In this first episode of season two, we get acquainted with Anouk van Dijk, the Artistic Director of Melbourne based Chunky Move. Anouk originates from Holland, where she started to seriously pursue dance in her late teens, after watching a dancer called Ian- a man she has never met or seen since. Watching Ian move across the space was captivating:
“I will never forget…Ian filled the room. He filled the room with energy, with his passion, with his power. That was it. I was sold […] I wanted to be a dancer”.
As a dancer, Anouk danced for Werkcentrum Dans, the Nieuwe Dansgroep, the Rotterdance Dance Company and Amanda Miller’s Pretty Ugly Dance Company.
In 1998, Anouk formed her own company, anoukvandijk dc, based in Amsterdam. The company toured extensively including performing at Festival d’Avignon, MASS MoCA, Dance Triennale Tokyo, American Dance Festival and Festival TransAmériques. It also toured to Australia, performing at Adelaide Festival, Sydney Opera House and Perth International Arts Festival, but never to Melbourne, a place Anouk would later call home.
After Chunky Move founder Gideon Obarzanek (interviewed in season one) stepped down in 2012, Anouk was offered the job of taking Chunky Move into their next chapter. Anouk certainly had no small task ahead of her, replacing someone held in such high regard. However, since her appointment, Anouk has done just that, creating her own diverse range of works for the company, with themes around identity and place and has solidified her place in landscape of Australian dance. Australia has become home!
Works Anouk has created for Chunky Move
- An Act of Now
- 247 Days
- Embodiment 1:1:1
- gentle is the power
- Complexity of Belonging
- Depth of Field
- Rule of Thirds
- L U C I D
Anouk was rehearsing for the upcoming show ANTI—GRAVITY when we recorded this interview. ANTI—GRAVITY is an Asia TOPA Commission that will be premiered as part of Dance Massive 2017. A collaboration with multimedia artist Ho Tzu Nyen, ANTI—GRAVITY is an exploration of clouds:
“the yearning for this lightness….not being earth bound, completely”.
The conversation covered everything from: the process of making a work, collaborations, clouds, home, inspiration and Countertechnique (a system that helps dancers throughout their careers).
You can follow Chunky Move on twitter, check out their website, follow them on Facebook and discover some of their work on YouTube.
Previous episodes of DELVING INTO DANCE that discuss or reference Chunky Move include the interviews with Gideon Obarzanek & Stephanie Lake.
This is the first episode of season two: Following Episodes include interviews with Daniel Jaber, Lucy Guerin, Noel Tovey ++++++.
‘We value everyone equally, but you know, of course each person has a role to play in the team that's been created, but no one is, you know, less valuable than another.’
‘My daughter Billie, she was in rehearsal today. My son Archie grew up the first two or three years of his life, like, on tour with me when I was with Bangarra Dance Theatre and just being in the artistic environment and being surrounded by people is such a beautiful gift, I think, that I can give to them as well.’
‘When I'm making dance and when I think about choreography or art, I often relate my early childhood experiences to the things that I make now as well.’
‘I guess for a lot of people, ballet is still very much an evolving, developing language. I think people think it was probably stuck in a time and hasn't progressed. But modern ballet is very challenging and arresting and it's finding new ways of working with an old structure.’
‘In my hibernation my creativity turned to writing. I spent hours happily at my computer with my writing, which sometimes feels like choreography. The results of these writing hours are some rough chapters recounting special experiences of my life, and in particular, my life here at Mirramu.’
‘So I've been refusing the temptation to put work on online to put work on platforms where they eliminate that very core function of connecting people’
Edna Reinhardt, a passionate creative dance and yoga educator with decades of experience in the field.
I used to say for a long time that I thought the dance was the Prozac of the art forms. […] there is an aesthetic that dominates our work, often complex or ugly or difficult issues are glossed over because people are pointing their feet and look very lovely.
I'm really looking forward to finding more lightness and more joy and looking forward to exploring some of my ideas.
I think now I am really sort of hungry to do more things that are really outside of my preconceived box of what I can do or what kind of dancer, I identify as or think of myself as.
“What I love about the dance world is that it has the possibility of bringing together so many different cultures, so many different people, beliefs, ways of thinking, ways of being in a space … we always find a common ground and a way to exist and support one another and to create something really beautiful”
"[Dance] It gave me an outlet and a way to express myself, and to be in a space where I could see myself represented."
“Dance, it has a tribal background, everyone does dance, initially, as kids, and we will do it socially. So I think there's a very powerful message there that can be utilised by choreographers when they're creating their works.”
