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Year of Premiere: 2003 (June)
Premiere
Season Credits
Crowds
Historia
The
Loop
Three's
a Crowd Lighting Designer: Niklas
Pajanti
Introduction
At Chunky Move’s base at 111 Sturt Street, Southbank,
Victoria, three separate spaces housed three new works created
by leading Melbourne choreographers, Gideon Obarzanek (Artistic
Director of Chunky Move), Rebecca Hilton and Stephanie Lake.
As people arrived for the evening, tour guides presented them
with a ticket for one of three different groups. They could
then enjoy a drink at the bar and lounge, open every night
before and after the performance. After a preliminary talk
by Gideon Obarzanek, the tour guides then led their respective
groups separately, but simultaneously, through the works.
Each audience member experienced all three works, however
the order of viewing varied depending on which group you were
in.
Three’s a Crowd was unique, intimate and revealing,
both in terms of the works, and how they were experienced;
sometimes seated, sometimes standing, audience members were
only inches away from the performers.
Three individual choreographers. Three distinct spaces. Three
unique works. Three’s a Crowd.
Click here to view the Three's a Crowd Trailer
Choreographer's
Notes
Crowds
by Gideon
Obarzanek
Crowds is an exhibition of over twenty five different
crowd scenes. The work is a demonstration of the energy, poetry
and choreography of crowds and an observation of individuals
that form the mass.
Historia
by Rebecca
Hilton
Historia is a duet performed by Lucy Guerin and Rebecca
Hilton.
Set
in an enclosed environment separated from the audience and
drawing inspiration from Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Historia
is a study of an intense sibling relationship – close,
competitive, suffocating and creative.
The
Bronte sisters are literary legend. Born early in the nineteenth
century on the Yorkshire moors they were among the first gothic
novelists. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights then died of consumption
at 24; Charlotte wrote, most famously, Jane Eyre and died
at 38. Their books shocked with their sensuality, violence
and moral ambivalence-especially when their identities as
the sheltered daughters of a northern parson were revealed.
Lucy
Guerin and Rebecca Hilton are friends and have been working
together for twenty years. This has informed Historia;
the complexity and familiarity of such a relationship is central
to the work.
Historia
is performed in a box and can be viewed from four sides. The
inspiration for the set was a specimen case or a bird cage.
The performers within are subject to wind, snow and fog –
the weather is a metaphor for the characters inner-turmoil.
The effect is that of a shaken snow dome, a souvenir from
another century.
Neither
traditionally narrative nor completely abstract Historia
creates an emotional and physical environment, its characters
oblivious to the outside world.
The
Loop by Stephanie
Lake
The
Loop follows the fortunes of four characters whose only
way to travel is left to right, around and around, looping
across a straight and narrow patch of a tree-lined ‘street’.
Pinned
like museum artefacts, the performers move exclusively along
a huge wall with the action unfolding left to right like typewritten
letters forming words.
The
‘street’ is of no time or place. Anthropological
study meets with contemporary symbols – a cavewoman
may have a can of coke - in this street as we know it. It’s
about progression, moving on and predetermination.
Stretching
from the lone bells of a Gypsy wanderer to the cacophony of
a city corner, The Loop unravels slowly and methodically
like a folk song or a mantra.
The
Loop is like a living mural.
Media Response
"Three's
a Crowd is a program of three short works by three choreographers,
each in a different area of the building. Choreography extends
beyond the dance works to the management of the crowd, which
is shepherded from place to place by tour guides. Each of
the works is distinctive in style, mood and idea: whimsical,
amusingly intriguing or stark, the emotional order varies
according to which tour you take. Rebecca Hilton's Historia
is a bleak exploration of sibling rivalry, drawing somewhat
obliquely on the lives of the Bronte sisters. Performed by
Hilton and Lucy Guerin, the movement is exaggerated, sparse
and grotesque... Crowds by Gideon Obarzanek is a choreography
of situation; a delightfully intriguing mosaic drawn, one
assumes, from a voyeuristic obsession with crowds... Stephanie
Lake delivers a whimsical, comic-strip style presentation
in The Loop... The tour-style presentation piques one's curiosity,
fostering a delightful sense of camaraderie in the audience.
It's a Melbourne-only event well worth sampling," THE
AGE.
"My group started with Chunky director Gideon Obarzanek's
Crowds – bunches of dissociated movements which coalesce
into universal reactions to being crowded, pressured or part
of sports crowds from athletics to golf... The Loop, by emerging
choreographer Stephanie Lake, also blends disparate material.
Watched from behind a long row of bare trees, Byron Perry,
Luke George, Brooke Stamp and Kristina Chan rush powerfully,
twirl balletically or pause contemplatively on a narrow street
until couplings and affections form and evaporate as if imagined,
unreal... Assuredly theatrical and compelling images come
in Rebecca Hilton's Historia, which draws on the lives of
Emily and Charlotte Bronte, aptly located inside a tall, black
scrim box littered with paper snow... This is a ravishing
performance stamped by Hilton and Guerin's force, focus and
commitment to nuance. They are phenomenal performers and this
rare joint appearance should not be missed," THE AUSTRALIAN.
"Chunky Move's popular success has long been the cause
of some unease in Melbourne's dance community in recent years.
Should those precious dollars be chasing audiences, the arguments
goes, or funding dance R&D? But Chunky's director, Gideon
Obarzanek, has gone to great lengths to find new audiences,
putting his dancers in nightclubs and at raves, and mounting
shows in unusual city locations as well as the company's new
home behind the Centre for Contemporary Art, next door to
the Malthouse in South Melbourne. With Three's a Crowd...
Chunky Move gets the mix exactly right. The Company's home
is divided into three performance spaces and groups of punters
ushered from one to another... the three works are a compelling
and complementary mix of experimental, theatrical and narrative
dance," THE FINANCIAL REVIEW.
"In Rebecca Hilton's Historia, two winter dolls, viewed
through the walls of a snowy cube, play with notions of dependence
and dominance. Cold lighting and thunderclaps add drama to
the piece, performed by Hilton and Lucy Guerin. Gideon Obarzanek's
Crowds is less dance than slideshow, but the three elevated
performers are spot on with their portrayal of strangers on
a train platform, in a club, at a peace march and so on. Our
group's last stop was faciing a tree-lined avenue, scene of
Stephanie Lake's The Loop. Beginning gently the work allowed
Byron Perry, Kristina Chan, Luke George and Brooke Stamp to
dance brilliantly, sweeping from stage left to right, and
eventually moving many audience members to tears," SUNDAY
AGE.
"Three's a Crowd is a bit like a school trip through
an art museum, except the exhibits move... Chunky Move has
a knack for creating dance events in which dance is just one
aspect of a fun evening out. While the dances are not always
complete entities, the events are good for sustaining enthusiastic
audiences. In the spirit of earlier Live Acts and Arcade seasons,
Three's a Crowd manages to keep crowds moving through the
entertainment in an organised fashion," HERALD SUN.
"The first piece of performance that I saw was Historia.
Choreographed by Rebecca Hilton and featuring herself and
pal Lucy Guerin, the piece played outside inside in a mesh
box that could be viewed from 360 degrees. Inspired by the
Bronte sisters, Hilton and Guerin made the most of tulle skirts
in demonstrating the claustrophobic nature of the sisters'
existence on the windswept Yorkshire moors... And then we
were whisked off down the stairs and into another room to
witness Gideon Obarzanek's Crowds. The stage was a podium
in the middle of a darkened closet. We were standing again
and you could move around it if there was room. Three characters
emulated 20 different crow scenes... And then we were off
again back up the stairs to see Stephanie Lakes' The Loop.
This time we were sitting and the stage was a narrow tree-lined
street before us. Four characters continuously looped across
the stage from left to right as they went about their daily
business of falling in love and finding fortune. I loved this
piece. It had an irresistible energy about it as beautiful
bodies weaved, fell and intertwined in a constant fluid motion...
Three's a Crowd is a snappy little menage a trois –
three short pieces in three different spaces all under the
one roof," INPRESS MAGAZINE.
"Chunky Move's Crowds began as an installation
in a Melbourne art gallery, a concept that has been retained
by having the audience stand around to watch the action. Wittily,
it presents vignettes of city life to make you groan and laugh
- standing in queues, going to the footy or a dance party,
travelling by public transport and so on... Crowds
is clever, thoughtful and entertaining," SYDNEY MORNING
HERALD.
"In Gideon Obarzanek's latest work, Crowds ,
the audience becomes part of the action as the choreographer
of Chunky Move creates a series of interactive tableaux inspired
by people in public settings. Expect to be challenged and
surprised," SUN HERALD.
Performance
History
For details of Three's a Crowd's Performance History, please
click
here.
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