RE-PLAY: C.o.r.r.u.p.t.e.d 2
Antony Hamilton and Amaara Raheem

“What does it mean to re-play something – an event, a film, a history, a politics, a building, a body, a set of gestures, an earth, a life, a landscape?”

(Research questions from Re-Playing It Again Symposium, Glasgow, May 2024)

In 2023 Frank Van Straten Fellow Amaara Raheem set out to explore the Australian Performing Arts Collection and in particular, the archives of Chunky Move held at the Arts Centre Melbourne. Through a process of embodied research, Amaara invited Chunky’s Artistic Director Antony Hamilton to re-play his part in C.o.r.r.u.p.t.e.d 2, choreographed (1998) by founder and then Artistic Director Gideon Orbazenek, and first performed by Antony in 2002. Twenty two years later, remembering this material and in conversation, Antony and Amaara explored the research questions: what does it mean to re-play something? As both a method of working and catalyst for production?

Read more about Amaara’s research on the Blog.

Re-Play C.o.r.r.u.p.t.e.d 2 (December 2023, Chunky Move)
Choreographer: Gideon Orbazanek 
Performer: Antony Hamilton
Video: James Wright
Frank Van Straten Fellow: Dr. Amaara Raheem

“The Dance Company That Wasn’t” by arts journalist, John Bailey.

In a speech to mark the launch of Chunky Move in 1997, then-Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett described the company as "provocative, innovative, daring and very, very physical." He hadn't seen any of the work he was describing, but when he did he admitted he was understandably miffed at the result. There is a strain of contemporary dance that is apolitical, abstract and easily digestible. Chunky Move has never been that.

At first the company barely resembled a company. In the 1990s there were no systems in place that allowed independent dancers and choreographers to apply for government funding unless they were associated with a dance company, and those companies typically worked with a regular ensemble, essentially operating as closed shops. Choreographer Gideon Obarzanek originally envisioned Chunky Move as a way for independents to sidestep that barrier to funding. This was in Sydney in 1995. Obarzanek was just shy of 30.

Two years later the Victorian Government put out a tender for a new state contemporary dance company, and Obarzanek and Executive Producer Angharrad Wynne-Jones beat out the competition to secure that crown, becoming Victoria's flagship contemporary dance organisation. What left the conservative Kennett a little disgruntled would go on to intoxicate and enthral local and international dance aficionados while also piquing the interest of those not previously exposed to dance. There's never been any doubt that Chunky Move helps give Melbourne its sense of cool.

At the time of its arrival Chunky Move both reflected the choreographic culture of Melbourne while putting its own spin on it. The generation of young dancemakers of which Obarzanek was a part shared enough common interests that commentators had described a loose but definable Melbourne style, a kind of family resemblance. Some were drawn to twitchy, neurotic gestures at sharp odds with the smooth lines of classical dance, while others deployed dark humour, irony and a pointed irreverence towards choreographic convention.

Chunky Move's early works played with all of these; not surprising given the importance of collaboration to Obarzanek's early vision. Obarzanek did choreograph a great number of Chunky Move works during his 16 years as Artistic Director, but the company also welcomed a generous number of guests from early in its existence. In 2000, the company's Combination #3 saw Obarzanek creating work alongside fellow Melbourne choreographer Phillip Adams and Japan's Kim Itoh. 2001's Arcade invited four independent dancemakers to join Obarzanek in making work to be installed in a disused city shopping arcade. From 2008 the company handed over the reins entirely for its first instalment of the Next Move series, in which emerging choreographers developed and presented their own visions. In subsequent years 11 new works were commissioned for the Next Move program, elevating a broad range of emerging dancemakers to a new level of visibility.

While from its earliest years Chunky Move didn't follow the standard ensemble model of other contemporary dance companies, it did afford dancers a particular kind of platform that put their individual strengths in the spotlight. Two artists who worked extensively with the company in its teenage years were Antony Hamilton and Kristy Ayre, and both were allowed to leave such indelible and personal marks on the works they performed in that their eventual appointments as the new leadership team at Chunky Move made total sense. But we're racing ahead.

When Obarzanek departed the company in 2011 he left a weighty legacy. For all of its spirit of collaboration, Chunky Move had also gathered a reputation that was heavily influenced by its co-founder's interests. Internationally acclaimed works such as Glow and Mortal Engine were built on a fascination with the interaction of dance and new technology; later works including Assembly and Connected shared a common curiosity about the interconnectedness of groups and the possibility of dance that transcends the individual body. Given Chunky Move's profound influence on the evolution of Melbourne's dance scene more generally, there was a concern that Obarzanek's successor would need to both understand that local ecology and be able to distinguish themselves from it.

Anouk van Dijk quickly proved herself up to the challenge. During her extensive career as a dancemaker in Europe she had developed her own rigorous movement system, countertechnique, which she brought to the company. She also immediately gathered a range of local dancers most Melbourne audiences weren't familiar with, introducing them in 2012's ambitious and impressively realised An Act of Now, staged at the iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

As Artistic Director van Dijk didn't simply engage in a conversation with Melbourne's dance sector – she found voices within it that hadn't yet been heard. Perhaps this is inevitable when an outsider enters an established community, perhaps it was a talent particular to van Dijk, but whatever the cause it was quickly confirmed that Chunky Move still possessed what it takes to surprise, challenge and astonish.

The company continued to attract audiences from unexpected quarters, too, in no small part due to van Dijk's interest in dance that leaves the theatre. Embodiment 1:1:1 and Accumulation reframed physical performance in the spaces of visual art; the much-lauded Depth of Field left the building entirely, its open-air performance featuring Melbourne itself as a backdrop.

Throughout van Dijk's seven year tenure the company continued to advance its promotion of emerging talent, too, both through the ongoing Next Move series and through the regular dance classes the company has long held. Many casual showgoers wouldn't be aware of this long-standing aspect of the company, which provides training for both beginners and established dancers, as well as offering opportunities for independent dancers to earn income as instructors.

As with her predecessor, van Dijk's departure was met with some consternation. The stewardship of a company that is an integral component of Melbourne's cultural landscape, and indeed has an outsized role in how the city sees itself, is no small matter. It was with great relief that the new team of Antony Hamilton, Kristy Ayre and Freya Waterson were announced to lead the company. Each has been deeply embedded in various corners of Melbourne's culture, and Hamilton and Ayre have both danced in some of Chunky Move's most significant and memorable productions.

The new crew declared their intentions with Token Armies, a bold, elaborate work that premiered as part of the 2019 Melbourne International Arts Festival. It is a work of great imagination – and put its audience in facemasks long before they were de rigueur – that transforms a nightmarish post-apocalyptic scenario into a space of collaboration from which flourishes a sense of hope and togetherness.

The Chunky Move of 2020 has already proven itself ideally equipped to adapt, flex and respond to the great shifting moment of today. Initiatives such as the funded research opportunities of Solitude and the free public events under the Activators banner paint a striking portrait of a future-facing company able to imagine troubled times with a deep empathy, intricacy and curiosity.