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“I like working with the dancers, I like working on the detail of the choreography and the structure of the work.”

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Lucy Guerin is one of the powerhouses of Australian Contemporary dance, known for her work in Australia and abroad. An Adelaide native, Lucy fell in love with contemporary dance and pursued this love to New York in 1989, dancing there for seven years. During this time, she worked with leading dance mentors including Bebe Miller, Tere O’Connor and Sara Rudner.

In 2002, Lucy Guerin Inc was established in Melbourne, providing a space for exploring and expanding upon ideas about contemporary dance. Through its noted Pieces for Small Spaces & First Run programs, the company have provided a platform for emerging choreographers to experiment and explore choreographic approaches.

Lucy has increasingly been working across forms, working in the UK with Carrie Cracknell first on Medea (2014) and then Macbeth (2015). Following the success of Macbeth, Lucy was commissioned by Rambert to make the work Tomorrow.

In terms of acclaim across her career, Lucy won the prestigious Bessie Award for her work Two Lies in 1996 and later in 2005, for outstanding choreography and creation for Chunky Move’s production of Tense Dave, with Gideon Obarzanek and Michael Kantor.

A selection of works:
Two Lies (1996)
Heavy (1998)
The Ends of Things (2000)
Living with Surfaces (2001)
Melt (2002)
Tell Me (2003) with Michael Lenz
Tense Dave (2003) with Gideon Obarzanek and Michael Kantor
The Firebird (2003)
Baroque Masterworks for the Australian Opera (2004)
Aether (2005)
Structure and Sadness (2006)
Corridor (2008)
Untrained (2009)
Human Interest Story (2010)
Conversation Piece (2012)
Weather (2012)
Motion Picture (2015)
Macbeth with Carrie Cracknell for Young Vic (2016)
Tomorrow (2016)
Dark Chorus (2016)
Attractor (2017) with Gideon Obarzanek & music duo Senyawa for Dance North
Split (2017)

I spoke with Lucy before going into rehearsal for Split, recently opened as part of Dance Massive, and in the same week Lucy travelled to her hometown Adelaide with Attractor. This conversation covers everything from current works, working with actors, dance and gender, Australian dance identity, and Lucy’s journey in contemporary dance.

“It’s very exposing when you first have an audience.”

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If you enjoy this episode you might like to listen to an interview with some of Lucy’s collaborators from previous episodes, Stephanie Lake and Gideon Obarzanek. Stay tuned for future episodes with Noel Tovey, Daniel Jaber and many more in the works.

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Photo credit Toby Burrows.