Michael Earl Parmenter MNZM (born 1954) is a New Zealand choreographer, teacher and dancer of contemporary dance.

Career

Parmenter studied dance in the 1980s in New York and was influenced by both New York-based choreographer Erick Hawkins and Japanese Butoh master Min Tanaka.[1] He has a master's degree in creative and performance dance from the University of Auckland.[2] He formed the dance company Commotion in 1990 with notable works including the dance opera Jerusalem.[3]

Recent work includes dance opera OrphEus which premiered at the 2018 Auckland Arts Festival.[4] Parmenter openly talks about his homosexuality and living with HIV[5] including in autobiographic show The Long Undressing.[6] He has taught at the New Zealand School of Dance and UNITEC. He has choreographed for Footnote Dance Company, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Dance Company amongst others.[7]

Reporter Simon Wilson recounting a significant moment in the arts for him about a Parmenter performance:

I remember Parmenter telling his life story, the boy from Southland, born in the 1950s, gay in a conservative Christian family, how he got from there to dance, and then to a show based not on choreography but on words, although there was some very lovely dance in it too. That was A Long Undressing.[6]

In the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, Parmenter was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the performing arts,[8] and he received an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2010.[9][10][11]

In 2022 Parmenter spent six months in Dunedin as the Caroline Plummer Dance Fellow at the University of Otago, during which he established a Balfolk group in the city.[12]

References

  1. ^ Schultz, Marianne (22 October 2014). "New companies and international work, 1990s to 2000s". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  2. ^ Parmenter, Michael (2008). Hand to hand : intentionality in phenomenology and contemporary dance (Masters thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/5924.
  3. ^ "New sentence follows dance star's full stop". NZ Herald. 30 June 2000. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  4. ^ Alexander, Mike (9 February 2018). "The Questionnaire: Michael Parmenter". Stuff. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  5. ^ Screen, NZ On. "For Arts Sake - Michael Parmenter | Television | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  6. ^ a b Wilson, Simon (27 February 2018). "Three men, three shows: Joy and heartache from start to Finn". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Michael Parmenter". nzdc.org.nz. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  8. ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 1998". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 June 1998. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Michael Parmenter | Arts Foundation Laureate". Arts Foundation. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  10. ^ "Michael Parmenter - QueerBio.com". queerbio.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  11. ^ Smith, Jo (2006). Gerstner, David A. (ed.). Routledge international encyclopedia of queer culture. London: Routledge. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-415-30651-5. OCLC 62475216.
  12. ^ Harwood, Brenda (22 September 2022). "Parmenter offers a fine farewell". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
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