“Gideon sort of speaks comically when he explains the idea behind the performance,” says dancer Alisdair Macindoe. “I think he just got frustrated with technology and waiting for hours for things to work! I think we can probably all relate to that on some level. I also think he just had a serious interest in what the human body and the voice can do and say without the assistance of anything outside of that. Gideon wanted to explore how expressive the body and the voice can be in simple terms. I personally think it’s an interesting concept. It’s kind of like going back to a renaissance of pure art and it’s a rare art form now. We are so influenced by technology, or at least extremely dependent on it for so many things to work. In some ways, it’s become so easy to forget how much the body is capable of and a lot of the things that we rely on technology to get done for us, we can actually do them ourselves.”
So what happens when you take seemingly vital technology away from everyday situations? Well, for one, the beauty and complexity – as well as simplicity – of the human body are revealed in all their glory, and in the case of Assembly, it’s absolutely mesmerising to watch.
“Think of the visual impact of watching a school of fish in the ocean,” proposes Macindoe. “That comparison has actually come up in rehearsals. Or maybe think of a field of grass and the way that it sways and moves in sync. The work is absolutely huge, it’s massive – just the number of cast being 60 people, that alone has a big impact on the audience visually. It’s such a moving piece because it’s amazing to watch a big crowd of performers do this one thing at the same time. But then the story also weaves between the people in those crowds as well as focusing on the individual person, that one blade of grass. It almost looks at it like a cog in the machine, but as well as the machine as a whole. I think audiences will definitely find it interesting visually.”
The underlying theme of Assembly, according to Macindoe, is looking at the nature of groups of people as well as the individual that contributes to the whole. Considering the sheer number of performers involved in the ‘experiment’, Macindoe says patience has been one of the essential skills all involved have had to possess, or at least develop.
“That’s probably been the biggest challenge in all of this,” the dancer states. “You’ve got singers and you’ve got dancers and the directors – it’s just been a challenge to have the patience to compensate for the needs of everyone involved. To coordinate that many people is a big task in itself, as you can imagine. Another challenge has been learning whole new skills for everyone involved, it’s almost like starting from scratch for some people. For example, we’ve all had to share different skills between us and that’s something that’s flourished over time. So the singers have had to learn movement skills, and the dancers have had to learn vocal skills. Most of the time a performer will stick to their own art form, so this has been a learning curve for a lot of people too.”
For Macindoe personally, the challenges have been well worth it as the dancer claims he has been a big fan of Obarzanek’s work since he was 12 years old. With the opening of Assembly in conjunction with the Victorian Opera, Macindoe says he is honoured to take part in what is set to be Obarzanek’s last performance as part of Chunky Move.
“It probably sounds funny for a kid, but up until I was 12 years old I had wanted to be a ballet dancer,” Macindoe says. “I saw Gideon’s work for the first time when I was 12 and that’s what made me want to be a contemporary dancer. I’d been following his work since 1996 and I’ve had a huge respect for him for a long time. I thought that being a part of this performance would be so interesting especially because Gideon is taking away from this performance something that he’s been working with for many years. He’s taking away the technological side with this piece and is working with the more pure side of performance. It’s a big thing for Chunky Move that Gideon is leaving this year but the company will continue with a new director and it will be business as usual. It’s been running in Melbourne for 16 years now and it’s probably the largest contemporary dance company in Victoria.”
