ASSEMBLY

Over the last 16 years, choreographer Gideon Obarzanek has proven himself something of a tour de force in the world of contemporary dance. Assembly is his final work as Artistic Director of Chunky Move and is making its way to Sydney Festival 2012. A highly ambitious exploration of, “our role as individuals in the human throng,” Assembly involves more than 60 performers on stage with little more than a large wooden staircase and some simple lighting.

This may come as some surprise to those familiar with recent Chunky Move works such as Mortal Engine (2008) that have immersed audiences in the high-tech world of projections and electronic sound. Obarzanek agrees that Assembly is to some degree a rejection of technology and a desire to focus on the human relationship between the individual and the group in a stripped back setting – but to equally powerful effect.

“In a way, the large group formations achieve the same thing as the large video projections I’ve used in the past,” he explains. “This is a very human work and in some ways the audience are watching themselves”.

Obarzanek originally envisioned over 100 people on stage but soon realised this would pose many practical difficulties, especially as most of the performers are untrained dancers. “What became obvious very quickly is that people without dance training can’t remember a sequence of steps very well. So the choreography is not really a series of steps but rather different tasks or different sets of information about what to do… It was about trying to find a series of tasks to generate choreography that would work.”

Obarzanek has worked closely with the Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director Richard Gill, who he describes admiringly as, “very enthusiastic and adventurous,” to work the elements of human sound closely in with the movements. “What happens on stage visually is almost what sound looks like. It’s almost a sense of synaesthesia. That’s what’s so powerful with this piece.”

Obarzanek is ready to pursue projects with the Sydney Theatre Company and the Australian Ballet starting next year and says, “I’m really happy that this is my last work for Chunky Move. It’s grand and salubrious. Ultimately it’s a very positive work.”

Jan 11-14, City Recital Hall Angel Place, $80-89, 1300 668 812, sydneyfestival.org.au