Shaun Parker & Company (SPC) has found various ways to continue working and maintain connections with both its dancers and its audiences during this time of physical distancing.
The company’s latest dance project, BUBBLE, sees Taiwanese Bubble Performance Master Su Chung Tai working with SPC’s artistic director Shaun Parker, to create a new dance work that harnesses his record-breaking bubble skills. To adapt the project for the virtual world, Parker sent video footage of Tai’s final movements to Western Sydney hip-hop dancer Libby Montilla, who replicated Chung’s last move and then added his own movement sequence, to send to the next artist in the creative development, and so on, creating a dance chain. See the results below.
This project inspired Shaun Parker & Company to invite the public to get involved in dance-making via its new online programs. The first of these is the Shaun Parker & Company Challenge, which will see the company’s dancers post new moves on Shaun Parker & Company’s Tik Tok account, inspired by objects found in their homes. The public is then invited the learn the moves and then take them further. Hip hop dancer Libby Montilla has got the ball rolling… head to Tik Tok to check out his hand-washing moves and more.
The second online program is a new series of In the Zone Online Workshops. These after-school workshops have been devised in association with one of the company’s most recent productions, In the Zone. Giving young people the chance to learn hip-hop skills at home, the workshops are aimed at children and teenagers, ages 8-18. Classes for 8-12 years olds are held Thurdays 5-6pm and classes for 13-18 year olds are held Thursdays 6.30-7.30pm, during Term 2.
The company has also announced that it will be presenting another new virtual dance workshop program, Electro-Pop, from Monday 27 April.
Inspired by one of Shaun Parker’s all-time favourite pieces of choreography, the free Electro-Pop workshops will provide a mid-morning or lunch break activity to keep young people moving. The daily Electro-Pop Online workshops will provide one-hour dance lessons via live video, giving participants a full-body workout and some funky new moves to try when they’re next on the dance floor. In addition, each participant will develop their own eight-count dance move that will be integrated into a final Electro-Pop Online performance at the end of the program.
For more info about all these projects head to www.shaunparkercompany.com/