"Beautiful, unique and absolutely unforgettable." —Metro

"Utterly captivating and utterly unique." —The Scotsman

Chunky Move’s highly acclaimed, cutting-edge fusion of technology and dance is on full display in Mortal Engine. This intensely physical, sensual, and visually daring work uses movement- and sound-responsive projections that morph human figures into light and sound and back again. Mortal Engine has no pre-rendered video, light, or laser images. Instead, interactive systems allow light, video, sound, and performers to respond to each other in real time. With this mind-blowing visual power, Mortal Engine leads us into a world where unformed bodies search to connect and evolve. Dancers appear trapped in a constant state of becoming, veering between moments of exquisite cosmological perfection and grotesque evolutionary accidents of existence right before your eyes.Founded in Melbourne, Australia, 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.

"That was the best thing I’ve seen in my life, ever. I want to go and see it again NOW!" —Audience comment overheard in the bathroom after Chunky Move’s performance of Mortal Engine at the Edinburgh International Festival

Direction and Choreography: Gideon Obarzanek Interactive System Design: Frieder Weiss Laser and Sound Artist: Robin Fox Composer: Ben Frost Set Design: Richard Dinnen and Gideon Obarzanek Costume Design: Paula Levis Lighting Design: Damien Cooper Executive Producer: Rachael Azzopardi Production and Operations Manager: Chris Mercer Multimedia Engineer Nick Roux Stage Manager: Lydia Teychenne Head Mechanist: Michael Carr Dancers: Kristy Ayre, Amber Haines, Marnie Palomares, James Shannon, Adam Synnott, Charmene Yap

This production contains partial nudity, smoke, laser and strobe lighting effects, and loud volume audio.

Executive Producers: Tobey and Mark Dichter, Carol Klein and Larry Spitz, David Seltzer and Lisa Roberts

Read blog articles about this show by clicking here.

Gideon Obarzanek (direction/choreography) became interested in dance near the end of high school. After graduating, he studied at the Australian Ballet School. He later danced with the Queensland Ballet and the Sydney Dance Company before working as a performer and choreographer with various dance companies and independent projects within Australia and abroad. These have included commissions from the Australian Ballet Company, The Sydney Dance Company, Opera Australia, and the Netherlands Dance Theatre. Obarzanek founded Chunky Move in 1995 in Melbourne, Australia, and has since served as its artistic director. Obarzanek’s works include stage productions, installations, site-specific works, and films, which have been performed in festivals and theaters around the world. In 2008 he received two Australian Helpman Awards for Glow and Mortal Engine.

Frieder Weiss (interactive system designer) is an engineer in the arts and an expert for real-time computing and interactive computer systems in performance art. He is the author of EyeCon and Kalypso, video motion sensing programs especially designed for use with dance, music, and computer art. He teaches Mediatechnology at the University of Applied Sciences in Nürnberg, University of the Arts in Bern, and the University Centre in Doncaster, UK. In recent years he has collaborated on installation and performance projects with Phase-7 in Berlin, Leine und Roebana in Amsterdam, Helga Pogatschar, Cesc Gelabert in Munich, and Chunky Move in Melbourne.

Robin Fox (laser and sound artist) is a Melbourne-based sound and visual artist working with live digital media in improvised, composed, and installation settings. He creates audio-visual works for the cathode ray oscilloscope, which have been released on the DVD backscatter (synaesthesia records). This work, in constant development, is currently being realized with a high-powered, audio-controlled laser system in recent performances at the Salamanca International Festival for the Arts (Spain), Yokohama Triennial (Japan), and the inaugural Mona Fona Festival in Hobart.

Ben Frost (composer) is Australian-born, but has been a resident of Reykjavík, Iceland since 2005. Frost produces his work in gallery-based installations, scores commissioned for film, contemporary dance, and large-scale multimedia productions throughout the world. He has released several widely acclaimed albums including his 2007 LP Theory of Machines (Icelandic Bedroom Community), which has been called "the future of electronic music," and for which Frost has been marked "one of the most interesting and groundbreaking producers in the world today." Frost collaborates with many artists in the studio and on the stage, producing work with and for the Icelandic Dance Company, Björk, choreographer Erna Ómarsdottír, Amiina, and New York Composer Nico Muhly.

Paula Levis (costume designer) studied fashion design at RMIT University and completed a graduate diploma in theater design at Victorian College of the Arts in 2001. She has designed for Victorian Opera, Danceworks, Dancehouse, DanceNorth, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre, and La Mama, among others. Recently she designed costumes for Chunky Move (Glow, Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties), Lucy Guerin (Structure & Sadness, Aether, Lost Air), Rebecca Hilton (Historia), and KAGE (Headlock, Nowhere Man,) and did the costume/concept design for Australian Resident Company–World Expo, Japan. She was the design assistant and illustrator on the film Tom White and teaches design at RMIT.

Damien Cooper (lighting designer) has designed for dance companies including the Australian Ballet (Swan Lake), Australian Dance Theatre (Birdbrain), Chunky Move (Corrupted), Legs on the Wall (Homelands), Lucy Guerin Inc (Heavy), One Extra Dance Company (Fugly), and Sydney Dance Company (Air and Other Invisible Forces). He is a regular collaborator with Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, and Opera Australia. Recent projects include Toy Symphony, Keating!, Riflemind, Alcina, Grand, The Lost Echo, Ying Tong, Government Inspector, and Honour Bound. Cooper has recently debuted on Broadway with Exit the King at the Barrymore Theater and at Houston Grand Opera and the Canadian Opera Company.

Kristy Ayre (dancer) has performed regularly with Chunky Move since 2002. Her numerous works include the solo Glow (2006) for which she later became the rehearsal director. In addition to working with Chunky Move’s artistic director Gideon Obarzanek, Ayre has performed for Lucy Guerin Inc, Prue Lang, Kim Itoh, Shelley Lasica and Luke George’s LIFE-SIZE. She continues to work with George in 2009 on a new project called Now . . . Now . . . Now. In 2008, Kristy choreographed and performed her first solo work Rabbeat as part of Lucy Guerin Inc’s Pieces for Small Spaces and was choreographic assistant on Eddie Perfect’s Shane Warne the Musical. She teaches workshops and master classes on a regular basis within Melbourne and around the world.

Amber Haines (dancer) studied Borovansky ballet with Lyne Jewell from the age of four. Haines also trained at the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating in 2006 as the recipient of the Mary Orloff Prize for Most Outstanding Dancer. Amber has performed in Tracie Mitchell's Under The Weather, and Chunky Move's GLOW and Mortal Engine. She has co-choreographed work for Lucy Guerin's 2007 work Pieces for Small Spaces and the Next Wave Festivals event Pure Pleasure 2008. Haines was involved with the SPARK Mentoring Program for 2007 and recently returned from Europe where she undertook workshops and classes with assistance from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

Marnie Palomares (dancer) trained at the University of Western Sydney. In 2004 she performed Hidden Revealed (Bernadette Walong) and inasmuch (Jason Pitt). In 2006 she performed in Moliere’s The Bourgeois Gentleman (Sydney Theatre Company) and from 2006 to 2008 she performed in Honour Bound (Nigel Jamison, Garry Stewart). In 2007–2008 Palomares collaborated on Made In Australia (Jason Pitt) and performed in This show is about people (Shaun Parker). In 2008 she performed in Back From Front (Dean Walsh) and was involved in the first stage development of Ennea (Shaun Parker). Palomares' choreographic credits include Chapter One (Pulse8 Dance Company) and Physical Fracture (Sydney Festival First Night 2009). She recently performed in Tenebrae III with The Song Company (Shaun Parker).

James Shannon (dancer) began dancing at the Canberra Dance Development Center and at Quantum Leap youth dance company in 2001. He graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. In 2007, Shannon joined Tasdance for Mercy: a dance for the forgotten by Raewyn Hill, and toured throughout Australia and New Zealand. Shannon has performed for Cadi McCarthy Company in Shambles, Bec Reid in With a Bullet: The Album Project, and Sara Black in Lucy Guerin’s Pieces for Small Spaces. He has taught at Stompin Youth Dance Company and Launceston College. He was nominated as a “Dancer to Watch” by the 2007 Dance Australia Critics’ Choice and received the Tasmanian Youth Arts Award for professional development. Mortal Engine is his first production with Chunky Move.

Adam Synnott (dancer) graduated from the Adelaide Centre for the Arts in 2004. Synnott has performed in the Australian Dance Theatre's Nothing; Leigh Warren & Dancers' Mixed Doubles, Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Quick Brown Fox, and Seven; Troy Mundy's Green D-men; Fiona Malone's LALA Land; Frances D'ath's Crush; Alison Currie's 42a; Sue Healey's As You Take Time and The Curiosities; Jason Lam's Extirpation; Barebones Collective’s Sarah's Party; Amanda Phillips' Crush; and Michael Parmenter's Tent. He has performed throughout Australia and toured the USA and New Zealand.

Charmene Yap (dancer) completed her BA in dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2006. This included a semester at Purchase College, New York, where she worked with choreographer Karole Armitage and the Armitage Gone! Dance Company. After graduating, Yap received an Australia Council skills and development grant, which allowed her to work with choreographers Lucy Guerin, Sue Healey, and Tanja Liedtke. She then joined Dancenorth under directorship of Gavin Webber performing Underground. She has also worked with Tasdance, performing two new works by Kate Denborough and Natalie Weir in their Parenthesis season, and joined Chunky Move for Mortal Engine. Yap was featured in the video art film Think Of Yourself As Plural, directed by David Rosetzky and choreographed by Lucy Guerin.