In a dance for a dance”s sake, Australia”s most daring and individualistic contemporary dance troupe, Chunky Move, is dedicated to both inspiring and communicating to audiences. Along with black humor, eclectic and erotic content matter and form, Chunky Move will perform two new and wildly technical works, “Crumpled” and “Corrupted 2,” at the Power Center on Saturday.
- Paul Wong
- The longer you look at this picture, the more you see.<br><br>Courtesy of Jim Hooper
With goals of taking audiences on a physical and psychological, mind captivating voyage, director Gideon Obarzanek redefines the typical exchange between dancers and the audience. As one of Australia”s leading choreographers, Obarzanek certainly lives up to his trademark combination of theatricality, intense choreography, and technicality with a hard-hitting industrial soundtrack that sends electricity through the performers, resulting in deliberately awkward gestures and solos that twist in and out of each other.
Committed to maximizing creative outcomes, as well as creating audacious dance works that go beyond existing choreographic forms, Chunky Move”s “Crumpled” is a structural piece that revolves around the notion of being viewed or not, as dancers are propelled and turned off by the opening and dropping of the curtain. The constant exchange that is developed with the audience fulfills Chunky Move”s artistic statement, in that it creates a dynamic fusion between high art and popular culture.
“Corrupted 2″ takes a different spin, creating a manifestation of corruption with the point of take off being a digital premise. Bodies flipping in awkward sharp directions to a dominating revolving static screen, suggesting the results of data overload. Additionally, the dancers twist into deliberately unnatural ways, which creates at the same time striking beautiful images, carrying implications for the loss of human innocence. Wearing see-through plastic wraps, the performers” sporadic patterns combine with flashing lights and smoke, making this techno-ridden performance a journey to technological hell.
“Perverse, erotic, sick, and beautiful” are the words Obarzanek uses to describe his new inconclusive work. Yet this hard-core, diamond-ridged dancing dares audiences to be taken on a whirlwind journey to the next contemporary level.