Chunky Move: Mortal Engine / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House / December 9-12, 2009 Chunky Move, founded in 1995 and still led by Gideon Obarzanek, comes to us from Down Under, or Oz, as some people call Australia. Chunky Move in Mortal Engine Photo: Julieta Cervantes The troupe's name indicates its original purpose--to invent dance productions that contrast with the rarefied artifice and elegance of ballet. (Originally trained in that classical genre, Obarzanek, who masterminds the group's works, is decidedly in recovery.) Of … [Read more...]

By Christopher Caines, guest contributor Imagine that Sol Hurok had telephoned the director of a slightly down-at-heel, raggle-taggle, time-traveling vaudeville troupe one day and said, "Parker! Listen: I need a Christmas show! A Nutcracker! Pronto! My Russians canceled. I can get you a couple weeks of one-nights. If you deliver, maybe we can make it an annual thing. Can you do it?" Members of the Bang Group in Nut/Cracked Parker looks around the studio. The troupe has a ragbag assortment of old props--some beat-up top hats and … [Read more...]