Chrissie Parrott

Creative Director Visual Artist Advocate for the Arts in WA

Chrissie Parrott is a multi awarded creative artist whose career spans over four decades she has worked extensively in the creative industries with an impressive portfolio.

Her primary practice is in Dance, as dancer, lecturer, choreographer and Arts festival director, she has directed for theatre TV and film, designed set and costumes, taught multimedia and animation and creates large – scale digital artworks.

Chrissie’s outstanding contribution to contemporary dance-associated arts has been significantly acknowledged by the presentation of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, Swan Gold Award Sounds Australia Award, Western Australian Citizen of the Year 2000, Golden Key for high achievers, USA and a Centenary Medal.

In 2014 she was awarded a lifetime achievement award though Ausdance WA.

In 2015 she was honoured as a State Living Treasure

Chrissie Parrott – CitWA

Chrissie Parrott’s distinctive choreographic style draws equally upon her foundations in classical dance and the richness of the 20th Century contemporary dance vocabulary.

She has created a repertoire of over 90 works – Choreographic commissions include works for WA Ballet, Australian Dance Theatre, Queensland Ballet, Tasdance, Sinfionetta de Lorraine France, Theater Vorpommern in the Baltic city of Stralsund, Crameer Balletten Stockholm and Tanz Forum Cologne.

Her works have been performed in France, Japan, Korea, UK, Holland Germany and Indonesia

Chrissie was a dancer with West Australian Ballet, One Extra Company Sydney where she was associate director, Tanz Forum Cologne and Crameer Balletten in Stockholm.

ABC TV has broadcast four of her choreographic works Wrath – seven deadly sins, Coppélia with West Australian Ballet and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Hawk II and Motel Deception.[ ABC, Screen West, Blue Moon, DCA]

She was awarded a Research Fellowship by ArtsWA to investigate the implications and use of motion capture technologies within the context of dance. Her research into the various sciences associated with the process of motion capture led her to spend time in the world’s leading commercial motion capture studio Medialab, in Paris.

Chrissie’s interest in new technologies has attracted commissions to create works using Life Forms ® choreographic software and Poser6â, [WAAPA at ECU] Hawk, Hawk II [Tasdance] Virtual K©ontours [QUT] Pixilated Sea [LINK Dance company] Cyg.net and Yin.

Works in collaboration with composer Jonathan Mustard include Swimming the Luna Sea, Divining, Cyg. ‘MetaDance in resonant light’ as part of the Perth International Arts Festival and DisPatch which was screened as part of the multimedia component at the 2004 Monaco Dance Forum – Monte Carlo.

She held the position of senior research fellow with Edith Cowan University teaching Dance Forms dance animation program. She was adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology 2004 teaching into the multi media units for the dance department. She held positions of senior research fellow and adjunct professor consecutively at ECU and QUT.

During her time with WAAPA she was instrumental in the set up of artistic structures and was founding Director of LINK dance company – a fourth year [Honours] graduate company.

Chrissie was program manager at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, PICA. Has been a board member for Artrage Fringe Festival and advisory panel member with Perth International Arts Festival PIAF under the artistic directorship of David Blenkinsop.

She has worked extensively in community events working closely with youth dance and theatre initiatives as well as with mixed ability performing artists. She regularly presents as a keynote and motivational speaker at educational conferences.

Chrissie is well known as a movement director with emphasis on movement manipulation and modification through and by technologies including motion tracking, video tracking and the utilisation of the components embedded in the data storage and programming of the movement vocabulary.

Over the past five years she has traversed into the field of visual performance art and film. She has successfully presented four exhibitions of digital art works that are figurative showing digital lineages, wire frame and fully rendered hyper realistic replicas of dancers.

She was commissioned to create a new work for the opening of the Heath Ledger Theatre and commissioned to make a new dance work for UWA’s centenary celebrations this work was viewed by 8,000 people.

She has worked with Perth Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Malthouse Melbourne and Black Swan Theatre Company.