SHAUN PARKER’S FESTIVAL HIT PLAYS SADLERS WELLS, LONDON!

www.happyaslarrytour.co.uk

Acclaimed Sydney based choreographer Shaun Parker will take his company of ten dancers to the United Kingdom this September, touring ten cities with his latest Festival Hit Happy as Larry.

Happy as Larry is a work about the elusive nature of happiness.  It first premiered through the Australian major festival circuit with sold out seasons for the 2010 Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and New Zealand International Arts Festivals followed by a season at Melbourne’s Dance Massive festival earlier this year.

Anton, Jana Castillo, Matt Cornell, Dean Cross,
Robbie Curtis, Ghenoa Gela, Melanie Palomares,
Adam Synnott, Joshua Thomson, Miranda Wheen
 

Parker’s work will play the Sadlers Wells Peacock Theatre on West End, The Brighton Dome, Oxford Playhouse and seven other premier performing arts venues across major cities of England.

Parker, who was once a dancer with Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre, says “I remember standing in the foyer of Sadlers Wells ten years ago in Meryl’s work FURIOSO -thinking it would be a dream to one day return with my own work….and now this forethought is being realized. It is such an honour.”

Director of Oxford Playhouse Michelle Dickson comments:

Directly after the UK tour of Happy as Larry, Parker will begin on a new work for the 2012 International Dance Festival Birmingham commissioned by DanceXchange- a producing powerhouse who have launched many a career including the highly sought after European choreographers Akram Khan and Hofesh Schechter.

Following that, Parker will commence stage one of a radical new opera in Rio Di Janeiro, Brazil with applauded visual and performance artists Walter Reidweg and Mauricio Dias before flying home via Reunion Island to re-join the cast of Happy as Larry for a three performance engagement with Theatre Reunion’s Total Danse Festival-an invitation that came directly out of City Of Melbourne and the Australia Council’s Dance Massive showcase earlier this year.

For a company that only commenced operation in January, Executive Producer Olivia Ansell says this kind of success and demand is pure testament to the quality of work that Parker makes.

2011 has been a tremendous year for Shaun Parker & Company. In May, Parker received critical acclaim for The Yard - a work inspired by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies featuring 33 western Sydney teenagers about life in an Australian school yard. The Yard featured on both Foxtel’s STVDIO and SBS World news and will tour four regional NSW venues in 2012.

Happy as Larry Production Credits

Director/Choreographer: Shaun Parker

Co-composers: Nick Wales and Bree Van Reyk

Set Design: Adam Gardnir

Lighting Design: Luiz Pampolha

Performers:

Anton, Jana Castillo, Matt Cornell, Dean Cross,
Robbie Curtis, Ghenoa Gela, Melanie Palomares,
Adam Synnott, Joshua Thomson, Miranda Wheen

Shaun Parker has worked as a choreographer, dancer, physical theatre performer and counter-tenor over the last 17 years. A graduate of VCA, his performance credits include work with Meryl Tankard ADT, Kate Champion, Sydney Theatre Company, Chunky Move, The Song Company, State Theatre Company (of SA), Compagnie ALIAS (Switzerland), Meredith Monk (New York) and Sasha Waltz (Berlin). His awards include the Queen's Trust Award, the Emerging Artist of the Year Award and the Robert Helpmann Scholarship 2006.

Shaun's self devised physical theatre and dance works have toured to Germany, Asia, New Zealand and across Australia. 2011 will not only mark the first year of annual operation for Shaun’s newly funded dance company Shaun Parker & Company, but will also see a European tour to 10 venues, including Sadlers Wells, via the United Kingdom’s Dance Touring Partnership (DTP) network for Shaun’s latest hit Happy As Larry –which was created through the Australian Major Festivals Initiative -with 2010 seasons presented by Sydney Festival, Perth Festival, Brisbane Festival and the New Zealand International Arts Festival, receiving a nomination for the Australian Dance Awards Most Outstanding Choreography in a Dance Production category.

Other credits include This Show Is About People which premiered at the Melbourne International Festival 2007 and the Sydney Festival 2008, winning the Australian Dance Award for Best Independent Production and four nominations for the Green Room Awards,  Divine Harmonies (Tasdance), My Little Garden (Barossa International Music Festival), Blue Love (Sydney Opera House), VAMP (Meow Meow & Malthouse Theatre), Love Instalment (Sydney Dance Company), Tenebrae III (The Song Company) and the award winning short films The Love Trilogy and NO.
Shaun was a featured artist at 2008's Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference (APAP) in New York and at the Australian Performing Arts Market 2008 in Adelaide.

Shaun recently premiered new work The Yard commissioned by Captivate-the Catholic Schools Diocese of Parramatta, at Sydney’s Seymour Centre and in 2012 will take the production on a regional tour of NSW.

Shaun Parker & Company are supported by Communities Arts NSW, the Australia Council for the Arts and are residents of the Seymour Centre’s Arts Bunker- an initiative that has been proudly supported by City of Sydney Council.

This project has been assisted by the Arts Council of England and originally by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals Initiative, managed by the Australia Council its arts funding and advisory body, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc., Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Brisbane Festival and Adelaide Festival.