LGI/

AWARDS

2017 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer – Benjamin Hancock for The Dark Chorus.

2017 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography – Lucy Guerin for The Dark Chorus.

2017 Green Room Award for Female Performer (Dance) - Lilian Steiner

2017 Green Room Award for Male Performer (Dance) - Benjamin Hancock

“The Dark Chorus began in my mind as a vivid, visual structure, a bright circular light surrounded by a dark shadowy circumference.

The past lurks in the shadows while a different mode of expression tests itself in the middle. The black clad chorus carries history, power and familiarity while the central figures counter its language, associations, rhythms and aesthetics.

The chorus generates its own opposition. It is alluring and seductive but also controlling. The tensions of binaries; light and dark, past and present, abstract and literal, motion and stillness, sound and silence, internal and external, generate the elements of the performance.

But in the end, the seduction of these absolutes gives way to tragedy.

How can we accommodate the complex, multiple needs of individuals, communities and societies while extreme, dominant voices are getting louder? And what are the consequences of creating something new or different and of rejecting our history?

‘Although it has a classical frame, The Dark Chorus speaks to our contemporary questions around power - our fears of being controlled, radicalised, indoctrinated. In this environment how can we achieve freedom?’ Adena Jacobs, Dramaturge.

At times this process felt like a performance machine in motion. It seemed to have its own momentum and to propel us into places that we didn’t anticipate. Its intensity and drama surprised me.

There is no single way to read this dance. Viewers bring their own history, knowledge and references to their watching, and these will resonate with the movement and images.

There is a multiplicity of ways to connect with the show that are all important and all intended.”

Lucy Guerin

Watch The Dark Chorus trailer

View a range of archival material related to this work in the LGI Digital Collection on the Theatre and Dance Platform at the University of Melbourne.