Tense Dave

film/video. Her 1998 film Interior has been shown nationally and internationally, winning an inaugural award at the Reel Dance Festival 2000. She is a recipient of the 1999 Dame Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Scholarship and Victorian Green Room Award for ‘female dancer’ 2000. Michelle was also nominated for the ‘female dancer’ award in 2002. She is currently working with Chunky Move as well as investigating ideas for her own work, Disagreeable Object. Michelle recently had a beautiful baby boy called Marlo. Brian Lucas Brian Lucas is a freelance performer and choreographer who has worked with many of Australia’s most well-known companies including Chunky Move, Queensland Theatre Company and Expressions Dance Company. Since 2001, Brian has held the position of Artist-in-Residence at Brisbane Powerhouse, where he has created and performed a number of full-length solo works including monster, here and the book of revelation(s). He has developed a national reputation for producing provocative, powerful and intelligent solo works that bridge the divide between theatre and dance. In 2003, he was one of the original cast of Chunky Move’s Tense Dave, and since then has travelled with the company to present the work throughout Australia and overseas. In 2005, Brian will be touring to the US with Chunky Move, performing in Brisbane and Canberra in a new work by Clare Dyson, and conducting an extensive series of workshops for young queer performers. In July 2005, he will be commencing a two-year Australia Council Fellowship programme, in which he will be developing and presenting two new solo works at Brisbane Powerhouse. Luke Smiles Luke started dance training at the Miranda Kalgovas Ballet School, later completing a Bachelor of Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts. Apart from being a founding member of Chunky Move, he has also performed with Vis-a-Vis Dance Canberra, The One Extra Dance Company, Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre and Thwack. Working under the name motion laboratories Luke’s music work includes composition/sound design for Chunky Move including Corrupted 2, All The Better To Eat You With, Live Acts, Flexible and Wanted. His other composition credits include soundtracks for Australian Dance Theatre, West Australian Ballet, Dance Party Performance Group & Stompin Youth Dance Company. Delia Silvan Delia Silvan has worked with Australia’s leading contemporary dance companies including The Australian Dance Theatre, Lucy Guerin Inc, Chunky Move, Danceworks and Leigh Warren and Dancers. Some career highlights include Leigh Warren and Dancers company residence with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt in 2001, acting and dancing roles in Paul Cox’s film The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky, and being tutored by Sabine Kupferberg and Jiri Kylian of Nederlands Dans Theatre in his solo work Silent Cries - for which Delia was awarded “outstanding performance by an individual”, Australian Dance Awards 1999. In 2001 Delia launched herself as an independent dancer and emerging choreographer. The Australian Festival in Seoul presented her work Night Vision in 2002. Performing roles since include Dancework’s Murray-Anderson Road, Lucy Guerin’s solo work Firebird with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, ‘Ophelia’ in Paul Cox’s feature film The Human Touch, and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Lucy Guerin for Opera Australia. In 2005 Delia made a short dance film Dark and Dark and Silent, and also performed in Leigh Warren and Dancers premiere season of Like No-ones Watching by Tony Rizzi.

Soundtrack Credits

Government Support

Get Happy by Harold Arlen/Ted Koghler (Remick Music Warners) Blue Monday by New Order Foley by Luke Smiles and Byron Scullin Knife Trio ﬁnesse by Luke Smiles Violin by Charlotte Armstrong Cello by Will Martina

This project is supported by the Australian Government through Images of Australia Branch, Department of Foreign Affairs. The company’s New York season is also supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria.

Tense Dave

Thank You

Paul King, Walter Jaffe, Cathy Pruzan, Martin Wechsler, Robert Archibald, Michelle Lee, Ken Bush from Bestek, the staff at DTW, Scott Gstell and Michalea Murphy from Wolf Blass

111 Sturt Street Southbank Victoria Australia 3006 Tel + 61 3 9645 5188 Fax + 61 3 9645 5199 Email info@chunkymove.com.au Web www.chunkymove.com

Chunky Move would like to thank the following companies for their generous support:

Choreography & Direction Gideon Obarzanek (Artistic Director, Chunky Move) Lucy Guerin (Choreographer) Michael Kantor (Theatre Director)

Opening Night Sponsor:

Executive Producer Vivia Hickman Dramaturg Tom Wright Set Design Consultant Jodie Fried

Tour Representation – USA Art Becofsky Associates 46 Barkit Kennel Road Pleasant Valley, NY 12569 Tel 845-635-9311 Fax 845-635-9319 Art Becofsky, Director - ckdance@aol.com Cathy Pruzan, US Performance Associate - cpruzan@aol.com

Costume Design Jodie Fried Original Music & Arrangements Franc Tetaz Lighting Designer Niklas Pajanti

Personnel Artistic Director: Gideon Obarzanek Executive Producer: Vivia Hickman Productions and Operations Manager: Donna Aston Marketing and Development Manager: Paul Myers Financial Systems Manager: Sue Westwood Assistant Producer: Kate Steele Ofﬁce Coordinator: Alice Tinning Class Coordinator: Carlee Mellow

Initial Design Collaborators Bluebottle – Andrew Livingston and Ben Cobham Production & Operations Manager Donna Aston

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

Major Partner:

IT Partner:

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES June 9-11: Wanted: ballet for a contemporary democracy, Bern, Switzerland

Stage Manager Philip Peck (Frog) Sound Operator David Franzke Performers Kristy Ayre, Brian Carbee, Michelle Heaven, Brian Lucas, Luke Smiles, Delia Silvan (understudy) US Publicist Janet Stapleton

June 15: Wanted: ballet for a contemporary democracy, Ludwigsberg, Germany June 20-22: Tense Dave, American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina June 29-July 3: Tense Dave, Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, Massachusetts. October 9-15: I Want to Dance Better at Parties, Melbourne Festival, Melbourne, Australia.

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BIOGRAPHIES

Tense Dave Message from the Premier of Victoria Welcome to the New York season of Chunky Move’s Tense Dave. Victoria, Australia is the home of Chunky Move, our ﬂagship contemporary dance company. Chunky Move is one of the State’s most treasured exports, regularly touring the world with a unique brand of contemporary dance. My Government is committed to the arts and to supporting a dynamic arts sector. Victoria is a place where the arts and artists can ﬂourish. Where innovation is applauded and artistic excellence rewarded. The arts make a vital contribution to our economy and enrich our community. Through our festivals and in our venues we welcome artists from all over the world. With our touring programs we take our art and artists to the rest of the world. Tense Dave has enjoyed critical success wherever it has been performed. I hope you enjoy it too.

Gideon Obarzanek Choreography and Direction Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek founded Chunky Move in 1995. Gideon studied at the Australian Ballet School and, after graduating in 1987, danced with the Queensland Ballet and the Sydney Dance Company. Obarzanek has choreographed numerous works for dance companies and independent projects within Australia, and his international choreographic credits include commissions for Graz Opera Ballet (Austria), Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (Israel), Nederlands Dans Theater (Holland), and the Repertory Dance Theatre (USA). Gideon has received several awards and nominations for his choreography. In 1994, he was awarded the Sir Robert Helpmann Scholarship by the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts. In 1996, he received the Prime Minister’s Young Creative Fellowship and, in 1997, his choreography for Bonehead was nominated for Russia’s Benois de la Danse Prize. Bonehead also gained Gideon the 1999 Mo Award for Best Male Dancer – Choreography. Lucy Guerin Choreographer Born in Adelaide, Australia, Lucy Guerin graduated from the Centre for Performing Arts in 1982 before joining the companies of Russell Dumas (Dance Exchange) and Nanette Hassall (Danceworks). She moved to New York in 1989 for seven years where she danced with Tere O’Connor Dance, the Bebe Miller Company and Sara Rudner. Now based in Melbourne, Guerin has been commissioned by Chunky Move, One Extra Dance Company, Dance Works, Tasdance, Ros Warby, Woo Co (Denmark) and Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (USA). Her work The Ends of Things premiered in the 2000 Melbourne Festival and received three Victorian Green Room Awards for best male dancer (Trevor Patrick), best female dancer (Ros Warby) and best dance theatre piece.

Steve Bracks MP Premier Notes by the Directors By Gideon Obarzanek Tense Dave can be seen as one man’s moment of crisis blown apart like an exploded diagram; each of its components are separated and pushed out to their extremes. Dave journeys through strange and fractured versions of a recognisable world distorted by fears, paranoias and unfulfilled fantasies. Combining Lucy’s, Michael’s and my own different aesthetics and style of work, we have created a contrasting series of encounters bound together in a small spinning world. The extraordinarily talented cast who have been able to embrace and switch from one performing style to another have also contributed to the making of this production from its initial concept to the final outcome. Creating Tense Dave has been a truly collaborative effort. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many creative people it has taken to make this work and all of the hard working staff at Chunky Move. By Lucy Guerin This piece has evolved dramatically since our first rehearsal. It has been a process of containing a multiplicity of ideas and a search for a simple navigation through the extreme natures of the characters. The continual motion of the stage and the use of the panels to hide and reveal the performers have provided unique opportunities both thematically and choreographically. I would like to extend a warm thank you to the performers for their generous contributions to the work, and their forbearance during constantly spinning rehearsals. Thanks also to Gideon and Michael for their vision and talent, and their respectful and supportive approach to the creative process. By Michael Kantor The particular challenges of combining theatre and contemporary dance, while avoiding the cringe-making of what comes to mind when I think of ‘dance-theatre’ has made Tense Dave a unique encounter for me. Subtle distinctions in process and what is considered creatively important have meant that I have had to rethink the usual theatrical obsession with meaning and narrative as a starting point. I marvel at this group of dancers and choreographers’ ability to create a shell of work based on an initial idea, and then fill and infuse it with movement, potency and meaning to create something quite extraordinary. In the end I hope the work is made broader, richer, more complex, and more open to different interpretations as a consequence of the many attitudes and working practices of those that helped create it.

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In 2000 Guerin was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for achievement by an individual. Other awards include the Prix d’auteur from the Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Bagnolet in France and a 1994 New York Foundation for the Arts Choreographic Fellowship. In 1997 her piece Two Lies won a New York Dance and Performance Award (a ‘Bessie’) for choreography. In 2002 she established Lucy Guerin Inc. to support the creation and performance of works which tour nationally and internationally. In 2003 Melt and The Ends of Things toured to seven cities in the US and Canada. Guerin’s most recent piece Aether premiered in Melbourne in March 2005. Guerin was commissioned by Chunky Move to choreograph works for Arcade and Bodyparts. Most recently she has been working on the Company’s production of Tense Dave (premiere in October 2003). Michael Kantor Theatre Director Michael Kantor is the Artistic Director of the Malthouse Theatre. He studied at the University of Melbourne (1986-90) and in Paris at the L’Ecole de Phillipe Gaulier (1988). As an actor and director of theatre and opera, he has worked for numerous theatre companies, opera companies, and festivals throughout Australia. In the early nineties Michael collaborated with Barrie Kosky’s Gilgul Theatre, performing in The Dybbuk, Es Brent, The Wilderness Room and The Operated Jew. Michael’s work as a director covers several ﬁelds including the devising of new work: Excavation (1996 Adelaide Festival), Natural Life (1998 Adelaide Festival and Playbox, later presented as Natural Life 2 for The Lincoln Centre in New York) and the direction of new plays: Lenz (1996 Melbourne Festival), Meat Party (Playbox), Howard Katz (STC). He has also re-examined classic works in the productions of: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Belvoir), The Ham Funeral (Belvoir), Ubu (2002 Melbourne Festival and Belvoir), Macbeth (Belvoir), Babes in the Woods (Playbox). Michael has also directed contemporary Opera: The Burrow (1994 Perth Festival, touring to Sydney), Moon Spirit Feasting (2000 Adelaide Festival, later touring to Melbourne, Berlin, Zurich and Tokyo) and Dance:Tense Dave (Chunky Move for 2003 Melbourne Festival, touring to Sydney and Perth Festivals 2004).

Tom Wright Dramaturg Has worked as actor, director, dramaturg or writer over the last fifteen years at the Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse (Melbourne), Playbox, La Mama, Belvoir Street Theatre (Sydney), Anthill, Gilgul, Mene Mene, Bell Shakespeare Company, Black Swan Theatre (Perth), Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Company, the Adelaide Festival and the Melbourne Festival. He is currently the Artistic Associate and Dramaturg at the Sydney Theatre Company. Jodie Fried Set Design Consultant and Costume Design Jodie graduated from the NIDA design course in 1998. Jodie’s recent film credits include costume designer on Candy and Jewboy, costume assistant on Little Fish; design assistant on South Pacific and design assistant on The Potato Factory. Her theatre credits include costume designer on Gulpilil and Page 8 for Company B Belvoir; Night Letters for STCSA; The Eternity Man for the Almeida Theatre, London; Mermaids for Cois Ceim Dance Theatre, Dublin; associate costume designer on Dogtroep In Leidsche Rijn, Holland and on the stage adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children for the Royal Shakespeare Company, London. Prior to this, Jodie worked as a designer in film, television and dance for Darpana Productions in Ahmedabad, India. Jodie’s other credits include costume designer on Aliwa and Twelfth Night for Company B Belvoir; Antony and Cleopatra for the Bell Shakespeare Company; set and costume designer for Chunky Move’s production Arcade and Tense Dave; costume design for the chamber opera The Ghost Wife at the 1999 Melbourne, 2000 Adelaide and the 2001 Sydney Festivals; Below for Griffin Theatre Company; A Little Fear for Freewheels Theatre Company; Cry From The City of Virgins in Sydney, Tokyo, New York; set and costumes for the Ensemble Theatre’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Laughter On The 23rd Floor, Shirley Valentine and This Lime Tree Bower. Franc Tetaz Original Music and Arrangements As a composer and producer, François Tétaz has worked with many artists, both in recorded music and live performance. Francois’ most recent releases are as a composer –The Motionless World of Time Between, or The Drunken Taxicab of Absolute Reality, and as a producer – James Gordon Anderson’s Concord. Last year he produced, orchestrated and mixed the soundtrack for the feature film Angst, and, remixed artists including Aphex Twin. His major theatre projects in 2000-2002 included the soundtrack for Lucy Guerin’s The Ends of Things, Kage Physical Theatre’s Next Wave festival piece No (under) Standing Anytime, Chunky Move’s Arcade, Gerard Van Dyke’s Collapsible Man and Shelley Lasica’s History Situation. As a producer and music post production engineer François has worked with Biftek, The Bird, Lior, Paul Schütze, David Thrussell, Hamish Cowan and numerous other artists. He has just completed producing new albums for High Pass Filter, Polestar and Beautiful Cyborg, a collaboration with Phillip Brophy and Darrin Verhagen, as well as co-composing and producing the sound track for The Hard Word, featuring Guy Pierce and Rachel Griffiths.

Philip Peck (Frog) Stage Manager Since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts, Frog has specialised in dance stage management working with companies and events such as Tasmania’s Stompin Youth Dance Co, Melbourne Festival, L’Oreal Fashion Festival, Lucy Guerin and BalletLab. He has also worked with Michael Kantor, Tanya Gerstle, Caroline Lee and Moira Finucane (Burlesque Hour and Saucy Cantina) and in his final year at VCA, Frog stage managed Remembrance of Things Past with English Director Di Trevis. For Chunky Move, Frog has stage managed Tense Dave (with seasons both nationally and in the United States), Gideon Obarzanek’s Crowds and was Assistant Stage Manager on Wanted: ballet for a contemporary democracy and Arcade. Sound Operator David Franzke As Sound Designer/Composer recent credits include, Game Girl for Arena Theatre, Halit Muller’s work Sensitive to Noise and Kage’s The Day the World Turned Upside Down. He collaborated with Gillian Howell, the M.S.O. and North Melbourne Primary School to compose and perform Common Ground to commemorate the opening of Art Play at Federation Square, and wrote a score for Lex Middleton’s short film Designing Dreams. In 2003 David sound designed for Playbox Theatre Company on productions such as, Yanagai Yanagai, Falling Petals, Myth Propaganda and Disaster, The Fat Boy and God’s Last Acre. For the Melbourne Theatre Company he sound designed Birthrights a new play from David Williamson, and film soundtracks for Joyride in the Melbourne International Festival in collaboration with Jonathan Mills. In conjunction with his career as a sound designer, David has been working as a DJ and collaborating with Geoffrey Nees in Melbourne on such projects as the get a Room cd and music for retirement villages (Retire Me Please) and Cologne-based composer Bernd Friedmann since 1996 on various album projects to which he contributes compositions, soundscapes and atmospheric textures. In 2001 David was awarded the Green Room Award for outstanding contribution to fringe theatre for his work in projects including The Torch and Anna Tregloan’s Skinflick. David was also the recipient of the Melbourne Festival Award at the Melbourne Fringe in 2002.

Performers Kristy Ayre Kristy graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001 receiving the Mary Orloff prize for Most Outstanding Dancer. In 2002 she began working with Chunky Move and has since performed in Inﬁnite Temporal Series (Prue Lang), I Want to Dance Better at Parties, Wanted: Ballet for a contemporary democracy, Crowds, Tense Dave and toured in the works Crumpled and Corrupted 2. She also performed in Kim Itoh’s Butterﬂy and Me in Tokyo 2002. Kristy teaches dance classes as part of Chunky Move’s public dance program and Sydney Schools Workshop Program and performs regularly for fashion label ‘Body’ under the direction of Natalie Cursio. Brian Carbee Born in Connecticut, Brian has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in acting from the University of Connecticut. He began his career in Boston with Impulse Dance Company before moving to New Zealand in1981. Subsequently, he created over a dozen original works for Limbs Dance Company, danced with Douglas Wright Dance Company in their acclaimed production of Forever and produced Heaven, Hell & Hamilton and Bedrock for his own project based company, The Jump Giants.

Niklas Pajanti Lighting Designer Niklas holds a degree from the Victorian College of the Arts School of Drama, (Company 1997), and has completed the assessed programme in Architectural Lighting Design at RMIT (2003). His designs have toured nationally and internationally and he works for a diverse range of people across many art forms. Niklas worked extensively at Dancehouse Inc. between 1999 and 2003 developing his skills and talent lighting their annual festivals and seasons of contemporary dance. In 2004 Nik started working with trafﬁclight pty ltd and is now head of their lighting design team.

Brian tours regularly with X-Ray Theatre in their production of Room 207: Nikola Tesla. He played Ross in the Company B production of Macbeth and had a featured role in the 2003 motion picture Peter Pan. He has just concluded a season of In the Dark, a movement theatre work with video, directed by Wendy Houstoun and has only just completed his ﬁrst novel Conduct & Courtesy.

Donna Aston Production and Operations Manager Donna’s career in the performing arts spans 20 years. As a production manager, her work includes Sarah Cathcarts’ Walking on Sticks & Tiger Country and all Chamber Made Opera productions between 1991 - 1999. She also worked on Voice, Jam & Videotape for Contemporary Music Events, Mum’s The Word for Artists Services’, Distance for Dance Works + Stompin Youth Dance Co. and The Ghost Wife for Melbourne Festival. Donna joined Chunky Move in March 2000.

Michelle Heaven Michelle Heaven graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Dance in 1992 and Masters of Dance Performance in 2001. She has made extensive contributions as a performer/ collaborator to both live theatre and ﬁlm, working nationally and internationally with choreographers and directors such as Sue Healey, Phillip Adams, Gideon Obarzanek, Lucy Guerin, Michael Kantor, Douglas Horton, Sandra Parker, Tracie Mitchell and Leigh Warren. Michelle also creates her own work within the mediums of dance movement, puppetry and

More recently in Sydney, Brian wrote the screenplay for In Search of Mike, a multi-award winning short ﬁlm. He has also won the 2004 IF Award for best unproduced screenplay for his feature script Accidents Happen.

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