Cry Baby

Cry Baby is a raw and edgy interpretation of 1970’s Rock & Roll culture through contemporary dance. With a heavy utilisation of 70’s Rock & Roll music played live, the work cultivates an aesthetic backdrop of pastiche content and celebrates eclectic timelessness. Inspired by bona fide music legends such as Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner & Iggy Pop, the work dissects their character idiosyncrasies to produce an electric, captivating movement study.

Cry Baby strips back the over inflated ego of humanity and chooses to highlight the ridiculous and irrational aspects of our existence. The work features an all-female Rock & Roll triplet who command and reinvent the space, aiming to always achieve full transparency and authenticity. Supporting the rambunctious energy of the dancers, a 3-piece rock band enlivens the choreography, transporting the viewer to an amusement park of egomania. The space is transformed from an ambitious rock-show spectacular to a stripped back Aussie gig with nostalgic lighting states.

Cry Baby analyses the thematic content of celebrity idolisation and paradoxically, the desire for authenticity in society, particularly in youth culture. The work looks closer at our subconscious primitive desires when influenced by popular music. ‘Sex, drugs, Rock & Roll’, ego and self-preservation are presented in this work and how fame can dissect identity into an expendable quality leaving us vulnerable to public scrutiny.

Interested to program this show?

Contact the Producer if you are considering this show for your future programming:

Parkin Projects
Kimberley Parkin
0433 997 145
kimberleyparkin46@gmail.com

Form and Style

Cry Baby is an explosive, hard-hitting contemporary dance work, accentuated by live rock music covers of famous 70’s tracks. The musicians and dancers interact with each other, the audience and performing space, resulting in a meta-concert experience. The work is introduced by a sole performer, dazed out and lying centre stage. She slowly drags an ironically long mic chord, fit for Wembley stadium, attached to a live mic, eliciting a sound like nails on a chalk board. After titillating anticipation, she screams at the top of her lungs. An explosive rock anthem with arena style lighting, a smoke machine that runs overtime and three misfit rockers, assaults the space.

Cry Baby is a choreographic playground, where impromptu happenings and risqué behaviour play-out between the performers. The dancers and musicians create a space of coexistence, responding to one another synchronically. Picture Iggy Pop’s outlandish performance at TopPop studios in 1977. This work dives into the adrenaline rush of performance and eliminates separation between the audience and performers. The ending ballad, Barracuda by ‘Heart’ invites audience members to break the established fourth wall, enter the performance space and dance along with the performed rock-stars; letting go of any inhibitions or sense of ego. After Barracuda, a resident DJ or band will perform for 1 hour and the dance floor will open for the audience to revel in, allowing them to reclaim the dance floor.

Community Engagement

Prior to our tour, we will communicate with community leaders, discussing how best to execute the work and deliver a high calibre piece for regional communities to connect with. We will work closely with each community to explore locations that hold significance and choose a space that aims to activate the arts such as community centres, old music venues and parks.

Cry Baby prides itself on employing and collaborating with a range of practicing artists. As an offering, we will be looking to employ one singer from each regional town to perform in the work. The role will be to sing Barracuda by ‘Heart’ on stage and join the performers in closing the show. We will organise a short audition process over zoom pre- tour to ensure the vocalist has time to prepare. A short rehearsal will be held before the work to introduce the vocalist into the band and team. Each town we will work with a new resident singer.

At the end of the work, the space will turn into a dance floor featuring a set by a recruited DJ or band local to the community. This will be a chance to connect with the community and encourage dance expression through collective energy. I believe that in this current climate, it is an important time to make art that audiences can relate to and find solace in, even for a short while.

We plan to organise 2 public workshops in each community to share insights into our creative process and further connect to the place we perform. One workshop will be catered to secondary school dance students (dance experience preferred but not essential) and the other will be a public workshop for 18+ dancers (Beginner-intermediate level dance experience required). These workshops will feature group tasking, learning repertoire from the show and an artist talk to finish. Our aim is to make contemporary dance accessible and palatable to Regional WA and facilitate new mediums to learn for dance enthusiasts.

Reviews & AWARDS

★★★★★ “This work is also clever, sharp, subversive and camp, the female dancers poking fun at the boisterous posturing of yesteryear’s ego-fuelled rock legends, reclaiming their gestures to create moments of pure comedic gold” – Scott-Patrick Mitchell on  FRINGEFEED

“I screamed, I swigged wine, I head banged and all the shit from 2020 projectile crashed from my dome in a kind of rough-rock exposure therapy. The dancers working the vocab of Jagger and Turner, hammering, and throwing their frames about like Sunday session maggots was a kind of ecstatic 21st century Dionysian ritual for me, a hot mess of limbs and sweat, a shameless celebration of my salt-water bogan origins” -Michelle Hall review on FRINGEFEED

★★★★ “The looseness of the mosh-pit meets the articulation of their training, with electric results. Bodies writhe, hair flies, hips vibrate, creating wild and electric synchrony… There’s a feminist undercurrent, too, in the masculinity of the dancers’ swagger, androgynous in their boiler suits, as well as in the gender imbalance on stage” – Nina Levy, Seesaw magazine review Available Marketing Collaterals

Best Independent Production, Performing Awards WA Awards (nominated)

Outstanding Ensemble, Performing Awards WA Awards (nominated)

Outstanding New Work, Performing Awards WA Awards (nominated)

Outstanding Choreography – Kimberley Parkin, Performing Awards WA Awards (nominated)

Available Marketing Collaterals

• A high-res trailer filmed by Jessica Russell at The State Theatre Centre of WA
• A trailer filmed by Mitchell Aldridge at The Rechabite
• 1x Poster Art designed by Eva Bijlsma
• Company logo and Cry Baby logo designed by Eva Bijlsma
• Filmed footage of STCWA performance and The Rechabite performance
• 10+ Promo images taken by: Hannah Laurent, Mitchell Aldridge, and Edwin Sitt
• 2 x Banner Images
• 5 x Short promo clips filmed by Mitchell Aldridge
• Flyer artwork
• Sample media release

Credits

Stage manager: Kimberley Parkin choreographed her debut dance work Cry Baby at STCWA and secured funding and industry support to present a full-length version at The Rechabite in August 2021. Kimberley has performed professionally through Fringe Festival, The Blue Room Theatre, in Stephanie Lake’s Colossus and through STRUT Dance. Dancers: Rhiana is a highly multidisciplinary artist who has performed in Perth Festival, in several Blueroom productions, and more recently choreographed for WAAPA first years and in Situ-8. Georgia is a glorified pocket rocket who’s career has led her to work with; STRUT Dance,

Kristina Chan, Sam Coren, Lewis Major, Dance North, and Co3 Contemporary Dance. Celina brings a sullen, sassy performance which oozes charisma. She trained with SEAD, performed in Perth Festival, with Mitch Harvey Company and Brooke Leeder and Dancers.

Musicians: Nathan has extensive experience playing in bands, creating live sound and running his own recording studio. Tom is a multidisciplinary musician, with experience playing in local successful Perth bands. Cissi (they/them) is a known rock legend and sound designer in Perth. They have just been accepted to sound design for WAM & The State Library of WA’s Corridors of Blissterday initiative.Production manager: Peter Young, is an exceptionally talented lighting designer with experience designing for; Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, Fremantle Theatre Company, STCWA, His Majesty’s Theatre and Crown Theatre.