Kristy from Chunky Move talks to David and their anniversary. - a podcast by JOY 94.9 - LGBTI, LGBTIQA+, LGBTQIA+, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGB, Gay, Lesbian, Trans, Intersex, Queer Podcasts for all our Rainbow Communities
from 2020-11-29T07:26:24
A quarter of a century after being established, Australia’s most innovative and acclaimed contemporary
dance company celebrates its storied history with a new multimedia digital archive as it looks to a bold
new era under leadership team, Antony Hamilton, Kristy Ayre and Freya Waterson.
Since its inception in 1995, Chunky Move has helped shape Australia’s cultural landscape, intoxicating and
enthralling local and international audiences with its genre-defying works. Now, as the company turns 25,
Chunky Move is poised to reassert its status as Australia’s leading dance company.
In the company’s early days, the goals of founding artistic director and renowned choreographer Gideon
Obarzanek were relatively modest, and predominantly focused on facilitating government funding
applications for independent artists. By 1997, Chunky Move had made its mark as force to be reckoned
with, winning tenure as Victoria’s flagship contemporary dance company after just two years in business.
In the years since, Chunky Move has become firmly embedded in Melbourne’s cultural zeitgeist, exerting a
profound influence by bringing contemporary dance into the mainstream. The company’s trademark
irreverence towards choreographic convention has surprised, challenged and delighted countless
audiences around the world, with boundary-breaking and audacious shows traversing new media,
installation and stage formats. As one of Australia’s most internationally successful performing arts export,
Chunky Move has toured and performed in 123 cities and reached over half a million audience members –
more than any other arts company of its kind.
“I am so proud that what began twenty-five years ago as an invaluable resource for my generation of
young artists, continues to flourish today for Australian dancers and adventurous audiences” said founder,
Gideon Obarzanek.
“Chunky Move was an audacious proposal to Jeff Kennett’s bold callout for a new dance company. It dared
to challenge the status quo of what a dance company can create, how it does it and where it happens.
Authentically Melbourne, we found our audience all over the world and split our time between working
hard in the studio and on the road. There are very few accomplished dance artists working in Australia
today who cannot trace some of their experience to the influence of Chunky Move.”
Obarzanek’s passion for supporting independent artists was writ large in 2007 with the
introduction of Next Move – a commissioning program dedicated to supporting the next
generation of Australian creative talent – that has seen the company commission, produce and
present 11 world premieres since its inception, including Stephanie Lake’s award-winning AORTA
and Atlanta Eke Miss Universal.
Only three artistic directors have helmed the company over the course of 25 years and 65 shows.
In its early days under Obarzanek, Chunky Move helped define the “Melbourne style” of contemporary
dance, in large part due to Obarzanek’s reinvention of the ensemble model, which shone the spotlight on
individuals and cultivated collaborations while spawning runaway successes such as Glow and Mortal
Engine.
In 2011, internationally renowned Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk stepped into the role, with her
European perspective and self-devised ‘Countertechnique’ movement system producing unforgettable
spectacles An Act of Now and Complexity of Belonging.
In 2019, two long-established Chunky Move alumni, Antony Hamilton and Kristy Ayre, along with producer
Freya Waterson, took the reins, marking their arrival with Token Armies, a bold, elaborate work that
declared the team’s intentions to push boundaries with multidisciplinary work driven through creative
collaboration.
Today,
Further episodes of Sunday Arts Magazine
Further podcasts by JOY 94.9 - LGBTI, LGBTIQA+, LGBTQIA+, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGB, Gay, Lesbian, Trans, Intersex, Queer Podcasts for all our Rainbow Communities