Australian dancer Gideon Obarzanek puts his dancers through a lot, and they have fun with it. He douses dancers with water, projects lasers onto their bodies, and tonight at Duke, they'll work with moving sculptures on stage.
His company Chunky Move's latest project, "Connected," features massive, suspended wooden structures which wave and undulate, while also being attached by fibers to the dancers themselves.
Chunky Move, a dance company based in Melbourne, Australia, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday (tonight) at Duke University's Reynolds Industries Theater.
Chunky Move began using the large sculptures after Obarzanek met kinetic sculptor Reuben Margolin in 2009 conference in Maine. The spark was immediate.
"I felt elevated. His work was providing a view of the world," Margolin said.
Obarzanek was impressed too. Margolin's work mimics waves, water drops and other types of movement in nature. The movement of a caterpillar is what first inspired him to work with kinetic sculpture. His work for "Connected" features several mediums, from recycled plastic to concrete. He begins by sketching in his ideas for the massive chunky sculptures in notebooks -- dozens of which sit in his studio like a sketchbook graveyard.
"His work really transcends the concrete when it goes into motion," Obarzanek said.
The two came together to create "Connected," a performance guided by Obarzanek's choreography and Margolin's sculptors. Dancers are connected to the sculpture on stage with string, making the massive pieces serve in a starring role.
This is the last year of Obarzanek's artistic directorship of Chunky Move. During his tenure, he has been fascinated by not only the dancers, but the audience as well.
"I became very interested in the audience and their relationship with the subject," he said. "Also, what is the audience's relationship to themselves?"
Tickets are still available. For ticket information, call (919) 684-4444 or go online at www.tickets.duke.edu.