Physics Is A Danger

Struggling through a book on quantum physics doesn't seem like the usual preparation for a dancer in a contemporary dance company but Sydney choreographer Shaun Parker's love of science has become a part of his latest work.

“Before I became a dancer I studied for a science degree,” Parker explains. “It's strange because it has always filtered into my work and I haven't really realised until the last couple of years. It's started to really dominate my interest again.

“Recently I've become a documentary fiend and I've been reading so many books about quantum physics and the holographic universe and gosh only knows what else. My interest was very much fueled by all of this.”

Parker's latest piece, Am I will get its world premiere at next year's Sydney Festival and explores the world of physics and asks questions about who we are. To research the piece Parker has reached out to professors at The University Of Sydney, meaning his dancers have had a crash course in some very weighty subject matter.

“I give them a lot of reading,” Parker says of his dedicated team of dancers. “Before we start rehearsals I'll send them an email and I'll always have three or four books for them to read, five films and documentaries and pieces of art to look at and some music to listen to and I'll write maybe one basic paragraph about what the work is about.

“So they read it, they absorb it and then they go from there. It's great because all this information, sometimes it doesn't come up straight away, but three weeks later someone will go, 'Remember that vortex bit'. It's about planting these little seeds in them and it's about opening their minds. My dancers are all really clever, thinking dancers.”

Am I. Pic by Michele Aboud.

Even the very basic idea of dance is scientific in its own way. “My dancers have incredible movement skills and can transform ideas and a lot of those concepts through the body. All of these things relate - movement is mass and energy so it relates so closely to Einstein's theory in the first place.”

Parker is relishing the chance to combine his two loves, and says collaborating with science experts has become one of the things about developing Am I that he's enjoying the most. “One meeting turned into many meetings turned into a key aspect of the work. To be able to go and work with professors at the university was quite incredible because they're quite excited and also because a creative project is investigating physical form.”

The experienced choreographer is aware that he's tackling some pretty heavy concepts in this work but he has faith that audiences will go with him on this journey. “Part of our work is to remember there's an audience sitting there. I don't like to torture my audiences that's for sure. It's about working so hard that we've crafted and refined those moments that resonate with an audience.

“The audience are sitting there watching, they're listening and they're also thinking conceptually so we work very, very hard to merge those three different areas together.”

WHAT: Am I
WHEN & WHERE: 27 Feb to 1 Mar, Adelaide Festival, Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre