Faker

Overview

Given the subjectivity of art, it is hard to gauge whether or not you're at the top of your game. Sure, you could get all fiscal about it, rating your success against box office and gallery sales, or by keeping stock of the amount of free wines mooched at your openings. But this all suddenly becomes a teetering house of credit cards the moment when, out of the glittering crowd, a single accusatory finger stabs at your credibility. For many artists there is that telltale heart of fear buried beneath their studio, beating away two terrifying syllables:

Faker.

Gideon Obarzanek, artistic director of Melbourne's Chunky Move, met that finger, uncovered that heart, in an email one day from a less-than-impressed young dancer he'd mentored in a two-week workshop. After 20 years of creating some of the most imaginative meldings of theatre and dance in this country, Obarzanek was forced to take stock of himself as an artist. In revelation of his wry humour, he sought catharsis through public offering. Faker is his confessional.

This is an apt choice to close Sydney Opera House's month-long Spring Dance program. Faker takes a step back from the sometimes intimidating sight of performed human precision and lets us all glimpse the concerns that are normally left behind in the rehearsal studio.