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
Antony Hamilton
Antony 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).
Melanie Lane
Melanie is a choreographer and performer who has worked with various companies and artists such as Kobalt Works, Arco Renz (B), Tino Seghal (G), Antony Hamilton (AUS) and Lucy Guerin (AUS), performing world wide. In 2015, Melanie was appointed resident director at Lucy Guerin Inc. She has created new works for Chunky Move, DanceNorth, Australasian Dance Collective, Schauspiel Leipzig, Nagelhus Schia Productions, Sydney Dance Company and choreographed for English National Opera’s ‘Salome’ directed by Adena Jacobs. Melanie’s independent choreographic works have been presented at festivals and venues such as Sydney Opera House, Tanz im August, Uzes Danse Festival, Indonesian Dance Festival, Arts House Melbourne, O Espaco do Tempo, Festival Antigel, Dance Massive and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin. Melanie choreographed the 2015 and 2017 live shows for UK electronic musician Clark, performing at over 30 international venues and festivals including Moma PS1 New York, Villette Sonique Paris, Funkhaus Berlin and Sonar Festivals in Barcelona/Istanbul. Melanie has received both Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations and received the Leipziger Bewegungskunstpreis 2018 and the Keir Choreographic Award 2018 for her choreographic work.
Future Loundry
Future Loundry is a Bali-based street fashion label project by Ican Haremand Pinkygurl, that combines upcycling practices and the art of identityexpression. By collecting used clothing from various genres, subcultures,and communities, including punk, metal, and disco, and sewing themtogether using sewing machines and hand-stitching, we create newexperiences from past items. Our philosophy as designers is simple: “What you need is actually a newexperience, not a new material.” By repeatedly reconnecting, reconstructing, and redesigning a wide varietyof materials, the stories of the clothes become stories that eventuallybecome mantras. Future Loundry was recently featured in a pop-up exhibition at Center EdoGallery, Hatchobori, Tokyo from 8–10 September 2023.
Ooshcon
Ooshcon is an experimental Hip Hop movement artist of Samoan and palagi origin, based in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Ooshcon is an award-winning Hip Hop theatre choreographer, a respected Hip Hop and open-style battler, a sought-out performer with experimental skills in a range of Street Dance styles. Ooshcon, alongside creative partner Jahra Wasasala, as their creative identity ‘CONJAH’ received the 2022 ‘Arts Foundation Springboard Award’. As CONJAH, they facilitate workshops, hold festivals, create touring dance work together and empower each other’s practices. Ooshcon directed Aotearoa’s first Krump-Theatre work ‘HYPAMASS’, which focused on the hardships involved in Pasifika and Maori men navigating themselves towards love. Collaborated and performed by Byrin Mita (aka XIII), an excerpt of ‘HYPAMASS’ was performed in 2019 in Auckland (NZ) at the Pacific Dance Festival Choreolab and was further developed as a full length work in 2020 adding in two more Krumpers Trenten Taskcomb-Omeri (aka 12) and Jay Mita (aka Plainsundaee) which then premiered the full length work in 2021 in the Pacific Dance Festival. Ooshcon’s specialised training and approach concentrates on deepening self-awareness through body isolation and control.
Gabber Modus Operandi
Gabber Modus Operandi was founded by Kasimyn and Ican Haremfollowing their fad staging at an underground punk concert in Denpasar. After some DJ- and MC-ing, Kasimyn began producing tracks for the duousing the smallest musical instrument: the Mini Synth Teenage EngineeringOP-1, while Ican Harem provides vocals and joke-filled improvisation. Their experimentation began with a healthy obsession for the energy andintensity of jathilan (Javanese ritualised trance-dance), gabber, dangdutkoplo (Indonesian folk music), Chicago footwork, grindcore and noise music.Manipulating traditional song samples, borrowing from the rooted pentatonicscale, especially Balinese gamelan, and adding some finishing touches withtheir own sound design, Gabber Modus Operandi attempt to provide anotherbridge over the unique gap between humor and the darkness ofcontemporary music and tradition in Indonesia. Their exuberant digitalsarcasm straddles (and questions) the line between the sacred and thebanal.
Melissa Pham
Melissa Pham is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist who studied full-time dance at Brent Street. She has been a featured dancer in several music videos for Australian artists such as George Alice, Jennifer Loveless, Kite String Tangle, Tash Sultana, Gretta Ray, Isaiah Firebrace and Andrew Lambrou. Of late, Melissa has performed inof Chunky Move’s major work 4/4, premiering in August 2023, and is currently a part of Stephanie Lake Company whose current work Manifesto is touring nationally and internationally in 2023 and 2024.
Samakshi Sidhu
Born in Delhi, India, Samakshi Sidhu is an artist working with dance and choreography. Based in Naarm (Melbourne), their practice is centred around the intelligence of the body in relation to ecological systems. Their current practice investigates the body as an archive and the social role dance can have, with a focus on community healing. Samakshi is interested in creating a hybrid interdisciplinary practice that is socio-politically informed and accessible. A few choreographers they have worked with are Yuko Harada from India, Lotem Regev from Israel and Brianna Kell, Daniel Riley and Gregory Lorenzutti from Naarm. Samakshi has recently worked with Chunky Move as an understudy for 4/4 (2023), as a performer in creative developments of upcoming new work Beyond 2000. In October 2023 they will undertake a residency with GUTS Dance, Mparntwe (Alice Springs).
House of Vnholy
House of Vnholy [pronounced un-holy] was formed as an artistic moniker for artist Matthew Adey in 2013. House of Vnholy has created numerous performance installations and developed an artistic language that centres itself around minimal form and the ephemeral nature of light while exploring the darker nature of the human experience. House of Vnholy has since presented work at several festivals including RISING Festival, Dark Mofo, Next Wave Festival, Underbelly Arts, Darebin Speakeasy, Adelaide Fringe Festival in addition to creating live visual experiences for music groups HTRK, My Disco, YLVA, High Tension while presenting new works at the Sydney’s Soft Centre Festival every year since its inaugural inception in 2017-2020. Over the past decade, House of Vnholy has become one of most prominent production designers in events and stage in Australia working with some of most regarded dance and theatre-makers including Chunky Move, ADT, Gravity and Other Myths, Australian Ballet, Back to Back Theatre, Restless Dance Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Phillip Adams, Stephanie Lake, Luke George, Atlanta Eke, Amrita Hepi, Melanie Lane and renowned international choreographer Maxine Doyle from Punch Drunk. House of Vnholy’s aesthetic forged a close relationship with Hobart’s Dark Mofo to become their leading Lighting Designer from 2016-2019. He is now Head of Event Design for RISING Festival in Melbourne. House of vnholy provides the production designer for the Australian leg of the London created BOILER ROOM dance parties.
Jayden Wall
Jayden is a Naarm/Melbourne-based performing artist who is nationally recognised for his passion, versatility and welcoming nature. After growing up around his mother’s dance studio, Michelle Rae School of Dance, Jayden decided to concentrate further on his movement and artistry and began studying at Patrick Studios Australia where he trained in Musical Theatre and Performing Arts. Following this, Jayden really found interest in Contemporary Dance and the huge array of techniques that offer themselves within the culture. Jayden also fell in love with the groove and footwork of House Dance, training under the direction of Daisuke Benson. Of late, Jayden has worked and collaborated in an array of projects including: Chunky Move’s 4/4, Jonathan Homsey’s Shower THOTS, Chunky Move X MPavilion Residency, The Dream Dance Companies Goddess choreographed by Caetlyn Watson, Choreolab with Contact Gonzo in collaboration with Chunky Move, Opera Australia’s Turandot, George Maple live at The Wool Store, Cosmos by Callum Mooney and 40/40 HOME by Zoee Marsh.
Jahra (Arieta) Wasasala
Jahra (Arieta) Wasasala is a Fijian/Pakeha world-builder, movement psychopomp and writer of realms. Within Viti/Fiji, they hail from the provinces of Macuata and Ba. Jahra is based in the relational space between a world ending and another world beginning. Jahra centres dance as the chosen tool of transmutation, living-memory, and embodiment, whilst expanding that living work into sound, adornment, poetry, sculpture, and digital realms. Their training continues to evolve, currently encompassing Krump, Physical Theatre, Body Control techniques, Butoh study, Waving, Character work and ‘Creature-Conditioning’, which comprises of movement mobility and strength training and non-human movement research. Highly collaborative, Jahra’s work expands into sound, adornment, poetry, sculpture, costume and digital realms through their collaborations. Jahra’s work also expands into CONJAH, a creative relationship with their partner Ooshcon, creating solo and ensemble works and producing festivals. Jahra’s solo and company work have toured across festivals and performance seasons across Aotearoa (NZ), Australia, Hawai’i, New York, U.S.A, Germany, Guahån and Canada. Jahra has created commissioned work for institutions such as the Auckland War Memorial Museum in Aotearoa, The Banff Centre in Calgary, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. As a specialist performer, Jahra has featured in dance works from companies such as Kaha:Wi Dance Company (Canada), Foster Group (NZ), Ta’alili Company (NZ), Atamira Dance Company (NZ) and MAU Company (NZ) and has worked with Chunky Move Company (AUS) on a commission. Jahra has collaborated with Rosanna Raymond under SaVĀge Klub and has is a featured artist for the internationally acclaimed artist MNZM Lisa Reihana’s 2022 works ‘GROUNDLOOP’ and ‘Kura Moana’ (Aotearoa Festival of the Arts). Jahra is an award-winning artist, receiving the Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Award in 2016, and has won various awards throughout Auckland’s Fringe Festival. Through CONJAH, Jahra was awarded the Arts Foundation Tumu Toi 2022 Springboard Award. As part of that award, CONJAH was mentored by globally acclaimed artist Lisa Reihana MNZM.