LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
In 2023, Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to:
David King & Sue Peacock
The following is an edited version of their induction speeches, written and delivered by Monica Main.
“Every year the Board of Artist Relief Fund of WA decides who we should honour and celebrate with the annual Performing Arts WA Lifetime Achievement Award. This year we felt there were two worthy recipients. Allow me to introduce our first recipient.
Born & raised in Adelaide, David King studied music and piano at Elder Conservatorium at the University of South Australia. He then went on to study conducting at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
In his younger years he taught English in Switzerland and played in piano bars, and like all great musical theatre practitioners, he played on cruise ships, in Europe.
He was introduced to the theatre as the first resident Music Director with the newly formed South Australian Theatre Company, and then worked with the State Opera of South Australia. He then went on to work with Opera Australia and based his professional life in Sydney.
The majority of his professional career has been as a musical director for major commercial musicals in Australia. He’s conducted hundreds of performances for classic shows like 42nd Street and Showboat.
David collaborated three times with the late, great playwright Nick Enright, composing the music for The Betrothed, Mary Bryant and The Good Fight. Mary Bryant has had professional productions in Sydney & Melbourne. The Good Fight was performed in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and all three were originally workshopped here in Western Australia at The WA Academy of Performing Arts.
In 2001, David was invited to head WAAPA’s Music Theatre department, where he was at the helm for over twenty years. During his time there he programmed over one hundred WAAPA productions and trained hundreds of students who have graduated to become mainstays of the Australian musical theatre industry.
His dedication to his graduates has no limits – he recently travelled to the east coast to attend a performance of Miss Saigon starring several WAAPA alumni, and on the steps of the Sydney Opera House – he broke his ankle! Bringing a whole new meaning to “break a leg”. However, like the trouper he is, that has not stopped him attending tonight.
Our second Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is Sue Peacock. When I rang Sue to tell her the good news she responded with a long pause and then said she was gobsmacked. Well, do you know who’s gobsmacked, Sue? Me – and so will you when you hear about Sue’s many accomplishments.
Sue has been a freelance choreographer, dancer and teacher since 1991 and has performed, taught and choreographed in most major cities in Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University Victoria and received First-Class Honours in Dance from ECU. She is also a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.
As a dancer, she’s worked with many renowned choreographers, touring and performing nationally and internationally including dancing with One Extra Company, Fieldworks Performance Group, Limbs Dance Company (New Zealand), ID339 Dance Group, Co Loaded and with artists Helen Herbertson, Olivia Millard, Didier Théron and Jean-Paul Gallotta. She has created her own works in collaboration with others, like Bill Handley, Stefan Karlsson, Jim Hughes, Paul Gazzola, Paul O'Sullivan and many more. She is a former MAPS WA Core Artist with Performing Lines WA who also produced her works Reflect, Sprung and Questions Without Notice.
Her choreographic credits include commissioned works for Australian Dance Theatre, One Extra Company, 2 Dance Plus, WAAPA, Steps, Expressions Dance Company, Dance North, LINK Dance Company and Deckchair Theatre. She has presented works for tertiary students at World Dance Alliance festivals and independently in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Germany, New York, Singapore, and Montpellier, France. And she has worked as a choreographic consultant and mentor for numerous dance and theatre projects.
Sue established 2-Dance Plus with Derek Holtzinger, which in turn developed into Buzz Dance Theatre. She choreographed for Chrissie Parrott Dance Company, and after the demise of this company she was instrumental in shifting the focus of creating a new 'Contemporary Dance Company,' to creating a new support organisation for independent creators and performers and a structure of professional classes at King Street Arts Centre. And so, Sue co-founded STRUT Dance, where she remained as Artistic Program Manager for 10 years.
She’s been a Board member of PICA, Ausdance, STRUT Dance, and a member of the Curriculum Advisory Council and the Tertiary Dance Council Australia.
Sue has received a Churchill Fellowship and an Arts WA Creative Development Fellowship.
In the West Australian Dance Awards, she has received awards for Best Female Dancer, Services to Dance and Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. She received the Ausdance National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance for Questions Without Notice. Sue won SPRUNG awards for Best Choreography and Best Design and was Shortlisted for the Australian Dance Awards for Best Female Dancer in Harakiri.
Sue now heads the Dance Department at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts after spending many years teaching and creating works for students there. And – because she has so much time on her hands, she’s also enrolled in a PhD at Edith Cowan University! Her thesis proposal: TECHNIQUE re-framed BODY re-imagined.”
The 2023 Lifetime Achievement Awards were proudly supported by Artist Relief Fund WA
In 2022, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to:
Chrissie Parrott AO
The following is an edited version of her induction speech, written and delivered by Monica Main.
“Chrissie Parrott is one of the most outstanding artistic directors and visionary choreographers Australia has produced.
Her career as a dancer began in 1972 with The Western Australian Ballet. In 1978 she went east to dance with One Extra Company Sydney, where she was also Associate Director.
From there she never looked back, forging a career across multiple creative industries.
Chrissie has created a repertoire of over 80 works, most particularly within the context of the Chrissie Parrott Dance Company.
Her commissions include works for Australian Dance Theatre, Queensland Ballet, Tasdance, Sinfionetta de Lorraine France, West Australian Ballet, Theater Vorpommern in Stralsund, Crameer Balletten Stockholm, and Tanz Forum Cologne touring to the Avignon Festival France.
She’s choreographed and directed theatre for Sydney Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Thin Ice and Black Swan State Theatre Company. Her works have been performed in France, Japan, Korea, the UK, Holland, Germany and Indonesia. She’s directed for TV and film, designed set and costumes, taught multimedia and animation and creates large-scale digital artworks.
She was a senior research fellow with Edith Cowan University. During her time with WAAPA, she was instrumental in the set-up of artistic structures and was founding Director of LINK Dance Company. She was also adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology.
She was the program manager at PICA, and a board member of ARTRAGE and FRINGE WORLD. She was an advisory panel member with Perth Festival under the artistic directorship of David Blenkinsop
She’s worked extensively on community events with mixed ability performing artists, underprivileged youth dance and in regional First Nations communities.
Chrissie now lives down south in Nannup, where she volunteers on community arts projects, teaches a wide range of dance classes, and is Deputy Chair of the newly formed Blackwood River Art Trail (BRAT).
Last year, Chrissie presented the first contemporary dance and community masterclass project in Nannup.
Chrissie’s outstanding contribution to the contemporary Arts has not gone unnoticed. She has been the recipient of The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, The Swan Gold Award, a Centenary Medal, and The Sounds Australia Award (for the commissioning of Australian composers and live music in performance).
In 2000 she was Western Australian Citizen of the Year in the category of Arts & Entertainment.
In 2014 she was awarded a lifetime achievement award from Ausdance WA.
In 2015 she was honoured as a State Living Treasure.
In 2021 she was the recipient of an Order of Australia.
And now, in 2022, she is the recipient of our Lifetime Achievement Award.”
The 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award was proudly supported by Artist Relief Fund WA
In 2021, Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to:
Lynette Narkle & Andrew Ross
The following is an edited version of their induction speech, written and delivered by Michael Loney.
“This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award goes to two people who were pivotal in the development of theatre in Western Australia.
Andrew was best known as the founding Artistic Director of Black Swan Theatre Company in 1991, now WA’s state theatre company.
Lynette is best known for being a pioneer of the development of Indigenous Theatre in WA in the 1970s along with Andrew Ross. Lynette is also the matriarch and mentor to a growing number of Aboriginal performers who followed her and others from her family into the performing arts. Lynette was Associate Director in the early days at Yirra Yaakin and has a long list of credits in theatre, film and television.
Andrew was also at the forefront of developing Aboriginal theatre not only in WA but Australia. His work with writer Jack Davis in the 1970s and 80s was groundbreaking, productions that Lynette appeared in. Andrew went on to become the co-founder of Black Swan, Artistic Director of the Darwin Festival and Director of the Brisbane Powerhouse. He also directed the original production of Bran Nue Dae in 1991.
In 2019, Andrew was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the Performing Arts in Australia.
In 2017, Lynnette was awarded the Australia Council’s prestigious Red Ochre Award at the Sydney Opera House.”
The 2021 Lifetime Achievement Awards were proudly supported by the City of Perth