A Theatrical Detour
A recent foray into theatre has sharpened Lucy Guerin’s perspective on dance, writes Karen van Ulzen.
Lucy Guerin is on a roll. Over the last year the Melbourne-based choreographer has notched up a considerable number of overseas commitments. She has been in Germany, with her company, Lucy Guerin Inc, presenting her Untrained. She has been to Sweden, where Skanes Dansteater in Malmo remounted her piece, Weather. She has been to France, where her Black Box was performed by the Ballet de l’Opera de Lyon at the Theatre de la Ville; and she has been to Finland, on an exchange project with Routa Company. And that renowned English contemporary dance company, Rambert, has honoured her by commissioning a new work, which will premiere at Sadlers Wells in London in May with additional UK touring to follow.
That’s not a bad overseas line-up!
Guerin has never been a stranger to the international dance scene. A graduate of the (then) Centre of Performing Arts in Adelaide, she travelled to the United States in the 80s, after having spent some time dancing with Russell Dumas in Sydney and Nanette Hassall in Melbourne. She immersed herself in the New York downtown dance scene.
“Just that environment was a huge influence on me, to be so close to the Judson Church movement,” she reflects.
“There wasn’t a lot of funding – there still isn’t a lot of funding for the arts in America – and it was a curse and a blessing at the same time. It was really just about this community that was interested and passionate and had this heritage of Cunningham and Cage and these amazing pioneering dance artists from Judson Church. I feel that more abstract form of dance was a huge influence on me as opposed to other people from Australia who were more involved with dance theatre in Europe.”
She cut her choreographic teeth in this fertile environment. With no money for sets, costumes and the usual theatrical trappings, the focus was turned to the body and its capacities. Dancers were experimenting with physical practices of all kinds, striving to shed received technique and habitual movement and to discover something pure, raw and individual. Guerin thrived, creating Two Lies, and winning a Bessie Award and a Prix d’Autre (selection to present her work at the Rencontres choreographiques internationales de Bagnolet in Paris).
“A lot of the information made its way into a detailed approach to creating movement. So while there wasn’t virtuosity in terms of big jumps or multiple turns, there was a lot of articulating, sequencing through the joints, t
he use of gravity and centre and the relationship between verticality and off-centre. We were trying to find unique movement vocabularies. I really wanted to find movement that was particular to me.”
On her return to Australia she established her company in Melbourne in 2002. . . .
This is an extract from the full article in the current (April/May) issue of Dance Australia. Buy it from your favourite magazine retailer or subscribe here, or purchase an online copy via the Dance Australia app.