Update: Shaun Parker in Europe

 

 

As you are reading this article, Shaun Parker & Company is on the last leg of an overseas tour. Artistic director Shaun  Parker spoke to LUKE FORBES just before his departure from Sydney.

The tour of Shaun Parker & Company's production of King began in 2019 and was interrupted by a significant, involuntary hiatus. As Parker explains, “We got our first invitations to tour to Europe after the premiere season of King at the 2019 Sydney Mardi Gras, before Covid shut everything down. We were supposed to tour everywhere. Instead, we only got to five countries other than Australia. The upcoming tour is our first overseas tour in four years.”

Parker is no stranger to European tours. He worked and toured throughout the 1990s under the esteemed Meryl Tankard, as a member of Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre’s ensemble. Thanks to prominent roles in Tankard’s works early in his career, Parker is a not unfamiliar “name” to veteran European arts workers; up to 30 years later, to the benefit of his company, arts workers who recall Parker’s dancing are now at the helm of some of the European theatres and festivals hosting Shaun Parker & Company.

In Parker’s view, relationships and networks in Europe uplift the company in ways that extend beyond financial gain. “I’m looking forward to the European audience,” he says. “They make us feel really special. I also get such incredible support from festivals, directors, and producers in Europe. I really need that support, to feel looked after and respected.”

Parker’s appreciation of a certain kind of support speak to the extent to which he and the dancers expose themselves in King—metaphorically and physically—and the contexts in which this kind of work is made possible. Parker informs me that “King isn't autobiographical, but there is a lot of me in the work: my life, my upbringing.” The production also showcases a “cast made up of nine male-identifying performers and one non-binary performer, with diverse sexualities.” He adds, “They helped me make King; they're the ones who perform it. They each contribute to the ways they move, the ways they relate in the scenes.”

Despite the ongoing difficulties of touring internationally, Shaun Parker & Company’s activities are regaining a sense of normalcy. “We’re thrilled to have all the dancers back with us again, in the studio, rehearsing all the scenes, getting them ready for the tour. We fly out on Monday and there is a lot to do.” Parker continues, “We performed King as part of Sydney WorldPride 2023, at the end of February and start of March. Three or four months have passed since then, we’ve had a break. Coming back to it is nice because I can see things with fresh eyes. And we’ve already made some improvements in the studio while getting all geared up, ready to go. First stop: Cologne, Germany.” The company’s whistle-stop tour also includes destinations in Italy, Luxembourg, and elsewhere in Germany.

King is not the only production on tour that the company is presenting to a new audience. Parker describes how, “Initially, there was talk of us going to Romania, but the dates fell through. To avoid a long period in rehearsal mode while on tour, I suggested to my agent and Bruno Heynderickx, director of Hessisches Staatsballett, that we perform Trolleys at an outdoor summer festival. It’s a ballet for dancers and five supermarket trolleys, to music by Nick Wales, an Australian composer. He wrote a stunning orchestral score for Trolleys. The cast of King already knows Trolleys’ choreography and we’re going to do it four times over two days in Darmstadt. We’ll do it twice in Bolzano, too. It worked out really well.”

Indicative of the entrepreneurial strategising required to sustain small to medium arts organisations in Australia, Parker comments optimistically upon such arrangements that “are opening up an interesting touring model for a company like mine, which has multiple tour-ready shows. People are cherry picking different works for different festivals. 'Oh, I might have this one. I’ll have those two.' And it helps us to extend our tour, as opposed to going twice to Europe, saving lots of fuel and travel costs. It costs a lot to get 15 people, including the performers, lighting designer, sound mixer, production crew, and me, all the way to Europe: about $60,000.” Models for “exporting” local arts more sustainably to overseas audience bases are sorely needed when multi-year funding is difficult to obtain at home. And time will tell whether Shaun Parker & Company have identified the “secret recipe”.

Aside from the logistics of touring internationally, a cursory Google search of the tour’s most recent press coverage indicates that an audience has been eagerly awaiting Shaun Parker & Company’s return. In the most measured terms, European news publications’ curiosity has been piqued by King. Cologne’s Kölnische Rundschau is faintly aloof, writing of the work under the motto, “Männer allein im Urwald” (men alone in the jungle)—a reference to the lush greenery that acts as scenery. In contrast, the Luxembourg Times is full of praise for King’s “seamless” melding of dance and music and entreaties that we “break out of time-worn historically-composed [sic] gender stereotypes.”

 

 

King tour dates:

Cologne, Germany, June 16 & 17,
Luxembourg, June 20 & 21
Darmstadt, Germany, June 24 & 25
Wiesbaden, Germany, June 27
Bolzano Dance Festival, Italy, July 14 + a free outdoor performance of Trolleys, July 15

Read more about Shaun Parker & Company in the next issue of Dance Australia (October/November/December). Subscribe here and make sure you never miss an issue!

For an earlier review of 'King', go here.