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World renowned Australian choreographer Shaun Parker will make his inaugural visit to The Lowry this month with his exciting dance work Happy As Larry, produced by Dance Touring Partnership.
The show comes to Salford on Tue 18 and Wed 19 October for two performances only. Happy as Larry is a funny, playful, poignant and intelligent investigation into what makes us happy, featuring an ensemble of nine performers - with nine very distinctive personalities - who individually, and collectively, explore the elusive nature of happiness.
The show, which represents Parker’s first ever UK tour is already wowing audiences and press across the country with Donald Hutuera of The Times writing: “Moments like these are enough to keep us engaged with Parker’s pursuit of happiness” Shaun Parker is one of Australia’s most innovative choreographers/directors.
He has worked nationally and internationally as a dancer and counter-tenor and across music, dance and theatre and even performed in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.
Parker’s inspiration for the cast of characters in Happy as Larry was developed from a psychological system called the Enneagram, which maps nine personality types: the Perfectionist, the Seducer, the Performer, the Tragic Romantic, the Observer, the Devil’s Advocate, the Optimist, the Boss and the Mediator.
These nine types offered an insight into human behavior on a broader scale and informed the development of the nine performers’ characters and their individual quests for happiness.
Using a free-flowing mix of ballet, roller-skating, contemporary dance and break-dance, each performer constructs a unique movement expression for their character. Powerful, highly physical and layered with intricate gesture Happy as Larry is accompanied by a vibrant electro-acoustic score from Nick Wales and Bree van Reyk.
Shaun Parker said: “The piece is really accessible thanks to the high energy, easy to understand choreography and we have a 7.2meter chalk board cube at the back of the stage with a chalk artist who acts as a narrator, as he illustrates the dance piece through the chalk art, which makes the dance even easier to understand.
“There is a lot of break-dance and contemporary styles of street dance in the piece, so it really relates to what’s happening in today’s TV programmes and music videos, it’s really current. We have 4 break-dancers in the show and the audience loves them. The show is intense, physical, funny and also moving”.
