Chrissie Parrott at His Majesty's Theatre. Picture: Rob Duncan

Chrissie Parrott can’t quite believe that nearly 30 yearshas passed since she founded her contemporary dancecompany that burned brightly for a decade and ignitedthe careers of many leading Australian dance artists.

Stephen Bevis Arts Editor

November 20, 2014, 5:34 am

Parrott rewarded for a life of dance

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Parrott received a lifetime achievement award at the WA Dance Awardslast night for her innovation and excellence as a dancer, director,choreographer, teacher and visual artist.

She was keen to thank the people who had helped her start out and said itwas a delight to be able to do the same for others.

“You don’t find yourself standing in a privileged position like this withoutall that energy and spirit of the people who have supported you over theyears,” she said.

“It is a rite of passage. You become an elder. We are elders in our ownindustry and it is just so wonderful to be recognised."

Though her own company folded in 1996, Parrott has created more than100 works around the world including commissions from WA Ballet,Australian Dance Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company and Tanz Forum inGermany. Parrott, 61, also co-founded the WA Academy of Performing Arts’graduate company Link Dance in 2003.

“I have watched four generations of dancers and choreographers emergeand become established,” she said. “It is a wonderful thing to see themdevelop and to know that you have been with them on part of that journeyas well. That feels right and that feels very good.

“You do recognise when you come full circle where you were at as anemerging artist and see that incredible support that was there for me.”

“When you come to this point you realise how important it is for theseyoung people to have that support. It doesn’t need to be financial. It isabout moral support and that important mentoring role from people whohave gone through it.

“It is a rite of passage. You become an elder. We are elders in our ownindustry and it is just so wonderful to be recognised.

Born in north-east England, in the industrial city of Middlesborough in1953, Parrott grew up in Kwinana. She has talked about how ballet classesthrust her from a solidly working-class world into one where she had toquickly learn to assert herself with dancers better off than her.

She started dancing professionally at 19 when she landed a spot with theWA Ballet. Within a few years, she had made her first choreographic work,Like Hiroshima: Just Another Fallout. Her first major commissioned work,Catherine’s Wedding, was created in 1978 for WA Ballet under artisticdirector Robin Haig and she was thrilled to see it performed at the SydneyOpera House.

Her interest in contemporary dance was developed when she headed toEurope in 1979 and danced with cutting-edge company Tanz Forum andcreated experimental works in Britain and France.

Parrott returned to Australia in 1986 and formed her own ensemble, whichcreated more than 30 works over the next decade. Her acclaimed 1990 solowork, Recycling of a Suburban Angel, is considered a keystone work of theWA independent dance scene.

The then Perth Festival director David Blenkinsop had been a key figure,commissioned her to create shows for the Festival five years running. “Hewas very pivotal in getting the company name up there and really strong,”she said.

“As far as exposure, he really was the man who kicked it forward for me.”Nearly 20 years after the demise of the Chrissie Parrott Dance Company,she was excited about the arrival of the Contemporary Dance Company of

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WA, which has been built on the efforts of some of her former dancers.

The new company, the first in the field since Parrott’s company folded in1996, has been six years in the making since the State Governmentinitiated its Future Moves dance reforms in 2008.

“Between 1996 and now there has been so much work done by thecommunity to build the foundations – and it takes time – to make sure thatwe are able to create an entity that will have that longevity that issupported by the Government and by the dance community,” she said.

“I am extremely excited and feel that we are very, very luck to have (artisticdirector) Raewyn Hill at the helm. She is formidable and tenacious and willgive us something very outstanding.”

Parrott said it would take time to bed down the new CDCWA after phasingout the youth-focused companies - Buzz Dance Theatre and STEPS YouthDance Company - from which it will emerge at the end of the year.

“Those other wonderful companies have worked very, very hard toestablish an audience and to develop that cultural heritage. There isobviously a bit of sadness with the loss of those companies that will bephased out but it happened also with my company and it is just the natureof change. It is important that we as a community also support thosepeople who are being phased out. They have certainly given a lot.”

Parrott and her musician partner Jonathan Mustard recently shut theirindependent art centre, Chrissie Parrott Arts, after two years in a convertedMaylands factory.

She was sad that the venture had not worked, due to insufficient funds, butremained excited about the future.

“Since that started to wind down my opportunities elsewhere started towind up again in a positive way. It opens the door for other opportunities.”

She is the director of a new production for Black Swan State TheatreCompany, the 2015 world-premiere adaptation of Albert Lamorisse’s filmfeaturette The Red Balloon, and is working in Germany setting up a culturalfoundation in the name of the late for the late choreographer and TanzForum director Jochen Ulrich.

The lifetime achievement award, conferred by Ausdance WA, is Parrott’sfourth WA Dance Award since their inception in 2005. She won the Awardfor Outstanding Achievement in Choreography in 2006 and 2008, thesame year she won for the Design and/or Composition category withMustard for Metadance.

Other WA Dance Awards winners announced at Luxe Bar in Mt Lawley lastnight included WA Ballet principal dancers Fiona Evans and MatthewLehmann, who were both awarded for their Outstanding Performance inOnegin.

The award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dancewas presented to independent artist Megan Wood-Hill for her Pilbaraproduction Men of The Red Earth.

Isabella Stone won the Emerging Artist Award for her recent work withSteps Youth Dance Company. Stone, a 2010 WAAPA and LINK graduate willpresent her first full-length work, Mouseprint, at the State Theatre Centrenext April.

This year’s award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography wasawarded to Brooke Leeder for Mechanic, performed at the Blue RoomTheatre during Fringe World.

Dance teacher Phillippa Clarke was awarded for her OutstandingAchievement in Teaching. Clarke has taught at the University of NotreDame, WAAPA, John Curtin College of the Arts been artistic director of BuzzDance Theatre from 1991-1998.

The Design/Composition Award this year was awarded to Fiona Bruce,Lauren Ross, Ashley de Prazer, Joe Lui and Kingsley Reeve for theircollaboration on Standing Bird 2 and Verge which were both presented byThe Blue Room Theatre.

Dance industry legend David Mogridge, who has worked for many years asa technical director, tour manager, lecturer and enabler, received the 2014Award for Services to Dance. Special mention was made regarding hisrecent work with Ochre Dance Company.

The Inaugural People’s Choice Award for Outstanding Production wasawarded to Wheel of Fortunes – a community dance project created byPerth choreographer Aimee Smith, writer Nicola-Jane le Breton and thecommunities of Hopetoun, Ravensthorpe and Jerdacuttup.

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