Chunky Move is located on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. We respectfully acknowledge the significant contributions of Australia’s First Peoples, and are committed to supporting the continuity of culture and relationship to this land.
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Creature Technology Co.
Founded in Melbourne in 2006, Creature Technology Co. are the world leaders in large-scale animatronics for the global entertainment industry.
Led by Creative Director and CEO, Sonny Tilders, this exceptionally talented team of designers, engineers, technicians and artisans sets a new benchmark for animatronics with every new project they undertake. Combining state-of-the-art technology with artistic mastery, Creature Technology Co.’s expertise ensures live experiences inspire wonder and awe in audiences worldwide.
Previous creations include the jaw-dropping beasts for Walking with Dinosaurs –The Arena Spectacular, the three remarkable mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in Sochi, and the Tony Award winning King Kong puppet that wowed Broadway.
Creature Technology Co. is a unique organisation that is part manufacturer, part software designer, puppet-maker, engineering company, artist’s studio and entertainment creator all rolled into one, making the world’s best, large-scale animatronic creatures in the heart of Melbourne
Tra Mi Dinh
Tra Mi is a dance artist based across Sydney and Melbourne. Studying at Victorian College of the Arts, she graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) and the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Scholarship for Most Outstanding Dancer. Since graduating, Tra Mi has worked with incredible artists including Lucy Guerin, Victoria Chiu, Lee Serle, Michelle Heaven, Isabelle Beauvard and Monica Bill Barnes & Company in works presented at Dance Massive, AsiaTopa, MEL&NYC, Melbourne Fringe Festival, MPavillion, and Melbourne International Arts Festival. Her performance in Make Your Own World (2019) by Lucy Guerin Inc was nominated for a Green Room Award.
Her choreographic practice has been supported through residencies undertaken through Tasdance’s On the Island program, Sydney Fringe Festival’s Art in Isolation, Critical Path, and Readymade Studios Constant Relay. HOLDING, Tra Mi’s debut solo work premiered at March Dance Sydney Festival 2021 to a sold-out season. Tra Mi is sharing a short work ‘not the piece’ at ReadyMade Works’ upcoming program Happy Hour #12 and in September, her new work (UP)HOLDING will be presented at Sydney Fringe Festival
Robin Fox
Robin Fox is an internationally recognised Melbourne based composer and audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art and composition for contemporary dance. His laser works, which synchronise sound & visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space have been performed in over 60 cities worldwide. His critically acclaimed work Single Origin premiered at Unsound Krakow late 2017 and has toured extensively in 2018-19 with highlights including headline shows at Berlin Atonal, Semibreve (Braga), Mutek (Montreal and Mexico), Sonica (Kings Place London) among many others. QUADRA, an installation commissioned by HOTA on the Gold Coast recently proved a popular hit at the GLOW festival 2018 and at Arts House Melbourne 2019.
His ground- breaking work with Chunky Move contributed to the work Mortal Engine receiving a Helpmann award for best visual production and an honourable mention at the the illustrious Prix Ars Electronica 2009. Since 2008 he has composed music for over 25 contemporary dance works (many nominated for Greenroom and Helpmann awards) working with Australian choreographic luminaries Gideon Obarzanek, Lucy Guerin, Stephanie Lake and Antony Hamilton. These soundtracks are being released through bandcamp. Other soundworks have been released on Editions Mego, Room40, Quecksilber, Kranky, Synaesthesia Records and Bocian.
Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in early 2019, and his connection to the company goes back more than 17 years. His acclaimed works involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design, and are contextually underpinned by an examination of a body that is at once primitive, contemporary and future bound.
Antony has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first major work for Chunky Move as Artistic Director.
Antony’s independent works include Blazeblue Oneline (2008), Drift (2010), Black Project 1 (2012), Black Project 2 (2013), MEETING (2015), NYX (2015) and Number of the Machine (2017). Major commissions include Forever & Ever(Sydney Dance Company, 2018), Natural Orders (Dancemakers Toronto, 2017), Crazy Times (Sydney Dance Company, 2017), Sentinel (Skånes Dansteater, 2016), Keep Everything (Chunky Move 2012), RGB (ADT 2010), Black Project 3 (Lyon Opera Ballet, 2010) and I Like This (co-directed by Byron Perry for Chunky Move 2008).
Paula Levis
Paula Levis is a Melbourne based costume designer. She has previously designed costumes for Antony Hamilton on his works Token Armies, Forever and Ever, Meeting, Sentinal, Black Project 2 & 3, NYX,Keep Everything, Drift, RGB, Blazeblue Oneline and I Like This. Paula has also designed costumes for choreographers Gideon Obarzanek (Two Faced Bastard, Mortal Engine, GLOW, Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties), Lucy Guerin (Human Interest Story, Corridor, Structure & Sadness, Aether), Stephanie Lake (Skeleton Tree, Replica) and Melanie Lane (Re-make and Personal Effigies).
She has worked with companies Lyon Opera Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, Skånes Dansteater, Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Victorian Opera, KAGE, Danceworks, Dancehouse, TasDance, DanceNorth, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre and La Mama.
Amber McCartney
Amber is a Melbourne-based dancer. She has performed for companies Chunky Move (Token Armies, Accumulation, Red Shift, and It Sounds Silly), Lucy Guerin Inc (Metal and Pendulum), Antony Hamilton Projects (Number of the Machine), Tasdance (Reactor and Collision), DanceNorth (OneInfinity), as well as choreographers Prue Lang (Accumulation, Project F, Yoni & Stellar Project), James Batchelor (Red Shift, Island, Deepspace, Multiplication, Violence, and Metasystems), Adam Wheeler, Jo Lloyd and Gideon Obarzanek. She has created two works for Transit Dance, Yellow Wheel, and Lucy Guerin Inc (Pieces For Small Spaces). In 2020 Amber was a recipient of Solitude1, Chunky Move’s home-based residency program. Amber graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012.
Kyall Shanks
Kyall is a Naarm/Melbourne based contemporary dance artist. His career so far has focused on finding a balance of performance, choreography and teaching work. By finding how these three areas can compliment and feed into each other, Kyall is passionate about increasing the accessibility of dance through youth and community work.
He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts 2015 and since then has danced for Tasdance, Antony Hamilton Projects, Chunky Move, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Opera Australia, The Delta Project and Liquidskin Dance Company. In 2017-2018 Kyall undertook an 8 month international residency program with DanceBox in Kobe, Japan, and then spent 3 months in Sweden as a member of ilYoung 2018. Kyall has engaged with community youth groups and schools as a teacher and choreographer, examples of this being the Arts Centre Melbourne/Matthew Bourne ‘Lord Of The Flies’ project, the 2019 Dance Massive work ‘Simulcast’, and Stephanie Lake Company’s 2020 Melbourne Fringe work ‘Multiply’. Through his work he has represented/taught for The Victorian College of the Arts, Chunky Move, Ausdance Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, DRILL, Transit Dance and The Space Dance and Arts Centre. In 2020 he designed Chunky Move’s new set of education offerings “Experiences for Young People”, based off of current chunky move repertoire. He currently works as one of the Tasdance Ensemble members, as Co-Artistic Director of the 2021 Australian Youth Dance Festival, and as Artistic Director to the preprofessional youth dance company Yellow Wheel.
Nikki Tarling
Nikki began her dance studies at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. During her time at WAAPA, Nikki was selected to spend 6 months on exchange at Codarts in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Upon graduation in 2016 with her Bachelor in Performing Arts, Nikki began her long term engagement as a freelance contemporary dance artist. Moving to Launceston to begin her first contract, Nikki began working with Tasdance rehearsing ‘Fragile Matter’ with Paul Blackman and Christine Gouzelis (Jukstapoz), and was nominated as ‘Dancer to watch’ in the Dance Australia magazine in 2017. Following Tasdance, Nikki moved to Melbourne and continued working with many independent choreographers and artists, and has performed in an array of contemporary dance festivals across Australia. This includes the Perth & Melbourne Fringe Festival, and the Perth & Melbourne International Arts Festival, as well as a significant number of independent works in Australia. A few of these works include ‘Colossus’ & ‘Multiply’ by Stephanie Lake Company, and ‘Duplex’ by Jack Riley. ‘Duplex’ was presented at the Academia di Belle Art in Florence as part Melbourne University’s ‘First Commissions’ campaign. In 2020 Nikki returned to Perth to perform in a double-bill ‘Hofesh in the Yard’ presented by STRUT’s dance season in association with the Hofesh Shechter Company for the Perth International Arts Festival. In 2020 Nikki’s teaching practice sparked after completing her Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training. With dance knowledge that spans over 20 years, her focus is on awakening and rekindling the fluidity of the body.