CHUNKY MOVE AND MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL PRESENT:
bY Erna Omarsdottir and Damien Jalet bY Erna Omarsdottir and Damien Jalet
WORLD PREMIERE OCTOBER 20-24 2009 THE CUB MALTHOUSE MERLYN THEATRE
DURATION: 60 mins (no interval) WARNING: Frequent coarse language, adult themes, strobe lighting effects and smoking (tobacco free). Not recommended for children under 10 years. WWW.CHUNKYMOVE.COM
CHUNKY MOVE - BLACK MARROW
DIRECTION, CHOREOGRAPHY AND CONCEPT ERNA ÓMARSDÓTTIR AND DAMIEN JALET SET AND COSTUME DESIGN ALEXANDRA MEIN LIGHTING DESIGN NIKLAS PAJANTI ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN BEN FROST FEATURING OREN AMBARCHI
Digging in a fertile ground of creation, eschatological myth and scientific fact, Black Marrow interrogates our relationship with the planet and the potential heritage of our civilisation.
SOUND DESIGNER/OPERATOR BYRON SCULLIN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER RACHAEL AZZOPARDI PRODUCTION MANAGER CHRIS MERCER PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATOR REBECCA ANDERSON STAGE MANAGER MELANIE STANTON DESIGN ASSISTANT MICHELLE BOYDE IN COLLABORATION WITH AND PERFORMERED BY SARA BLACK, PAULO CASTRO, JULIAN CROTTI, ALISDAIR MACINDOE, CARLEE MELLOW AND JAMES SHANNON.
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INTRODUCTION FROM GIDEON OBARZANEK It is a great pleasure to introduce Chunky Move’s new work for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, by two outstanding international choreographers Erna Ómarsdóttir and Damien Jalet. I first invited Damien and Erna to give a series of workshops with Chunky Move here in Melbourne over three years ago. Everyone who came in contact with them and their powerful style was excited and inspired. Since then, we have been planning for them to create a major new work with the company. In commissioning choreographers to make new work for Chunky Move, I seek artists with a unique approach. Damien and Erna’s distinctive production radiates with bold originality. I’m extremely excited by what this extraordinary team of artists and performers have produced. I hope you will be too.
A NOTE FROM ERNA oMARSDOTTIR AND DAMIEN JALET We have always been fascinated by what influences and succeeds civilisation: the wild, the primal, the untamed, the unbaked or the mutated? With the opportunity to create two projects in the same year, with the same composer, in two extreme parts of the world, we immediately thought of creating some sort of thread between those two poles. Iceland and Australia are both islands with a wild and uninhabited centre, filled with pagan mythologies. While one is an extremely wet place on earth the
other is amazingly dry. One is a fresh country still in the making, the other one of the oldest places on earth. In Iceland we created a piece in the famous Blue Lagoon, where audience and dancers were immersed in hot sky-blue water in the middle of a vast black lava field. This work dealt with the theme of origins; of water as the cradle of life and the vital element in all forms of life. So in taking the north as the origin, coming to Australia brings us to the end. Many generations have thought they would be the ones to witness the end of the world. Ours is no exception. It has only been a few decades since humans developed the technology to destroy the planet in less time than it takes to describe it. Even without going to that extreme scenario, science seems daily to bring us new and concrete facts demonstrating the world is at the edge of radical changes. By continuously and extensively extracting all the resources of our soils, in digging deeper and deeper in the ground, are we actually digging our own grave? In the Middle Ages when work began on a cathedral, people knew it would take five hundred years to create and only their very far descendants would admire the finished building. What investments do we make today for future generations? Rituals have always been a part of our profound relationship to the ground we are from. Our ancestors praised the gods of nature and gave them homage. With the
development of science and technology it seems that we have found a way to tame nature. But as the rituals disappear, it appears that many of us may have forgotten our origins. In this work we are trying to create a kind of contemporary ritual. The themes may seem gloomy, but our goal with the performers, Alexandra Mein and Ben Frost was to answer this darkness with a primal, visceral energy, the life force of the survivor. Working with rhythm, repetition and exhaustion, we try to connect to the energy of an archaic trance, in order to transform ourselves and mutate into animals, machines or pagan gods. Every ritual has a function: trance often has a healing one. The purpose of Black Marrow is neither to change the world nor to moralise about what we’re doing to it. For the space of a performance, we attempt to create a personal mythology and change what is commonly judged as ugly into something aesthetic. To create an oneiric world that operates like a deformed mirror - like a dark dream in order to see ourselves better in this one. We are honoured by Gideon Obarzanek’s invitation to collaborate with Chunky Move and with this amazing cast of performers. Working and creating here with artists of such physical and creative talents has been an incredibly inspiring experience and a big step forward in our work. This piece would be a very different one with another cast and creative team.
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BIOGRAPHIES ERNA ÓMARSDÓTTIR DIRECTION / CHOREOGRAPHY / CONCEPT Erna graduated from PARTS in Belgium in 1998. Since then she has worked as a dancer with various companies and choreographers including Troubleyn / Jan Fabre, creating and performing in various works. Since 2002 she has worked with Les Ballets C De La B and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Her first works to tour Europe include IBM 1401 (a users manual) with the original music score of Jóhann Jóhannsson and We are all Marlene Dietrich FOR co-directed with Emil Hrvatin for The Icelandic Dance Company. Erna has performed her own work and that of others all over the world and in recent years has been invited to some of the most renowned festivals and venues. Several times, she has been nominated Best Dancer and Best Young Choreographer by Ballet International. Erna’s works currently touring Europe include The Mysteries of Love, The Talking Tree and Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness. She is a founding member of the Poni Collective in Brussels. With Damien Jalet she created the short films Unclear Age and the dance work Ofaett. Erna has also collaborated with visual artist Gabriela Fridriksdóttir at the Venice Biennale 2005 and Icelandic singer Björk on a videoclip for Medulla.
DAMIEN JALET DIRECTION / CHOREOGRAPHY / CONCEPT Damien Jalet studied theatre initially at the I.N.S.A.S. (National Institute of the Performing Arts, Brussels) and then shifted to contemporary dance in Belgium and New
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York. He started his dance career by dancing with Wim Vandekeybus in 1998. In 2000 he began an intense collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui as his artistic partner within the company Les Ballets C De La B on Rien de rien (2000), Foi (2003), Tempus Fugit (2004) and Myth (2006). In 2002 they created D’avant together with Luc Dunberry and Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, which continues to tour the world. In 2005 he made the short film The Unclear Age, co-directed with Erna Ómarsdóttir and the filmmakers Dumspiro. With Ómarsdóttir and Icelandic artist Gabriela Fridriksdóttir (Venice Biennale 05), he also made the piece Ofaett (Unborn) for the Theatre National de Bretagne (2005). He has worked with director Arthur Nauzyciel on the pieces l’image (for beckett centenary in Dublin) Julius Caesar for the A.R.T. (Boston), Ordet (Avignon festival 08) and The Museum of the Sea (Reykjavik National Theater 09). Damien Jalet recently co-directed a video with photographer Nick Knight and Bernhard Willhelm for the presentation of the designer’s men’s collection. The Tokyo International Arts Festival in 2008 hosted the world premiere of Three Spells, a choreographic triptych spearheaded by Jalet, with Christian Fennesz’ original score.
ALEXANDRA MEIN SET AND COSTUME DESIGN Alexandra Mein lives and works in Brussels. Her work explores the raw intersection of humanity and a secret world expressed through sculptures and assemblages. She creates a universe that is on the limits of the rational and irrational and
is populated by anthropomorphic, hybrid creatures with a dimension of ambiguity, disturbing beauty and a delicate monstrosity that resembles us all. In 2004 Alexandra graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, with a Master Degree in Fashion Design. She was invited to the summer sculpture residencies at the School for Visual Arts in New York in 2008. In addition to exhibitions in Belgium she has exhibited a solo show in Snug Harbor, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art New York and participated in a group exhibition in the Anton Kern Gallery New York. Alexandra designed and produced the costumes for Venari, (Three Spells) by Damien Jalet and for Wayn Traub’s Arkiologi in 2007.
NIKLAS PAJANTI LIGHTING DESIGN Niklas works as a theatrical lighting designer across all forms of performance and events. He has designed for Chunky Move, The Eleventh Hour, Company B, Brink Productions, Sydney Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Ranters Theatre, BalletLab, Token Events, Not Yet It’s Difficult, Melbourne International Arts Festival and The Commonwealth Games Festival 06. He has been nominated for seven Victorian Green Room Awards and a Helpmann Industry Award. He is the recipient of a Green Room Award. Niklas is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and holds postgraduate
qualifications in lighting engineering from The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Currently Niklas is principal lighting designer for trafficlight, an independent specialist design and management studio based in Melbourne.
BEN FROST ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN Born in Melbourne, Australia. Lives, Reykjavík Iceland. The music of Ben Frost is about contrast; influenced as much by classical minimalism as by punk rock and metal, Frost’s throbbing textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that often eschew conventional structures in favor of the inevitable unfoldings of vast mechanical systems. On albums like Theory of Machines (2007) and BY THE THROAT (2009) Frost’s music is more than a cerebral exercise and has an undeniable visceral presence, felt as much as heard. Boomkat.com has described him as one of the most interesting and groundbreaking producers in the world today and as an artistic collaborator he has worked with artists as diverse as Björk, composer Nico Muhly and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, with whom Frost shares Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavík. Frost’s music’s intense physicality has filled gallery spaces and driven contemporary dance productions by Chunky Move and the Icelandic Dance Company.
BYRON SCULLIN SOUND DESIGNER/OPERATOR Byron Scullin maintains a highly eclectic practice as both an artist and technician, creating music and sound for a wide variety of people and projects as well as technically assisting many more. Some recent projects include a soundtrack for Melbourne Planetarium, producing the original soundtrack for Australian feature film Acolytes (with frequent collaborator J. David Franzke), production assistance & mastering for Midnight Juggernauts 2nd full length album, and also music & sound designs for artist Daniel Crooks. Byron lectures in sound art at RMIT University and is also a regular contributor to radio show Byte Into It on RRR FM. Byron is currently based out of Deluxe Mastering in Brunswick. More information can be found at byronscullin.com. Since 1998 he has worked on many Chunky Move productions in various capacities and Black Marrow will be his 16th production with the company.
“The collapse of the stellar universe will occur-like creation-in grandiose splendour” LESSONS OF DARKNESS - DIRECTOR WERNER HERZOG
MICHELLE BOYDE DESIGN ASSISTANT Michelle is a Melbourne-based designer interested in the intersection between fashion, art and performance. Her early career was spent as a dancer in Sydney and Northern NSW, touring nationally with NORPA Dance Theatre and as a member of Swift Rhythm Hoofers, Melbourne. Always fascinated by the visual side of theatre, Michelle turned her attentions to design and moving to Melbourne, commenced a Bachelor of Design program at RMIT University specialising in contemporary millinery and stretch-wear. In 2003 she
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CHUNKY MOVE - BLACK MARROW
founded FAD Productions, a boutique events and costume studio, designing and producing art and fashion events for L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Arts Program in 2003 and 2004, The National Gallery of Victoria Art Beat in 2005 and 2006, The Sydney Mardi Gras 25th Anniversary Celebrations 2008 and most recently conceived and designed FLASH Faction, as part of The Melbourne Design Festival’s Cultural Program (2009). She currently works freelance as a designer, as well as assisting Melbourne milliner Richard Nylon and completing her Design Degree.
MELANIE STANTON STAGE MANAGER After completing high school in the NSW Hunter Valley, Melanie moved to Brisbane and graduated from Queensland University of Technology’s BFA – Technical Production (Theatre) in 2003. She has enjoyed working on a variety of productions in roles ranging from Assistant Stage Manager to Technical Coordinator. Highlights include Queensland Music Festival (2005), Brisbane Festival (2006), Melbourne Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies (2006) and Doha Asian Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies (2006). Since returning from world travel at the end of 2007 Melanie has been based in Melbourne, with roles including Production Coordinator for both St Kilda Festival (2008, 2009) and Melbourne International Arts Festival (2008), as well as Assistant Stage Manager for the Malthouse Theatre and Victorian Opera.
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PERFORMERS SARA BLACK Raised in Canberra, Sara was a 2002 member of the Australian Choreographic Centres Quantum Leap Youth Dance Company. In 2005 she completed her Bachelor of Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts. Since graduating Sara has worked with independent artists Solon Ulbrich, Antony Hamilton, Neil Adams, Byron Perry and Cadi McCarthy as well as Lucy Guerin Inc, Not Yet It’s Difficult and Chunky Move, where she was nominated for a Green Room Award for the solo work Glow. Sara is also a founding member of ROGUE, a dance collective of 2005 graduates of the Victorian College of the Arts. Sara was awarded Best Female Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Production for Glow at the 2008 Helpmann Awards. She has performed in Chunky Move’s productions of Glow and Mortal Engine.
PAULO CASTRO Born in Portugal, Paulo directed the plays Red, Black and Ignorant and Chaos is Near of God for the National Theatre S.Joao Porto Portugal. He has also directed a number of theatre performances with independent groups in Europe including texts from Fassbinder, Jon Fosse, Heiner Muller, Edward Bond, Lars Noren, Arrabal and Dostoievsky. He co-directed and performed Wake Up Hate by Jan Fabre in Berlin which toured to Lisbon, Barcelona, Reykiavik, Paris, Madrid, Estrasbourg, Berlin and Hamburg. With Jo Stone he co-directed Congratulations for Sophiensaele Berlin. Paulo has worked
with choreographer Vera Mantero in Dance in City-Lisbon, Montpellier Festival France, the Pompidou Center Paris, Tanz Quartier, Vienna and Kai Theatre in Brussels. Most recently, Paulo directed the project Tom the Loneliest which was performed in Adelaide and at Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre and co- directed with Jo Stone the performance Des-integration for Dance North Townsville. His work B.File was nominated for a 2008 Green Room Award.
JULIAN CROTTI Julian studied acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and film making at M.A.P.S. (Hamilton College). He has performed in Hamlet (SASTC/QTC ‘07), Private Secret Real (Atypical Troupe ’08), Jet of Blood (Ignite ‘06), Tanja Liedtke’s Twelfth Floor (Australian tour ‘06, UK tour ‘09) and in tts Australia; route 21 (PVI Collective ‘05). In 2003 he wrote a series of commercials for SnackinaBox that aired nationally in Australia. He has made films for 2Connect (No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability/Adelaide Fringe’05) and Paulo Castro’s Regina vs. Contemporary Art (Lisbon ‘07). In 2008 he was producer and dramaturg for a series of short films made by young Indigenous Australians in Wadeye, Australia’s largest indigenous community. Julian has been an associate artist at No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability since 2004. In 2008/09 No Strings Attached presented Tom the
Loneliest (Adelaide/Melbourne). Julian provided the original concept/original direction/co-writing and performance of the production.
ALISDAIR MACINDOE Alisdair Macindoe is a Melbourne-based dancer who trained in dance at the Victorian College of the Arts and the VCA Secondary School. 2009 sees Alisdair performing with Chunky Move and in Lucy Guerin Inc’s Pieces for Small Spaces and developing his own new work BROMANCE. Alisdair has also performed in I Like This (Antony Hamilton and Byron Perry), part of Chunky Move’s The Next Move series, with Leigh Warren and Dancers, Nat Cursio Inc (short works by Nat Cursio, Jo Lloyd and Gerard Van Dyke), Katrina Lazarof, Lina Limosani, Underpass, Bare Bones Collective, Lucy Guerin Inc, Balletlab (development showing) and Coby Orger. This year Alisdair was nominated for a 2008 Green Room Award for Best Male Dancer in his own solo work Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain.
CARLEE MELLOW Carlee Mellow graduated from the VCA in 1995. Over the last 14 years she has worked in both film and live performance as a dancer, actor and collaborator with many choreographers and directors, touring nationally and internationally. Choreographers/companies include Chunky Move, BalletLab, Dance Works, Tracie Mitchell, Lisa Nelson (US), Russell Maliphant (UK), Lea
Anderson (UK), Shelley Lassica, Ros Warby, Prue Lang, Meryl Tankard, amongst others. Directors include David Pledger (NYID), Margie Medlin (Critical Path), Chris Kohn (Stuck Pigs Squealing), Ana Kokkinos, Angus Cerini, James Brennan and Kate Denborough (KAGE).
James is a recipient of the Tasmanian Minister of Youth Arts Award. With the direction of Kate Denborough and Gerard Van Dyke under the KAGE coach mentorship, James began co creating his own work in the Arts Center residency this year.
PRESENTED BY CHUNKY MOVE AND MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
FUNDING PARTNERS
Chunky Move is supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria – Department of Premier Cabinet and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Carlee’s own choreographic work has been presented in Melbourne and Berlin. Her commissioned solo works include Diva, No Exit and Prologue. She has choreographed for Arena Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Stuck Pigs Squealing, VCA, VCASS and has created work with Jo Lloyd, Alexandra Macdonald and her improvisation collective, Underpass. Carlee also works as Program Producer at Dancehouse, home to independent artists.
MAJOR PARTNERS
SUPPORTING PARTNERS
JAMES SHANNON James started dancing at the Canberra Dance Development Centre and the Quantum Leap Youth Dance Company and is a graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts.
PRODUCTION PARTNER
In 2007 he joined Tasdance to perform in Mercy: a dance for the forgotten. He has worked for Fiona Reilly, Shaun Parker, Anna Smith, Natalie Cursio, Natalie Weir, Carol Wellman, Solon Ulbrich and Kate Denborough, touring works nationally and internationally. James performed for Cadi McCarthy Company in Shambles, Bec Reid in With a Bullet, The Album Project and in Lucy Guerins Pieces for Small Spaces season 2008. In 2009 he traveled to Melbourne, Germany, Spain, and Philadelphia with Chunky Move’s Mortal Engine.
SPECIAL THANKS
Chunky Move, Erna Ómarsdóttir and Damien Jalet would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support of Black Marrow: Melbourne International Arts Festival and staff, Chunky Move board and staff, Gideon Obarzanek, Jo Stone, Valdimar Johannsson, Jay Matthews, Amber Haines, The Malthouse Theatre and Workshop, Ticketmaster, Ross & Jill at Scenic Studios, Resolution X, Verity Copeland, Ross and Andy from Will Pump, Dexter Varley, Rowan, Miranda Brown and staff, COÖP, Proud Mother Pictures.
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ABOUT CHUNKY MOVE Founded by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek in 1995, Chunky Move has earned an enviable reputation for producing a distinct yet unpredictable brand of genre-defying dance performance. Chunky Move’s work constantly seeks to redefine what is or what can be contemporary dance within an ever-evolving Australian culture. The company’s work is both diverse in form and content; to date the Company has created a number of works for the stage, site specific and new-media and installation work. Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives foster and support a strong and vibrant dance culture in its home city of Melbourne and also creates critically acclaimed and popular larger productions for touring. Recent cities toured include: Sydney, Mexico, Berlin, Salamanca, Prague, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and New York. In 2005 Chunky Move was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Choreography / Creation for its New York season of Tense Dave and in 2008 it received Best Dance Work for Glow and Best Visual or Physical Theatre Production for Mortal Engine at the Live Performance Australia Helpmann Awards. In 2009 Mortal Engine received an honorary mention in the Hybrid Arts category at the Prix Ars Electronica Award. Recent works include: Two Faced Bastard, Mortal Engine, Glow, I Like This, I Want to Dance Better at Parties and Tense Dave.
CHUNKY MOVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Gideon Obarzanek EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Rachael Azzopardi BUSINESS & PROGRAM MANAGER Hillary Coyne PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS MANAGER Chris Mercer MARKETING & SPONSORSHIP MANAGER Anna Slowiak PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATOR Rebecca Anderson DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Zadia Lenders OFFICE AND MARKETING COORDINATOR Prue Beal FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR Anne MacDonald CLASS COORDINATOR Luke George PUBLICITY Miranda Brown Publicity
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stephen Armstrong (chair) Rachael Azzopardi Peter Biggs Jeremy Blackshaw Kate Crawford Dr Terry Cutler Gideon Obarzanek Margaret Parker Katrina Sedgwick Margaret Thompson 111 Sturt St Southbank Vic 3006 T: +61 3 9645 5188 F: +61 3 9645 5199 www.chunkymove.com Chunky Move can also be found on Facebook Myspace and Twitter