Conceived and Choreographed by: Gideon Obarzanek Executive Producer: Vivia Hickman Performers: Kristy Ayre Antony Hamilton Paea Leach Kirstie McCracken Carlee Mellow Lee Serle Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal (understudy) Set Design: Dirk Zimmermann (Studio 505) Sound Design: Darrin Verhagen Lighting Design: Niklas Pajanti (trafficlight) Costume Designer: Paula Levis Production and Operations Manager: Donna Aston Stage Manager: Annette Dale
CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTES Recently I was looking at the work of Thomas Demand, an artist who painstakingly creates intricate paper and card models of mundane civic, work and private spaces. In viewing Demand’s detailed work I began to think of the uninteresting and familiar places where I spend much of my time yet pay little attention to. It is precisely in these familiar places, these gaps between engagement with the world around me, that I have sometimes experienced brief moments of the most profound happiness, sadness, fear and pleasure. As a choreographer, I have become increasingly envious of literature’s ability to describe people’s dramatic states of mind while they are doing nothing or at most, very little. Dance can only describe through action and similar to theatre’s limitation, where characters are restricted to dialogue to express themselves, emotions in dance are almost exclusively revealed through the body in motion. Pretty obvious stuff, however when I have experienced moments of intense emotions I have often not been in particularly interesting situations or places. My body has been mostly still and the actual sensory experience quite brief. In September 2005, Chunky Move was invited for a residency at the National Gallery of Australia to study a Bill Viola exhibition, The Passions, while continuing our development of Singularity. Viola’s work centred on studying people’s changing emotions with very highspeed cameras. The results were extreme slow motion, very high definition video portraits. Not only were the works compelling but so were the people viewing them. It seemed that the observers often adopted the emotions displayed on the screens. Apart from the works and their fascinating, contagious phenomenon, another inspiration was part of a lecture by Viola about the making of his work. He talked about the need to find time and space for isolation and the importance of loneliness. He was speaking about the state an artist needs to access to make work, but it also struck me as similar to the moments that can occur in those mundane places and situations in life, gaps between engagement where there is space for emotions to surge to the surface, if only briefly.
Lighting Operator: Jenny Hector
I would like to thank everyone involved with the project, particularly the dancers who have personally contributed so much in the development of this work. And a special thank you to architect, Dirk Zimmermann from Studio 505, whose work has uniquely defined how we view this performance.
Sound Technician: Nick Roux
– Gideon Obarzanek
Gideon Obarzanek Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek founded Chunky Move in 1995. Since then the company has created many dance productions, performing at numerous cities and festivals around the world. Gideon originally studied at the Australian Ballet School and danced with the Queensland Ballet and the Sydney Dance Company before working as an independent performer and choreographer with various dance companies and independent projects within Australia and abroad. Most recently Gideon has received a New York Bessie award for Outstanding Choreography / Creation for Tense Dave and two Melbourne Green Room Awards for Original Choreography and Concept and Realisation for I Want to Dance Better at Parties. In 1999 he received a Mo award for Best Choreography for Bonehead and the Prime Minister’s Young Creative Fellowship in 1996. Kristy Ayre Kristy learnt to dance in Lismore and Sydney before graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Dance in 2001. Kristy joined Chunky Move in 2002 and has performed nationally and internationally with the company for the past four years. She has appeared in I Want to Dance Better at Parties (for which she was nominated for a Green Room Award), Tense Dave, Crowds, Wanted: ballet for a contemporary democracy, Prue Lang’s Infinite Temporal Series and Kim Itoh’s Butterfly and Me. In 2005 she performed with Lucy Guerin Inc. in Love me and in Shelley Lasica’s Play in a Room. Kristy teaches regularly for Chunky Move’s public dance class program and Sydney schools workshop program. Antony Hamilton Antony trained in dance in Sydney, Perth and New York. Since 1999 he has worked with the Australian Dance Theatre (Garry Stewart), Kage Physical Theatre (Kate Denborough), Chunky Move (Gideon Obarzanek) and Lucy Guerin Inc.(Lucy Guerin) extensively throughout Australia and overseas. He has created a number of short works including Rot‚ (1999), Decayfriend‚ (2000), Action Figures Sold Separately‚ (2001), Species for Small Spaces‚ (2005) and Blazeblue Oneline‚ (2005). He also choreographed and performed in the recent music video of Going Nowhere‚ by Melbourne band Cutcopy. Antony was the inaugural recipient of the Russell Page Fellowship in 2004, and winner of the Greenroom Award for Best Male Dancer in 2005. Antony also works as a visual artist and has exhibited in both Adelaide and Melbourne. Paea Leach Paea is an independent dancer and choreographer who trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and was based (and working) in Perth until 2005. She has most recently performed with Australian Dance Theatre in Garry Stewart’s new work for the Adelaide Festival Devolution – a work involving collaboration with
a French robotics engineer. In 2005 Paea choreographed WAN for Co. Loaded for the Perth International Arts Festival and spent time undertaking professional development with Emio Greco in Amsterdam and Vienna. Paea also worked on a further development period for the SOLOS project – two new works by Shannon Bott and Simon Ellis – which will be performed in Melbourne and as part of the Artrage festival in Perth in 2006. Paea is a member of Arts WA, Young People and the Arts Panel, and has been funded for national and international travel. Paea began working with Chunky Move in 2005. Kirstie McCracken Kirstie trained at the Victorian College of the Arts. She has toured nationally and internationally over the past 8 years creating and performing works with Chunky Move (FleshMeet, Body Parts, Live Acts), Lucy Guerin Inc. (The Ends of Things, Melt, Plasticine Park, On, Aether, Love Me), Force Majeure (Same, same but different, Already Elsewhere, The Sense of It), Tasdance (Hypermobile) and independent choreographers Fiona Cameron (Looking for Life Cure), Byron Perry (Punctuated Equilibrium, Gogglebox), Nicole Steven (Frame Chaser) and Delia Silvan (Dark and Dark and Silent). She has also collaborated with Lisa Griffiths, choreographing and performing in two short works for The Studio at the Sydney Opera House and has performed in various commercial projects, music festivals and video clips. Carlee Mellow Carlee Mellow graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1995. She has worked in both film and live performance as a dancer and collaborator with choreographers Sandra Parker (Dance Works), Gideon Obarzanek (Chunky Move), Phillip Adams (BalletLab), Tracie Mitchell (Twirling Sheila Productions), Meryl Tankard, Shelley Lasica, David Pledger, Sue Healy, Rebecca Hilton, Ros Warby, Trevor Patrick, Gerard Van Dyck (KAGE), Fiona Cameron, Natalie Cursio, Emma Hamilton and Anna Smith. Carlee is currently working with Alexandra Macdonald, Martin Hansen and Alisdair Macindoe on developing improvisation for performance. She is choreographing a piece for the third year dance students at VCA and has been commissioned by Dance Works to choreograph and perform a solo for a season with Jo Lloyd. After the premiere season of Singularity she will continue working with Phillip Adams on the premiere of Origami in July. Lee Serle Lee graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2003. Since then he has performed in Aether with Lucy Guerin Inc. as part of the Australia Council’s Foot in the Door program, I Want to Dance Better at Parties for Chunky Move and performed in Neil Adams’ research project Incarna.
Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal (understudy) Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal is an independent choreographer and freelance dance artist from Angourie NSW. She works with culturally diverse performing arts companies in Australia, Northern America and the South Pacific region. Jade Dewi has been dancing and travelling since she was a young girl. Her formal artistic training began at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in Sydney; then continued with a three-year scholarship at the New World School of the Arts in Miami USA, where she gained her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours in Dance from the University of Florida. In 2004 she completed a year scholarship at the Indonesian University of the Arts in Yogyakarta, and is currently engaged in Post-Graduate studies in choreography at the Victorian College of the Arts. The influences of travel and study of the arts have nourished a unique understanding and interpretation of differing ethno-socio-cultural settings. This is expressed and utilized in her performances and choreographic practice through the subtle use of idiosyncratic movements that reflect her diverse experiences. Set Design: Dirk Zimmermann (Studio 505) Dirk Zimmermann, together with Dylan Brady and Dik Jarman is a partner in ‘studio505’ architects. Studio505 was re-formed in 2004 to deliver the design for the Australian Pavilion at the World Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan. Dirk studied architecture in Germany and the UK and was an Associate with London-based design engineering company ‘atelier one’, working on the design for the exterior shell structures of Singapore’s ‘Esplanade Theatres in the Bay’ and the stage set of the ‘Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge World Tour’, amongst others. Dirk moved to Australia in 1998 to run ‘atelier one’s’ Melbourne office working on the enigmatic building facades and structures of Federation Square, for which the office won several prestigious awards. Studio505’ have recently completed the design for the ‘Royal Domain Tower Art Wall’ (with artist Geoff Nees), the ‘White Noise Exhibition’ at ACMI’s screen gallery in Federation Square and the shimmering external façade screens (20,000m2) of the ‘Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre’ in Suzhou, China. Sound Design: Darrin Verhagen Darrin Verhagen is a freelance composer for Dance, Theatre and Computer Games. His choreographic works include material for Chunky Move (Closer, Hydra, Singularity), Australian Dance Theatre (Held, Nothing, Vocabulary, Devolution), Lucy Guerin Inc. (Zero, Lost Air, On/Love Me), Sue Healey (Niche, Fine Line Terrain, 13+32), and Mary Oslund/USA (Fifty Infants, Kinder Weather). He has composed Theatre scores for Playbox (Meat Party, Miss Tanaka, Insouciance, Language of the Gods), the Sydney Theatre Company (Holy Day, The Snow Queen), Moira Finucane (Faith, Phantasmagoria, Gotharama), the Keene Taylor Theatre Project (Half & Half), Daniel Schlusser (Medea, Prodigal Son, Poet #7),
and the Melbourne Theatre Company (Dumb Show, The Memory of Water and A Single Act ). His Meat Party score was nominated for a Green Room Award in 2003, and he won the award last year for his work on Memory of Water. Installations have included pieces for Patricia Piccinini (When my baby…- currently screening at ACMI), Gina Czarnecki’s “Spine”, recently featured at the AV festival in Newcastle, and Digital Monkey/ADT (Transcriptions). He lectures in Sound Design, and “Technology, Composition & Perception” at RMIT University, running Dorobo records in his spare time. Lighting Designer: Niklas Pajanti (trafficlight) Niklas works with trafficlight as a lighting designer whose practice ranges across contemporary dance, drama, events and architecture. His work for performance includes designs for Chunky Move, Eleventh Hour, Dancehouse, Kage Physical Theatre, Not Yet It’s Difficult performance group, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Hoist, Company in Space, National Institute of Circus Arts, Tracie Mitchell, Gerard Van Dyck, Stephanie Lake and many others. He is a recipient of the Green Room Award for Lighting Design in Dance (2002). Niklas’ career has seen him realize lighting designs for architectural installations, arena size events, dance performances, physical theatre, drama, installations and mixed media performances that have toured Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. He is a graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts and holds post graduate qualifications in Illuminating Engineering from The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Costume Designer: Paula Levis Paula studied fashion design at RMIT and completed a graduate diploma in theatre design at VCA in 2001. She has worked with numerous production companies including Melbourne Theatre Company, Playbox, Bell Shakespeare Company, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Theatre in Decay and La Mama. Recently she has designed costumes for Chunky Move (I Want to Dance Better at Parties), ), Lucy Guerin ((Aether, Lost Air), Danceworks (Murray Anderson Road), Rebecca Hilton (Historia) and sets and costumes for KAGE Physical Theatre (Nowhere Man, The Day the World Turned Upside Down). She was design assistant on the film Tom White and the comedy series SkitHouse. Paula has also worked as illustrator and design assistant to Peter Corrigan on numerous theatrical projects directed by Barrie Kosky.
Production and Operations Manager: Donna Aston Donna’s career in production and stage management spans 15 years taking her all over Australia and to the UK & USA. Her diverse experience covers theatre, dance, opera, contemporary music & festival production including Sarah Cathcarts’ Walking on Sticks, Tiger Country (Melbourne International Festival), Chamber Made Opera’s Medea, Improvement: Don Leaves Linda (Melbourne International Festival), Tresno (Sydney Festival), The Two Executioners, Wide Sargasso Sea, Fresh Ghosts and Matricide The Musical. Donna has also worked on Voice, Jam & Videotape (Adelaide Festival), Artists Services’ Mum’s The Word, Dance Works & Stompin Youth Dance Co’s Distance, the inaugural Big West Festival and The Ghost Wife. Donna joined Chunky Move in March 2000. Stage Manager: Annette Dale Annette graduated from Newcastle University in 1987. Since then she has freelanced her skills as a Stage Manager on everything from dance, drama, events, cabaret, parades through to dance parties. One of her highlights was the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games where she was the Presentation Manager for the Archery. She stage managed Chunky Move’s first production and has worked with them on and off ever since. Lighting Operator: Jenny Hector A graduate of VCA Jenny is pretty sure she has operated more shows than she’s had hot dinners. This is quite plausible when you consider that shows generally go on around meal times, so she has missed a few. When not operating Jenny is designing lights for many independent practitioners around Melbourne, as well as showing her daughter Greta the finer points of air guitar. You can view her next design for Jo Lloyd and Carlee Mellow in the Dance Works Solo Season Duplicate, or stare through her lounge room window for the latest in air guitar moves. Sound Technician: Nick Roux Since studying sound production at RMIT in 2000 Nick has worked as a sound engineer for theatre, television and a wide variety of events. He has also been involved in music recording and production as well as sound design for film and animation.
Thank You Steven Richardson, Kate Ben-Tovim and the staff at Arts House, Dom and Richard from Famous Visual Services, Donna McKiernan and Kathy Lazanas from JCDecaux, Blue Bottle, Angus Cerini, Chris Budgeon, Amanda Pullen from Undertow Media, Rob Irwin, Greg Ginger and the team from Outlook. Dance and Movement Classes Chunky Move runs Contemporary Dance (Beginners and Intermediate), Funk, Funk / Hip-Hop, Ballet and Break Dance classes on weeknights and Saturday mornings. Dance classes are a fun way to keep fit, improve coordination, flexibility and stamina. Our classes are designed for all levels and are offered on a casual basis – so you can just come along when you feel like dancing. Join our mailing list to receive the latest class timetables or download them from: www.chunkymove.com Mailing List Keep up with the latest news from Chunky Move by joining our mailing list. You can sign up in the foyer after the show or visit: www.chunkymove.com Soundtrack Credits “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac “Opening” by Ben Frost Thanks to: Anthea Caddy (Cello Textures), Lachlan Mooney (Reaktor Programming)
Major Partners: 111 Sturt Street Southbank Vic 3006 Tel: 03 9645 5188 Email: info@chunkymove.com.au Web: www.chunkymove.com Personnel Artistic Director: Gideon Obarzanek Executive Producer: Vivia Hickman Production and Operations Manager: Donna Aston Marketing and Development Manager: Paul Myers Assistant Producer: Kate Steele Administrator: Susan Jones Class Coordinator: Jo Lloyd
Event Partner:
Corporate Partners:
Board of Directors Stephen Armstrong Julian Burnside QC (Chair) Louisa Coppel Vivia Hickman Elizabeth Ann Macgregor Tracey Mills Gideon Obarzanek Margaret Parker Katrina Sedgwick Simon Westcott Acknowledgements: Chunky Move is supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria – department of Premier and Cabinet, and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. IT Partner:
Arts House This project is presented in association with Arts House. Arts House presents a curated program of multidisciplinary arts projects across three venues. Arts House also creatively develops new work via the Culture Lab program. Central to all this work is a commitment to creating new opportunities for artists, audiences, and the community, to share and experience provocative contemporary ideas www.artshouse.com.au
Arts House: supporting contemporary arts practice and provocative new ideas. www.artshouse.com.au
Media Partner:
This program is available for download at: www.chunkymove.com