opera Ballet and Transducera, a new work for microphones and speakers composed with Eugene Ughetti.
As a performer Lake has danced with companies including Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and BalletLab for over twelve years touring extensively nationally and internationally. For Chunky Move she performed in Connected, I Like This, Two Faced Bastard, Tense Dave and Wanted and was Assistant Choreographer for the company’s production of Assembly.
Projection Design: Rhian Hinkley
artist based in Melbourne – AORTA is his debut production for Chunky Move. In 2009, Hinkley formed Encyclopedia of Animals with Christopher Brown and in 2010 they co-directed Urchin at Arts Centre, Melbourne. Hinkley has a longstanding relationship with Back to Back Theatre, creating the animated components for Ganesh Versus The Third Reich, Food Court and Soft Pornstar (2002), Buckstop (1997), Face of the West (2000) and Boz’n’Hok vs Theatre of Speed (2005). Dance Credits include work for Trevor Patrick (I could pretend the sky is water), BalletLab (Origami) and Sandra Parker Dance (Out of Light). He is currently the artistic director of Nebula – a portable studio/performance space designed produced by Arts Access Victoria.
Costume Design: Shio Otani
Shio Otani is a Melbourne-based costume designer. A self-confessed “crafter,” she is interested in all things handmade and works across diverse platforms including theatre, dance, jewellery design and textiles. She joined Chunky
Lake was the inaugural winner of the Dame Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship in 2012 and is currently Resident Director at Lucy Guerin Inc.
Dijk’s production 247 Days.
Otani has designed costumes for Back to Back Theatre (Super Discount, Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Food Court, Small Metal Object, Soft), Lucy Guerin Inc (Weather), Jo Lloyd (Public Unpublic, High Maintenance, Hospitals and Airports), Antony Hamilton (Forces x Antony Hamilton), David Rosetzky (Untouchable, Hothouse, Custom Made, Summer Blend) Rhian Hinkley (Boz’n’Hok vs. Theatre of Speed, Porn Star, Face of the West) and Encyclopedia of Animals (Urchin). Otani graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) and studied Fashion at Box Hill Institute of TAFE. She has also graduated from Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE with an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery Design.
Production Manager: Michael Carr
Stage Manager: Blair Hart
System Operator: Nick Roux
Michael Carr is the Production and Operations Manager at Chunky Move. Production credits with the company include 247 Days, An Act of Now, Connected, Assembly and Keep Everything, commissioned as part of the Next Move program. He has also toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally with Strange Fruit, BalletLab and Polyglot Puppet Theatre.
Blair Hart is the Production and Operations Coordinator at Chunky Move. For the company he has Stage Managed 247 Days, An Act of Now and Keep Everything, commissioned as part of the Next Move program.
Nick Roux has been involved with Chunky Move since 2006 (Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties, Tense Dave, Two Faced Bastard, Connected) and toured to an extensive list of venues throughout the world, operating and engineering sound and multi-media systems for numerous productions including the Kalypso motion tracking system for Glow and Mortal Engine. Creatively he works in sound and video: composing, editing, directing and designing, in performance, installation and screen based work.
Carr was artist-in-residence at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in 2004 and 2010, teaching circus, stage rigging, production and stage management.
fold
As a freelance production and stage manager, Hart has worked with Malthouse Theatre, BalletLab, All Tomorrows Parties and
on productions for KAGE Physical Theatre, Tim Darbyshire, Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Lucy Guerin Inc and Australian National Academy of Music. Hart studied production at the Victorian College of the Arts.
In 2013 Roux worked on the world premiere of King Kong – using the Kalypso system – for Global Creatures.
fold
Photo: Jeff Busby
Composition & Lighting:
Production Manager:
Performers:
Robin Fox
Michael Carr
Projection Design:
Stage Manager:
Rhian Hinkley
Blair Hart
James Batchelor Josh Mu James Pham
Costume Design:
System Operator:
Shio Otani
Nick Roux
AORTA — Direction & Choreography: Stephanie Lake 60 Minutes / No interval Chunky Move Studios 21 — 30 November 2013 Choreographic Secondment:
Timothy Walsh
James Batchelor
Josh Mu
James Pham
James Batchelor is a performer, choreographer AORTA is his debut production for Chunky Move. He has also worked with choreographers Antony Hamilton (Black Project 2) and Sue Healy (Inevitable Scenarios).
AORTA is Josh Mu’s second production for Chunky Move having previously performed in I Like This, commissioned as part of the Next Move program. Mu has performed nationally and toured internationally with a wide variety of choreographers, directors and companies including: Shaun Parker & Company, Antony Hamilton, Force Majeure, Meryl Tankard, Sydney Theatre Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Tracks Dance Theatre Company and Perth Theatre Company.
AORTA is James Pham’s third production with Chunky Move, having previously performed in 247 Days and An Act of Now. He has also worked with STEPS Youth Dance Company, Alice Lee Holland, Taane Mete, Taiaroa Royale, Ross McCormack and Maria Dabrowska.
His choreographic practice hybridises performance and the visual arts, working site
environments. In 2013 he developed a new performance installation, Ersatz, across residencies in France, United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia. Batchelor was the recipient of the Joy Nicholls Scholarship, Lionel Gell Scholarship, Dr Phillip Law Travel Scholarship and VCA Graduate Mentors Scholarship. Batchelor is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts.
Mu was the recipient of an Arts Northern Territory scholarship and an Ausdance Western Australia award winner for ‘Outstanding Performance’. He is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Direction & Choreography: Stephanie Lake
Composition & Lighting: Robin Fox
Stephanie Lake is an award winning choreographer and dancer based in Melbourne. She is the second artist to be commissioned twice through Chunky Move’s Next Move program.
Robin Fox is an audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art projects and dance. Robin has collaborated on several Chunky Move productions including Mortal Engine, Connected and Keep Everything.
Lake’s acclaimed work MIX TAPE, commissioned by Chunky Move, won two Green Room Awards including Best Choreography in 2011. In 2012 she was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company creating Dream Lucid for Contemporary Women, Spring Dance Festival and has created the choreography for Elektra, a co-commission from Sydney Symphony and Sydney Dance Company, which will premiere at the Sydney Opera House in 2014. In 2013 she premiered A Small Prometheus (co-directed by Robin Fox) at Melbourne Festival and DUAL for Dance Massive, which went on to have a season at Dublin Dance Festival and was nominated for a 2013 Helpmann Award for Best Choreography. Lake was also commissioned by Frontier Danceland, Singapore, creating, Axial for their 2013 season.
Pham trained in classical ballet at the Graduate College of Dance (Western Australia) and continued his dance studies at the New Zealand School of Dance.
His work Laser Show, which synchronises sound has been performed in over 50 cities worldwide to critical acclaim. In 2012, Fox received a high commendation in the National New Media Art Award and his work Interior Design:Music for the Bionic Ear International Rostrum of Composers forum.
Other recent projects include designing and building a giant Theremin for the City of Melbourne, the White Beam project commissioned by Dark Mofo, A Small Prometheus with Stephanie Lake, sound and light design for Lee Serle’s Synch at the Lyon Opera Ballet and Transducera, a new work for microphones and speakers composed with Eugene Ughetti.
As a performer Lake has danced with companies including Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and BalletLab for over twelve years touring extensively nationally and internationally. For Chunky Move she performed in Connected, I Like This, Two Faced Bastard, Tense Dave and Wanted and was Assistant Choreographer for the company’s production of Assembly.
Projection Design: Rhian Hinkley
artist based in Melbourne – AORTA is his debut production for Chunky Move. In 2009, Hinkley formed Encyclopedia of Animals with Christopher Brown and in 2010 they co-directed Urchin at Arts Centre, Melbourne. Hinkley has a longstanding relationship with Back to Back Theatre, creating the animated components for Ganesh Versus The Third Reich, Food Court and Soft Pornstar (2002), Buckstop (1997), Face of the West (2000) and Boz’n’Hok vs Theatre of Speed (2005). Dance Credits include work for Trevor Patrick (I could pretend the sky is water), BalletLab (Origami) and Sandra Parker Dance (Out of Light). He is currently the artistic director of Nebula – a portable studio/performance space designed produced by Arts Access Victoria.
Costume Design: Shio Otani
Shio Otani is a Melbourne-based costume designer. A self-confessed “crafter,” she is interested in all things handmade and works across diverse platforms including theatre, dance, jewellery design and textiles. She joined Chunky
Lake was the inaugural winner of the Dame Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship in 2012 and is currently Resident Director at Lucy Guerin Inc.
Dijk’s production 247 Days.
Otani has designed costumes for Back to Back Theatre (Super Discount, Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Food Court, Small Metal Object, Soft), Lucy Guerin Inc (Weather), Jo Lloyd (Public Unpublic, High Maintenance, Hospitals and Airports), Antony Hamilton (Forces x Antony Hamilton), David Rosetzky (Untouchable, Hothouse, Custom Made, Summer Blend) Rhian Hinkley (Boz’n’Hok vs. Theatre of Speed, Porn Star, Face of the West) and Encyclopedia of Animals (Urchin). Otani graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) and studied Fashion at Box Hill Institute of TAFE. She has also graduated from Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE with an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery Design.
Production Manager: Michael Carr
Stage Manager: Blair Hart
System Operator: Nick Roux
Michael Carr is the Production and Operations Manager at Chunky Move. Production credits with the company include 247 Days, An Act of Now, Connected, Assembly and Keep Everything, commissioned as part of the Next Move program. He has also toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally with Strange Fruit, BalletLab and Polyglot Puppet Theatre.
Blair Hart is the Production and Operations Coordinator at Chunky Move. For the company he has Stage Managed 247 Days, An Act of Now and Keep Everything, commissioned as part of the Next Move program.
Nick Roux has been involved with Chunky Move since 2006 (Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties, Tense Dave, Two Faced Bastard, Connected) and toured to an extensive list of venues throughout the world, operating and engineering sound and multi-media systems for numerous productions including the Kalypso motion tracking system for Glow and Mortal Engine. Creatively he works in sound and video: composing, editing, directing and designing, in performance, installation and screen based work.
Carr was artist-in-residence at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in 2004 and 2010, teaching circus, stage rigging, production and stage management.
fold
As a freelance production and stage manager, Hart has worked with Malthouse Theatre, BalletLab, All Tomorrows Parties and
on productions for KAGE Physical Theatre, Tim Darbyshire, Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Lucy Guerin Inc and Australian National Academy of Music. Hart studied production at the Victorian College of the Arts.
In 2013 Roux worked on the world premiere of King Kong – using the Kalypso system – for Global Creatures.
fold
fold Next Move
Chunky Move Staff
Special Thanks
AORTA was commissioned by Chunky Move as part of Next Move – a program committed to nurturing the next generation of Australia’s leading dance makers. Next Move is designed to bridge the divide between young choreographers making small independent work and more established choreographers running their own organisations or engaged with larger commissions.
Artistic Director: Anouk van Dijk Executive Producer: Catherine Jones Business & Program Manager: Hillary Coyne Production & Operations Manager: Michael Carr Marketing & Development Manager: Luke McKinnon
Chunky Move would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support of AORTA: Marcus Pugh and Maytal Miller at Resolution X, Kelvin Gedye at System Sound, Malthouse Theatre Production Staff, Ivy Dwyer Hinkley and Lucy Guerin.
Chunky Move
what is or what can be contemporary dance in an ever-evolving Australian culture. Our work is diverse in form and content encompassing media and installation work. Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives nurture and underpin a strong and vibrant dance culture in our home city of Melbourne and create critically acclaimed and popular productions of scale for presentations nationally and internationally. Chunky Move Board Peter Biggs CNZM (Chair), Stephen Armstrong, Jeremy Blackshaw, Annie Dawson, Rhod EllisJones, Jeff Khan, Margaret Parker, Margaret Thompson, Anouk van Dijk.
Megan Williams Production & Operations Coordinator: Blair Hart Marketing & Development Coordinator: Pauline Robert Finance Administrator: Anne MacDonald Class Curator: Kristy Ayre Front of House Staff: Annabelle Balharry, Emily Lochowicz and Phoebe Robinson Publicity: Miranda Brown Publicity
Major Partners
Media Partner
Wine Partner
Next Move Leaders Program Chunky Move would like to thank and acknowledge the foundation donors of our Next Move Leaders Program: Peter and Mary Biggs and Daniel and Danielle Besen. For more information about how you can support the next generation of Australian dance, please email luke@chunkymove.com.au or 9645 5188.
Productions Partners
Supporting Partners
Government Partners Choreographic Secondment Program
Chunky Move is supported by the Victorian Government, through Arts Victoria and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
fold Threading throughout the work is the notion that at any given time we are both alive and dying and that the inevitability of death joins us all. Much of AORTA is a choreographic investigation of our complex physical system – how does blood move? What does a neural pathway look like? But it is also the story of our mortality, our growth and decay. I wanted to explore both our tremulousness as well as the driving surge of our aliveness; the fragile, crumbling bones and the bombastic beat driven animal. It could easily be argued that we are our biology; that there is no separation between mind and body and that, in fact, our every action is predetermined by our genetics and physiology. Despite vast breakthroughs in science we still don’t know it all. What drives us is essentially a mystery. Inspired by the metronomic nature of the heart – our ticking clock – AORTA attempts to bring the interior workings of our bodies to the surface. A note from Stephanie Lake
seed of the idea through to putting it on stage. I’m so grateful for the opportunity and hope you enjoy it. Next Move initiative is a fantastic, unique program that allows the choreographer to Enormous thanks to Chunky Move and their supporters for making this possible and to all the people who do so much behind the scenes – Michael, Blair, Hillary, Luke, Pauline, Megan and Anne and to Anouk and Catherine for the commission. I have many people to thank for bringing AORTA to life. Huge gratitude to Josh, Jimmy and James for their incredible dancing and for giving their all to this project. To Robin for yet another brilliantly inspiring soundtrack and all of the other million things. To Rhian for the beautiful video visualisation of the work and Shio for the striking costume design. Thanks also to my choreographic secondment, Timothy Walsh and to all of the other secondments who have been a part of this process. Special thanks to my dear family and daughters.