Read all about U>N>I>T>E>D before you see the show - or after if you prefer!
Chunky Move U>N>I>T>E>D
Image: Gianna Rizzo
A Perth Festival commission
Contents
Perth Festival acknowledges the Noongar people who continue to practise values, language, beliefs and knowledge on kwobidak boodjar. Noongar people remain the spiritual and cultural birdiyangara of this place and we honour and respect the caretakers and custodians and the vital role Noongar people play for our community and our Festival to flourish. We also acknowledge all First Nations people, whose contributions make our Festival culturally and artistically richer. Our hearts are happy that you are here, on the traditional lands of Whadjuk, part of the Bibbulmun nation and its people.
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Welcome
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Show Details
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A Note from the Choreographer
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Credits
7 Biographies About Chunky Move Creative Team 10 Acknowledgements
Perth Festival Noongar Cultural Authority Council Roma Yibiyung Winmar, Vivienne Binyarn Hansen, Richard Walley, Barry McGuire & Mitchella Waljin Hutchins
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Welcome
Chunky Move U>N>I>T>E>D
I love dance. I love its power, its ability to transport you somewhere deeply personal and, at the same time, completely collective. Antony Hamilton is a brilliant creator. His work pushes form and questions how we make work now and what performance might become in the future. We are thrilled to welcome Chunky Move back to Perth with U>N>I>T>E>D . We’re proud to have co-commissioned this international collaboration. An ambitious, immersive and uncompromising work. A work that looks outward from Perth and asks big questions about movement, connection and identity in a rapidly changing world.
AUSTRALIA 19 – 22 Feb Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA
Yandilup / Perth Duration 55mins Thu & Fri 7.30pm Sat 2 & 7.30pm Sun 7.30pm
Anna Reece Artistic Director
Latecomers will be admitted within the first 5-10 minutes as appropriate.
Contains strobe effects, dynamic lighting, haze and loud music.
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A Note from the Choreographer
U>N>I>T>E>D was inspired by a conversation with Gabber Modus Operandi (GMO) in Seminyak, Bali in September 2023. In our first meeting we connected quickly, sharing a sense that spirituality was a force that persisted in the urbanised, industrialised modern world. We talked about an idea of ‘machine mysticism’, and how all things constructed by human hand are in some way each a sacred art object, imbued with our innate self-awareness. The collaboration with GMO, Future Loundry, Creature Technology Co., Benjamin Cisterne and Nicholas Moloney imagines a world of mythic proportions in which earthly forms commune with the gods of the machine world. The extraordinary ceremonial music of GMO fills the space with a powerful energy, driving the performance of the dance ensemble and elevating them into a transcendent state. It has been my privilege to work with such a dedicated and exceptional creative and technical team on U>N>I>T>E>D . I’m thrilled to bring the work to the stage for the first time here in Perth.
Antony Hamilton
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Credits
About Chunky Move Chunky Move create bold, genre-defying contemporary dance. Internationally renowned for ambitious and highly original work, the award-winning company maintains a reputation for being at the forefront of contemporary dance globally. Under the leadership of co-CEOs Antony Hamilton and Kristy Ayre, Chunky Move play a crucial role in driving dance forward in Australia and beyond. Artists and audiences are at the heart of the company, expressed in a dense program of major works, commissions, residencies and education offerings. Over the last 30 years, Chunky Move has performed in 130 cities in 150 festivals throughout the world, captivating over 610,000 audiences.
Artistic Director & Choreographer Antony Hamilton Sound Designer & Composer Gabber Modus Operandi Costume Designer Future Loundry Exoskeleton Designer & Creator Benjamin Cisterne Lighting Designer Nicholas Moloney Performers & Choreography Madeleine Bowman, Melissa Pham, David Prakash, Samakshi Sidhu, Robert Alejandro Tinning, Jayden Wall Rehearsal Director Rachel Coulson Stage/Set Designer/ Fabrication & Art Finishing Ashley Buchanan & Antony Hamilton Set & Costume LED Fabrication/ System Engineer/Head Electrician Creature Technology Co. Original Lighting Designer Benjamin Beare Stage Manager Zsuzsa Gaynor Mihaly Lighting Programmer & Head Electrics Andre Vanderwert Sound Engineer & Technical Coordinator Ethan Hunter Executive Director & Co-CEO Kristy Ayre Senior Producer Kristina Arnott Shiv Geaney Outside Eye Melanie Lane Production Manager Ashley Buchanan Production Coordinator
Images Gianna Rizzo
Commissioned by Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and Perth Festival.
Supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the City of Melbourne, and the Playking
Foundation via a Playking Foundation Travel Grant.
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Creative Biographies Antony Hamilton Choregrapher & Chunky Move Artistic Director Antony was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in 2019. His choreographic work examines the elemental and primordial nature of the body, set against intersecting narratives that explore past, present and future. He often employs a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design to collaboratively imagine complete worlds, and develops new choreographic languages to occupy them. In his time as Artistic Director at Chunky Move, Antony has premiered new works including Token Armies (2019), Universal Estate (2019), Yung Lung (2022), Rewards for the Tribe (2022), AB_TA_Response (2022), 4/4 (2023), You, Beauty (2024) and U>N>I>T>E>D (2025). Gabber Modus Operandi Sound Designer & Composer Gabber Modus Operandi was founded by Kasimyn and Ican Harem following their fad staging at an underground punk concert in Denpasar. Their experimentation began with a healthy obsession for the energy and intensity of jathilan (Javanese ritualised trance-dance), gabber, dangdut koplo (Indonesian folk music), Chicago footwork, grind core and noise music. Gabber Modus Operandi attempt to bridge the gap between humour and the darkness of contemporary music and tradition in Indonesia. Future Loundry Costume Designer Future Loundry is a Bali-based street fashion label project by Ican Harem and Manda Pinkygurl, that combines upcycling practices and the art of identity expression. By collecting used clothing from various genres, subcultures and communities, including punk, metal and disco, and sewing them together using sewing machines and hand-stitching, they create new experiences from past items. Their philosophy as designers is: What you need is actually a new experience, not a new material’.
Creature Technology Co. Exoskeleton Designer & Creator Founded in Melbourne in 2006, Creature Technology Co. (CTC) revolutionised animatronic entertainment through the production of Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular . With a vision to emotionally connect an audience to a cast of prehistoric beasts, CTC used never before seen technology to set a new benchmark in storytelling through animatronics. Since then, CTC’s work has spanned throughout the globe and the many genres of live entertainment from arena shows and theatre productions to exhibitions and more recently, the world’s most awe-inspiring theme park attractions. Benjamin Cisterne Original Lighting Designer Benjamin’s reputation is for finesse, excellence and a gutsy approach to design, based in light. Benjamin is known for creating bold designs that are integral to a project. He has 20 years’ experience designing in museum, exhibition and performing arts contexts, and is passionate about the capability of light in spacial design, performance and its role in art. Benjamin has extensive experience working both nationally and internationally with diverse teams and projects, and his work has been recognised with Green Room Awards, Sydney Theatre Awards and Illuminating Engineers Society awards on multiple occasions. Nicholas Moloney Lighting Designer Nicholas is a Melbourne-based lighting designer. He is a graduate of Melbourne Polytechnic as well as the Victorian College of the Arts, where he received a Melbourne Global Scholars Award to travel to Taiwan to attend the World Stage Design conference as well as receiving the Lionel Gell Production Scholarship. In addition to freelancing, Nicholas can be found working as an assistant at Additive Lighting. His recent design credits include NEWRETRO by Lucy Guerin Inc (2023), Escalate by Throw Catch Collective (2023), Cygnets by The Liminal Space (2023) and Yung Lung by Chunky Move (2022).
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to our Partners
Thanks to our Donors
Founding Partner
Principal Partner
We thank our community of donors for helping us achieve our bold artistic vision and for making an impact on the cultural narrative of our State.
Leadership Partners
City Events Partner
Boorloo Contemporary Partner
Premier Partners
Patrons
Adrian & Michela Fini
Trusts & Foundations
Major Partners
Associate Partners
Chair’s Circle $20,000+ John & Linda Bond* Margrete Chaney & Michael Chaney AO Jock & Kathryn Clough Marco D’Orsogna & Terry Scott* Paul & Didi Downie Adrian & Michela Fini
Greg Lewis & Sue Robertson* Ben Lisle James Litis The Mack Family The McClements Foundation Paula Rogers & Phil Thick Tim & Chris Ungar*
Festival Partners
To review Perth Festival’s complete donor acknowledgement please visit our website . Find out more about how you too can join our community of donors and support Perth Festival.
Alex Hotel | Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions | Heritage Council of WA Paramount Security Services | RTRFM 92.1 | The Backlot Perth | The Embassy of France in Australia
With thanks to State Theatre Centre of WA staff, management and board
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