New Retro Duets by Lucy Guerin Individual Shows

THE DUETS - Individual shows

Melt, Part One (2002) - 20 Mins

Melt is a performance in two parts, examining the temperature trajectory from freezing to boiling.

The first part is a duet with two dancers physically exploring rising changes in temperature. Beginning with the minute, sharp movements of cracking ice, it progresses through a warm and languid quality, culminating in frenzied and chaotic choreography that the dancers can barely maintain.

The second part adds another element of exploration, examining the relationship between temperature and temperament. These extremes are complemented through well-crafted light, graphic and sound design that bring together the two parts. In the words of one reviewer,  "the overall effect is so seamless that we are left wondering how any one element ever existed without the other" (Seamless, 2002).

Incarnadine (1994) - 25 Mins

Incarnadine explores the meeting of two contrasting elements and their attempts to absorb or repel each other. A rigorous unison duet and a cloying, yielding trio represent different approaches to dealing with emotion and relationships and how these boundaries are maintained or overstepped.

How To Be Us (2022) - 15 Mins

How to Be Us is a duet for two women that integrates improvised movement devised by each dancer with strict patterns and formal structures directed by the choreographer. It explores questions of liberty, both individual and communal, in the context of a world that is torn apart by its conflicting ideas of freedom.

Robbery Waitress on Bail (1997) - 25 Mins

Robbery Waitress on Bail draws its inspiration from the pages of Melbourne's tabloids.

Its starting point is the report of a waitress who acts as a hostage in a robbery while her fiancé holds a knife to her throat in the all-night cafe where she works.

This piece has all the elements of a Hitchcock thriller and kept audiences on the edge of their seats from its first performance.

Premiered Athenaeum Theatre II, Melbourne, 3 December 1997.

Split (2017) - 45  Mins

Revelling in Lucy Guerin's sharp, elegant choreographic investigations, Split (2017) reflects the dilemmas of negotiating with oneself and others in a world of increased pressure and reduced resources.

Featuring a musical score by UK composer Scanner, Split is a thought-provoking structural meditation rendered in movement.

Split won Green Room Awards in 2018 for Ensemble, and Concept and Realisation. Lilian Steiner also won the Green Room Award for Female Performer as well as the Helpmann Award for Best Dancer for her performance in Split. Lucy Guerin was also awarded the prestigious Shirley McKechnie Award for Excellence in Choreography for Split in 2018.