Corridor is a 55-minute dance theatre work that explores, in the words of Lucy Guerin, “how we exist in the public arena and in those transit or waiting spaces” (Critical Correspondence, 2009).

Mimicking a public corridor, the set design by Donald Holt consists of a long narrow stage, akin to a catwalk, framed on either side by audience chairs and mirrored screens at each end. Six dancers inhabit this space, using their bodies to explore notions of self image in the contemporary world – a world of advertising overload and social mores.

The dance methodology behind Corridor grew out of improvisation and challenged Lucy Guerin to adapt her choreographic style:

“Corridor has been a bit of a new process for me because often in the past I’ve worked with choreographed material. I’m creating movement and setting it for the dancers. In this process we’ve worked a lot with giving verbal instructions or written instructions, and generating movement from that… we’ve generated hundreds of instructions during the rehearsal process, and we use them in different ways” (Critical Correspondence, 2008).

During the performance, the dancers respond in real-time to instructions from iPods, mobile phones, spoken word and written text. Their bodies in this sense become receivers and transmitters of information, symbolising the human struggle to respond to the contemporary sphere of public expectation.

A singularly joyous experience, a celebration of the innate subversiveness of the human body.
– Alison Croggon of Theatre Notes (2008)

Presented at Arts House as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, 2008

Watch excerpts of Corridor