Company Profile

Founded by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek in 1995, Chunky Move has earned an enviable reputation for producing a distinct yet unpredictable brand of genre-defying dance performance.

Chunky Move’s work constantly seeks to redefine what is or what can be contemporary dance within an ever-evolving Australian culture. The company’s work is both diverse in form and content; to date the Company has created a number of works for the stage, site specific and new-media and installation work.

Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives foster and support a strong and vibrant dance culture in its home city of Melbourne and also creates critically acclaimed and popular larger productions for touring.  Recent international engagements include: South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Russia, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Hungary and Germany.   In 2005 Chunky Move was awarded a Bessie for “Outstanding Choreography / Creation” for its New York season of Tense Dave.

Recent works include: Glow, Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties,  Tense Dave, Three’s A Crowd and Wanted: ballet for a contemporary democracy.

Chunky Move is based at Ngargee, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank, a contemporary arts centre that houses Chunky Move’s studios and office space, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and Malthouse Theatre’s set construction area. The centre was officially opened on 15 September 2002.

Artistic Director
Current Performances
Performance History
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Media Response

" This Australian modern-dance company from Melbourne brought blasts of choreographic excitement to the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theatre when it appeared as part of The 2001 Next Wave Festival," THE NEW YORK TIMES.

" Astonishing virtuosity. And very funny," LA MARSEILLAISE.

" Ultra-contemporary dance, kitsch and techno, (both) poetic and furious. An incredible visual tornado," LA PROVENCE.

" This was the perfect dance concert for people who think modern dance is boring… Mr Obarzanek knows what time it is, and where he’s from, it’s tomorrow already," LESBIAN & GAY NEW YORK.

" Chunky Move do it with a hard-edged impact and design originality that makes them particularly memorable," MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS.

" Avant-garde, energy-packed and very unconventional – a night out with Chunky Move actually provoked both controversy and thought, leaving one in keen anticipation for more," THE SINGAPORE FINANCIAL TIMES.

" A triumph... one of the happiest dance occasions in Melbourne in a long time," THE AUSTRALIAN.

" Telling is how it is, artlessly concocting everyone's most wanted work and then turning out this risible, funny, lethal piece that would do justice to Marat Sade and his compatriots at the lunatic asylum," THE AGE.

" Slick and in-your-face, with sprinkles of irony, self-deprecation and humour for the intelligentsia and virgins of the dance audiences," HERALD SUN.

"… additional proof that Obarzanek is worthy of the investment that has been made in him by the State Government," THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW.

" The dancers are crème de la crème professionals, each, in the style of contemporary dance, physically and temperamentally contrasting. Only their calibre is uniform, " THE ADVERTISER.