Faker

In 1995, Gideon Obarzanek realised a vision by founding an extraordinary dance company through which he would produce works of movement that lent themselves to atypical descriptions. Streamlined into a niche and yet unable to identify itself with any other form of theatre, Chunky Move had no choice but to refer to its style as "genre-defying." Fifteen years later, the creative director is stepping down, but not without giving us a taste of what he’s really about.

Surprisingly, it’s not exactly what one might expect from a creative genius – and yet it’s so much more. Honest and revelatory, it’s difficult to find a way to label his new production Faker as anything other than "genre-defying."

After taking time off from Chunky Move in 2009, Obarzanek went on a path of self-discovery and what he realised was that although he had been producing magnificent dance works for over a decade, he had moved away from his original aspirations as a dancer. "I wasn’t dancing very much. I certainly wasn’t performing. And I was spending less time in the studio and more time in the office administrating and I wanted to reconnect with the things that drew me to dance in the first place."

Soon after this realisation, the director took on a project with a young, professional dancer to choreograph a solo performance for her. Unfortunately this work never took off the ground. Obarzanek recalls: "I thought about the time we were together and I became very interested in making a work about the work we never made."

And along came Faker. "The work is very much about the relationship between a choreographer and a dancer and the co-dependency between the two to actually make something. It also speaks about generational difference, about expectations, from a mentor and a protégé and about [whether] the expert [is[ actually an expert and what they can provide. I think it also speaks a lot about personal doubt and the doubt that is experienced when you’re trying to make something."

Everyone, with the possible exception of religious fanatics, experiences doubts about who they are and what they can do. It’s refreshing to find that even those who have mastered success suffer from uncertainties like the average human. Although having proven himself time and time again, in the creative sense at least, Obarzanek was evidently disheartened about his failure to choreograph the solo work. In Faker, he reads aloud an email, supposedly written by the dancer who he worked with, which illustrates those above mentioned "doubts." But as those pestering emotions tend to be, they were mostly in his head, because that email was never actually received. "No, it’s not an email sent by her but I certainly read it like it is. I constructed kind of an alternative person to the real her and this was a deeply critical person of what I was trying to do in the studio so the work is very much me, or the reality of it is about me projecting that onto this person. Faker‘s got a double meaning. I’m a faker as to what I do but also the whole show is kind of a fake in itself where I pretty much convince the audience that there is this person who doesn’t really exist." But it’s not all fake – because that person does exist, "What’s not true is this person’s opinion."

Obarzanek has also kept intact the choreography written for the work that was never made and he performs this during the show, although he confesses that the 15 years of his not performing have taken their toll. "I find it pretty challenging. I thought it’d be pretty straight forward to perform but you have to be so much fitter when you’re a performer than what I thought was necessary. And I think in my mid-forties it’s a lot different. My body just doesn’t have that robust ability to withstand hard knocks so I’ve just gotta train and work hard."

But really, considering how many awards Chunky Move has won, especially for its digital pieces Glow and Mortal Engine, it’s difficult to understand why its founding leader would feel as if he is a fake. But somewhat ironically, it is encouraging. "Doubt is an inextricable part of trying to do something new and that it’s just always gonna be there and that’s okay."

Faker will be performed during Dance Massive from March 21 – April 2 at the Beckett Theatre @ the Cub Malthouse. Book to see it before it sails overseas, wins 3000 awards and you kick yourself for not supporting the genius of your home town – in your home town. Bookings can be made at malthousetheatre.com.au or by calling 9685 5111.